MARKETING OVERVIEW FROM PERSPECTIVE GHANA

 

The Chartered Institute of Marketing UK explained marketing as identifying the needs and wants of consumers and offering products to satisfy those needs and wants at a profit. According to Philip Kotler, marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals or groups obtain what they need or want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.

NEEDS, WANTS, DEMANDS

Needs – A need is a state of felt deprivation. In other words, a need is a part of human makeup. Abraham Maslow’s theory of needs (Psychological needs, Safety needs, Social needs, Esteem needs, Self-Actualisation).

Wants – Wants are the form that human needs take and they are shaped by our culture, our individual preferences and our personality.

Demands – They are wants backed by purchasing power or our ability to pay. People demand products with benefits.

Marketing Offer – It is made up of a combination of products and services, information, experiences and ideas to a market to satisfy a need or a want. Under marketing offer, comes a product. A Product is anything that is offered for acquisition, consumption or use to a market that is capable of satisfying a need or a want. Under products come tangible and intangible products. Tangible products are ones that we can see, touch and feel whilst intangible products are services that can’t be touched, felt or seen.

Experience – This is an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on one (encounter or undergo an event or occurrence).

Service – A system supplying a public need such as transport or utilities such as electricity, water, gas and communications.

Idea – A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action. A mental impression or a belief

Exchange – It can be defined as the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return.

Transaction – The trade between two parties that involves at least two things. The first one is that, there should be an agreed upon condition and a place of agreement.

Relationship marketing – It is the process of creating, maintaining and enhancing strong value-laden relationships with customers and other stakeholders.

Markets – A set of potential and actual buyers of a product.

Customer Value – The customer or customers’ assessment of the products overall capacity to satisfy his or her needs.

Customer Satisfaction – The extent to which a product’s perceived performance matches buyers’ expectation.

Designing a customer driven marketing strategy

1. Select Customers to serve – Division of markets into segments is done by using demographics, geographics and psychographics. Geographics deal with location where people live. Psychographics deals with lifestyle and attitudes of respective audiences. Demographics concerns itself with age and sex of audience.

2. Choosing a value proposition – This is a set of benefits or values that the company promises to deliver to customers to satisfy their needs or wants. The company must also decide how it wants to position or differentiate itself from other companies and must have a competitive urge.

3. Marketing management philosophy – It is the art and science of choosing target market and building relationships with them. Five alternatives under marketing management philosophy are as follows:

·         Production concept – Consumers will favour products that are highly available. Management should therefore improve upon production and distribution network.

·         Product concept – Consumers will favour products that offer the most in quality, performance and innovation.

·         The selling concept – This states that, consumers will not buy a company’s products unless the company embarks on large scale promotional effort. These products are usually called unsought goods.

·         Marketing concept – Achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target groups and delivering the desired satisfaction better than your competitors.

·         The societal marketing concept – This questions whether the pure marketing concept overlooks possible conflicts between consumer short term wants and consumer long term welfare.