1.1 What is Marketing 什么是市场营销
Marketing is a very important component in a business world. All other factors, such as accounting, operations and finance, will not really matter if goods or services aren't in sufficient demand. Financial success of a company largely depends on marketing. In this chapter, we are going to explore some basic concepts about market- ing.
component:组成部分
accounting:会计
sufficient:足够的
1. Market市场
The term “market” has different meanings in different contexts. Traditionally,“market” refers to the physical place where buyers and sellers gather to buy and sell goods. In this case, we can call a “market” as a “marketplace”. In economics, market is a collection of buyers and sellers who transact over a particular product or product class.[1]
However, marketers define a market in terms of sellers. It is made up of existing or potential customers with the desire and ability to pay for the products or services.[2] Based on this definition, the size of a market is determined by three factors: number of existing/ potential customers, the desire of purchasing, and their purchasing power. Therefore, it is not considered as a big market if people there do not have strong buying power, even though the population is large. Likewise, a market of some product is not large if there is no such demand even people are very rich. It is essential for marketers to recognise these three basic elements of a market.
marketer:营销人员
existing/ potential customers:
现有或潜在客户 purchasing power:购买能力
Market=Population + Want + Buying power
市场=人口+购买的欲望+购买能力
To better define our market, we should not only focus on the current need. One of the main principles for marketers is to seek out the better way to satisfy customer needs. Take fastening clothes for instance. Many button manufacturers had never thought there would be a better way to fastening clothes, shoes and even some other items.[3] They lose out large markets to zips and hook-and-loop fastener manufactur- ers.
principle:原则
zip:拉链
hook-and-loop:魔术贴
If customers? need is “to have breakfast”, how do you define the market?
Case study[4]
Hook on Innovation
Inventing something new has as much to do with an inquisitive and entrepreneurial spiritas it does with chance. Such was the case with George de Mestral, a Swiss amateur mountaineer and engineer. He accidentally discovered burscovered with hundreds of tiny but strong hooks can stick to anything with a loop, such as clothing and animal fur.
2. Marketing 市场营销
The definition of marketing involves as the study of marketing. There are arguments on how to define marketing. One of the shortest definitions of marketing is “meeting needs profitably.”[5] Philip Kotler, a famous scholar, also known as the Father of Marketing, defines marketing as “satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process[6]”.
American Marketing Associate (AMA) offers the definition as follows: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, processes of creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offering that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large(Approved in 2007).[7]
From the above definitions, we can see that there are some characteristics of marketing. First of all, it is to satisfy needs and demands. Second, this requires us to understand what customers need and try to meet their demand.[8]Some managers or marketers see marketing as “the art of selling products”. They might get surprised when they find selling is not the most important part of marketing. Actually, selling is only the tip of the marketing iceberg. Before selling the products, we need to do some marketing research, analyse buyers? behaviour, select our target market, develop product, set up the prices, choose the distribution channels, and do some promotions to push sales (shown in Figure 1. 1) . That's why Apple's iPhone become the world's most popular cell phone. They are not just making smart phones but designing the“right” product based on careful marketing homework.[9]
the tip of the marketing iceberg: 市场营销中的冰山一角
marketing research:市场营销调研
analyse buyers? behaviour:分析消费者行为
select our target market:选择我们的目标市场
develop product:开发产品
set up the prices:制定产品价格
choose the distribution channels: 选择产品分销渠道
do some promotions:做些促销活动
Figure 1. 1 市场营销的重要组成部分
What are the differences between marketing and sales?
3. Basic elements of marketing concept有关市场营销的核心概念
(1) Need, want and demand 需要、欲望和需求
It is necessary to grasp some fundamental concepts in order to understand how marketing works. The followings are the core concepts in marketing.
①Need需要
Needs are the basic human requirements for survival.[10]People need food, air, water, clothing, shelter to survive. If these needs are not met, the human body cannot function properly, and will ultimately fail. That's why they should be met first.
According to “Maslow's hierarchy of needs” ( see Figure 1. 2) put forward by the American psychologist Abrahem Maslow, needs can be divided into five levels: physiological need, safety need, love/ belonging need, esteem need and self-actualization need. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.[11] However, marketers should understand needs pre-exist marketers. Needs cannot be created.
shelter:居所
survive:生存
ultimately:最终
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: 马斯洛需求层次
psychologist:心理学家
physiological need:生理需要
safety need:安全需要
love/ belonging need:社交需要
esteem need:尊重需要
self-actualization need:自我实现需要
Figure 1. 2 Maslow's hierarchy of needs马斯洛的需求层次
②Want欲望
Different from needs, wants refer to a desire for a specific product or service to satisfy the underlying need.[12] A Chinese who feels hungry may want a bowl of noodles and some oolong tea, while an American may want a hamburger, French fries, and a glass of coke.[13]Wants are shaped by one's society. Although marketers cannot create needs, they can influence people's wants by using effective marketing methods.
③ Demand 需求
Demands are wants for specific products backed by an ability and willingness to pay.[14]Only when customer's want is supported by the purchasing power, it can become real demand. Many people want a BMW, but only a few are willing and able to buy one.[15]Companies must recognize the real demand of a market. They should not only focus on the number of the people who want to purchase the products, but also measure those who can afford to buy it.
(2) Consumer value 顾客价值
Value is a central marketing concept. People often make their buying decision based on the offering's value. Value in this sense is more than the price it reflects. It reflects the perceived tangible and intangible benefits and costs to customers. We can see value as a combination of quality, service, and price. Value increases if the buyer is satisfied with the quality and service. It decreases when the price is too high. Of course, there are also many other factors that play important roles in customer value.
Buyers always choose the product that delivers the maximum value.[16]As a marketer, we should always try to maximize Customer Delivered Value, which is the difference between Total Customer Value and Total Customer Cost(see Figure 1. 3). Therefore, marketers need to think about how to lower total customer cost, including money, energy, time and psychological impact on the customer. Meanwhile, the maximization of customer value should not be neglected. [17]
tangible:有形的,可见的
intangible:无形的,不可触摸的
combination:组合
decrease:降低
Customer Delivered Value:顾客让渡价值
Total Customer Value:整体顾客价值
Total Customer Cost:整体顾客成本
Figure 1. 3 Customer delivered value顾客让渡价值
4. The development of marketing philosophies 市场营销理念的演变
The job of a manager means meeting the needs of employees, customers, investors and the laws. So how to balance the weights of all these different prospects of running a company? What philosophy should guide the company's marketing efforts? Here, let's look at the following philosophies that focus on different issues.
(1) Production concept 生产观念
The production concept is one of the oldest concepts in marketing. It holds that consumers will choose the products that are widely available and highly affordable.[18]Management under this belief concentrates on lowering the production cost, and increasing the production efficiency. This marketing philosophy is suitable in those developing countries where the productivity is very low.[19]
concentrate:集中,关注
production cost:生产成本
production efficiency:生产效率
Case study[20]
Puttingtheworldonwheels
At the beginning of the 20th century automobiles were the plaything of the rich. It was Henry Ford who produced an automobile that was within the economic reach of the average American. He developed a new assembly line, improving the chassis assembly speed from about 12 hours to 1 hour and 33 minutes. This improvement led Model T into mass production, greatly increasing the efficiency of manufacture and decreasing its cost. As a result, the public enthusiastically purchased all the Model T Fords that the company could produce.
(2) Product concept 产品观念
With the development of productivity and the intense competition, products or services become very easy to purchase.[21] Managers in these organisations switch their attention on product quantity into quality. [22]Product concept holds that customer will favour those products that offer the best quality, performance, or innovative fea- tures. [23]
However, those managers holding this concept are sometimes too obsessed with their products. They might get struck in the better“mousetrap” fallacy, believing the only way to success is develop superior quality. One problem with product concept is that it might lead to “Marketing Myopia”, losing focus on the customer's needs.
obsess 沉迷
get struck in:被困在
mousetrap:捕鼠器
fallacy:谬误
superior:上等的
Marketing Myopia:营销近视症
Case study[24]
Better Mousetraps Do Not Necessarily Make Better Businesses
In What Should Google Do e-book, the author believes that there is the greatest myth surrounding Google. There are numerous articles and reports about it over the past two years. The argument goes like this: Google search is just a technology. The company that comes up with a better search engine will surpass Google because there is no switching cost.
There's no truth in this assumption either. It's what Jeffery Timmons calls the great mousetrap fallacy made famous by Emerson's line,“If a man can make a better mousetrap (. . . ) the world will make a beaten path to his door.” Jeffery Timmons is an entrepreneurship expert and author of the best work on the subject, New Venture Creation. He calls it a fallacy because as every venture capitalist knows, success is never easily assured.
Superior technology is never enough. For one thing, there has to be a need for it. All this talk about search industry heating up with competition from Yahoo and Microsoft that Google will soon have to share ad revenues with them is nothing more than speculation. Why doesn't anyone stop to come up with a single reason as to why satisfied Google users will even consider making the switch?
A better mousetrap will not sell in a town where every house already has one that works pretty well.
Source: http:/ / orangehues. com/ blog/2004/12/ google-and-great-mousetrap-fallacy. html.
(3) Selling concept 推销观念
The selling concept proposes that consumers typically show buying inertia or resistance.[25] If left alone, they will not buy enough products generally. The company, therefore, must undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort. [26]They only focus on effective selling tactics rather than what customers want. Companies who practice this concept generally have the problem of overcapacity. Nevertheless, selling concept can be used in the “unsought goods”, like insurance. To be successful with this concept, the organization must be good at tracking down the interested buyer and selling them on product benefits.[27]
selling tactics:销售技巧
overcapacity:生产过剩
unsought goods:非渴求品
insurance:保险
Case study[28]
The Ford Motor Company is also a good example of the selling concept. But why this concept does not work in many instances? The Model T's success in early 1920s attracted more competition. After the automobile had been on the market for a period of time, cosumers? wants and needs with respect to cars changed dramatically. Because of Henry Ford's reaction to consumer requests for more colour options—“you can have any colour car you want as long as it is black.”, not only did the competition begin to offer cars in other colours, the styling of the competition was viewed as modern and the Model T became considered as old-fashioned. However, Henry Ford was sure that his standardized low-price automobile was what the public needed. With more and more cars piling up at the warehouse, Ford turned to more effective selling and promotion tools to sell the Model T. It continued to sell, but its market share began to drop. Eventually, even Henry Ford had to recognize consumer desires and introduce a new model.
(4) Marketing concept 市场营销观念
Different from the above three marketing philosophies, the marketing concept concentrates on consumer's needs and wants.[29] The job of a company is find out the right products for the customers, and do it better than competitors to satisfy customer's needs. Therefore, it requires the organisation to be more effective in creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value to its target markets.[30]
The emergence of marketing concept not only brought great changes in management philosophy, it also made great improvements in business operation. Changes in marketing activities that have occurred under the concept involved both marketing strategies and marketing functions. To better understand customer's needs, special attention has been paid to the market research, which becomes a prominent tool. Meeting customer's interests is the first priority to the managers in all marketing activities.[31]
emergence:出现
occur:发生
involve:涉及,包括
prominent:重要的
(5) Societal marketing concept 社会市场营销观念
The more efforts is paid to improve marketing concept, the deeper understanding of its shortcomings will be found.[32] The focus on marketing concept is to take customer satisfaction to a higher level, which sidesteps the potential conflicts among other consumer interests, and long-term social welfare, such as environment. [33]Therefore, scholars, like Philip Kolter, extended and broadened the marketing concept by adding social concerns. This is called societal marketing concept.
It emphasizes social consciousness as a part of the overall marketing plan. It means that a company must consider not only the needs of consumers and companies in mind, but also the long-term well-being of society as a whole.[34] Firms must make good marketing decisions based on the interests of consumer, company, as well as the long-run social interests.
extend:延伸和扩大
emphasize:强调
consciousness:意识
Case study[35]
Earth-friendly Business—The Body Shop
The Body Shop International plc is a cosmetic company found by Anita Roddick. The company only uses vegetable based materials for its products. It is also against animal testing, and supports community trade, Activate Self Esteem, Defend Human Rights, and overall protection of the planet.
The Body Shop experienced a rapid growth in 1980s through actively promoting its products as all-natural, environmental friendly and non-animal testing. Indeed, The Body Shop became the prototype of the “earth-friendly” business. As the vanguard of social responsibility, The Body Shop and its founder became the beneficiary of huge volumes of positive publicity, international acclaim, and consumer goodwill.
“The business of business should not just be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.”
“营商之道,不应只是金钱,亦应着重社会责任。要以大众的福利为前提,不能只顾私利和贪欲。”
———By Dame Anita Roddick, a human rights Activist, founder of The Body Shop
