Saajid Mohamed Marketing Assignment

8/13/2019 Saajid Mohamed Marketing Assignment

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MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SUBMITTED BYSAAJID MOHAMED


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1. Why is marketing considered an impor tant functionof business?

Marketing is a very important aspect in business since it contributesgreatly to the success of the organization. Production and distributiondepend largely on marketing. Many people think that sales andmarketing are basically the same. These two concepts are different inmany aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, publicrelations, and sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the

product or service into the market and encourages sales from the

buying public.Sales refer to the act of buying or the actual transaction of customers

purchasing the product or service. Since the goal of marketing is tomake the product or service widely known and recognized to themarket, marketers must be creative in their marketing activities. Inthis competitive nature of many businesses, getting the productnoticed is not that easy. Strategically, the business must be centeredon the customers more than the products.

Although good and quality products are also essential, the buying public still has their personal preferences. If you target more of theirneeds, they will come back again and again and even bring alongrecruits. If you push more on the product and disregard their wantsand the benefits they can get, you will lose your customers in no time.

The sad thing is that getting them back is the hardest part.Some factors to justify this statement Is as follows:-

Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales

Marketing Builds Company Reputation

Marketing leads to Recognition

Marketing leads to Self-Evaluation


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Political Environment

Political pressure groups influence and limit organizations e.g., thecase of Enron in Maharashtra and KFC in Karnataka. Special interestgroups and political action committees put pressure on businessorganizations to pay more attention to consumer's rights, minorityrights, and womens rights.

Cultural Environment

The beliefs, values and norms of a society determine how individualsand organizations relate to each other. The core beliefs of a particularsociety tend to be persistent, as the American value system of work,charity and honesty. It is difficult for marketers to change these corevalues, which have a major bearing on marketing operations in asmuch as they set the stage for marketing activity and consumerresponse.

Technological Environment

The most important factor, which is controlling and changing thehuman society and even impacting the future, is technology.Technology has literally transformed the way people think, work andrelax. Man could realise his dream of putting an astronaut on the lunarsurface, the moon, going to the other side of the globe within a fewhours, and even exploring the mysteries of the solar system.

Global EnvironmentThe global environment is also rapidly changing. The new concept ofglobal village has changed how individuals and organizations relate toeach other. The advent of worldwide terrorism has the power to turn a

booming economy into a stagnant one within no time.


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MICRO ENVIRONMENT

Consumer

According to Peter Drucker, the aim of business is to create and retainthe customer. Hence consumer occupies the central position in themarketing environment. The marketer has to closely monitor andanalyse changes in consumer tastes and preferences and cater to (ifnot try and anticipate) their buying habits.

Competitors

Competition shapes business. A study of the competitive scenario isessential for the marketer, particularly threats from competition.

Company

Nothing can be as important as self-analysis by the organization itself."We have met the enemy, and he is us" - Pogo. Understanding its ownstrengths and capabilities in a particular business, that is,

understanding a business in depth should be the goal of a firm'sinternal analysis. The objectives, goals and resource availabilities of afirm occupy a critical position in the microenvironment of marketing.The company with its resources and capabilities surrounds theconsumer in the microenvironment.

Market

The market is to be studied in terms of its actual and potential size, itsgrowth prospect and also its attractiveness. The marketer should studythe trends and development and the key success factors of the markethe is operating.


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Important issues are :

Suppliers

Suppliers form an important component of the microenvironment.With their own bargaining power they affect the cost structure of theindustry. They constitute a major force, which shapes competition inthe industry. Also organizations have to take a major decision on"outsourcing" or "in-house" production depending on this supplierenvironment.

Intermediaries

Intermediaries exert a considerable influence in the marketingenvironment. They can also be considered as the major determiningforce in the business. In many cases the consumers are not aware ofthe manufacturer and buy the product from the renownedintermediaries as for example Wal-Mart in US, Pantaloons in India.

Public

Public constitute a major force in the micro environment andmarketers have to very carefully study their opinion, values, beliefsand attitudes in order to design a proper marketing strategy for goodscarefully tailored to meet the needs of the target consumer segment.In a sort of reverse engineering, marketers also use the media to shapeconsumer tastes and preferences.

3. List the stages of buying process ?Generally, the purchaser passes through five distinct stages intaking a decision for purchasing a particular commodity. Thesestages are: (i) need arousal, (ii) information search , (iii) evaluationbehavior, (iv) purchase decision , and (v) post purchase feelings .

(i) Need arousal: The buying process starts with need arousal. Aneed can be activated through internal or external stimuli. A need


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can also be aroused by an external stimulus such as sight of a newthing in a shop while purchasing other things.

There is two-fold significance of need arousal stage to amarketing man.

1. First the marketer must identify the drive that might

actually or potentially connect to the product class or brand andmake the buyer feel that the product can satisfy the drive, he feels,and

2. It also helps recognize that the need levels for the productfluctuate over time and are triggered by different cues. The marketercan arrange cues to conform better to the natural rhythms andtiming of need arousal.(ii) Information search: After need arousal, the consumer tries to

solve it and gathers the sources and information about the product.Depending upon the intensity of need, it produces two states of

individual. The first state is called heightened attention when theconsumer becomes more receptive to the information regarding theitem he needs. If a consumer needs to purchase a television, he willpay mere attention to TV ads and the remarks made by friends andassociates about TVs.

If need is more intense, the individual enters a state of active

information search and he tries to collect more information aboutthe product, its key attributes, qualities of various brands and aboutthe outlets where they are available. There are four consumer

information sources.

(i) Personal sources (family, friends, neighbors etc.)


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(ii) Commercial sources (advertisements, salesmen, dealers).(iii)Public sources (mass media, consumer-rating organizations).

(iv) Experiential sources (handling, examining, using theproduct).Identifying the information sources and their respectiveroles and importance calls for interviewing consumers about thesources of information and can use the findings to plan itsadvertisements.

(iii) Evaluation behaviour: Having collected the information, theconsumer clarify and evaluate the alternatives. There is,

unfortunately no simple and single evaluation process used by allconsumers or even by one consumer in all buying situations. Themost current process of evaluation is to judge the product largely ona conscious and rational basis. Various considerations form the part

of judgment such as product attributes, importance, weights, brandimage, utility function for each attribute, and attitude etc. Afterevaluation of various alternatives, he takes the decision to buy.

(iv) Purchase decision: Evaluation behavior leads the consumer toform a ranked set of preferences. Normally a consumer buys thearticle, he or she likes most but there are three more importantconsideration for taking the buying decision: (a) attitude of othersuch as of wife, relatives, and friends, (b) anticipated situational

factors as expected family income, expected total cost of the productand the expected benefits of the product; (c) unanticipatedsituational factors as looks or manner of the salesman or the waybusiness is carried on.

The marketer must consider these factors and should try to provoke

the feeling of risk in the consumer And attempt to provide


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information and support that will help him.

(v) Post purchase feelings: After buying and trying the product, theconsumer will feel some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction andlevel of satisfaction depends very much on the expectation and theproduct's perceived performance. If the product matches up to hisexpectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds, he is highly

satisfied; and if it falls short of expectations, he is dissatisfied.

4. What are the factors that influence buyingdecision ?

There are mainly four factors

CULTURAL factors include a consumers culture, subculture andsocial class. These factors are often inherent in our values anddecision processes.

SOCIAL factors include groups (reference groups, aspirationalgroups and member groups), family, roles and status. This explainsthe outside influences of others on our purchase decisions eitherdirectlyorindirectly.

PERSONAL factors include such variables as age and lifecycle

stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle (activities,interests, opinions and demographics), personality and selfconcept. These may explain why our preferences often change asoursituation'changes.

PSCHOLOGICAL factors affecting our purchase decisioninclude motivation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs), perception,

learning, beliefs and attitudes.


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5. Explain the concept , nature and impor tance ofmarketing ?IMPORTANCE

Satisfaction of human needs & wants Profits & market reputation Facilitates specialisation division of labour Widens the market Improves standard of living Bring economic growth Creates new norms of social economic behaviour Provides channels of communication to business firms Facilitates price control Develops social significance at.

CONCEPTS

The exchange concept The production concept The Product concept The Selling concept The marketing concept The Societal concept The relationship marketing concept

6. Wr ite notes on the changing patterns of consumer

behaviour?Customer behavior can affect the sustainable growth of business infollowing manners:

a) If the behavior of the consumers changes time to time, the new production or services would be needed to meet the demands of theconsumers. If a businessman or manufacturer changes its business

product, it would lead to high cost of production.


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b) If the cost of production is the major focus of the business, noneof the other activities would more attention. Ultimately, quality ofthe work, design, packaging and distribution,would get suffered.

c) Business organization will not compete with competitors.Because if the organization considers only cost, other parametersare suffered and predetermined goals of the business cannot beachieved.

d) Business organization gets success only when all the businessactivities (internal environment) go smoothly. If there is unrest in

the internal environment of the organization regarding thechange, business cannot get success.

e) Need to acquire heavy capital funds to cope with change inconsumer behavior.

f) Requirement of new machinery and recent technology.

g) Trained Human Resource capital is needed to face cut throat

competitors.

All these requirements demand an outstanding performance whichis a great challenge in reality.

COMMON FEATURES OF CONSUMER BEHAVIORa) Other people's behavior matters

b) Habits are important

c) People are motivated to 'do the right thing'd) People's self-expectations influence how they behavee) People are loss-averse

f) People are bad at computation

7. Write short notes on :a) Marketing Environment:

marketing environment is a marketing term and refers tofactors and forces that affect a firms ability to build and


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maintain successful relationships with customers. Threelevels of the environment are: Micro (internal)environment - small forces within the company that affect

its ability to serve its customers. Meso environment theindustry in which a company operates and the industrysmarket(s). Macro (national) environment - larger societalforces that affect the microenvironment .

b) Domestic marketing: domestic marketing is a financialmarket. Its trades are aimed toward a single market.A domestic market is also referred to as domestic trading.

In domestic trading, a firm faces only one set ofcompetitive, economic, and market issues and essentiallymust deal with only one set of customers, although thecompany may have several segments in a market. Thereare certain limitations when competing in a domesticmarket, many of which encourage firms to expand abroad.The main reasons why a business would decide to expand

abroad are down to a limited market size and limitedgrowth within the domestic market.

c) Global marketingThe process of conceptualizing and then conveying a final

product or service worldwide with the hopes of reachingthe international marketing community. Proper globalmarketing has the ability to catapult a company to the next

level, if they do it correctly. Different strategies areimplemented based on the region the company ismarketing to. For example, the menu at McDonald's varies

based on the location of the restaurant. The companyfocuses on marketing popular items within the country.Global marketing is especially important to companies that

provide products or services that have a universal demand.

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Saajid Mohamed Marketing Assignment