Essential Concepts of Marketing

Every company has a different philosophy or idea to design a marketing strategy that satisfies consumers’ needs, maximizes their profit, and also beats their competition. But which philosophy will be utilized by the businesses to direct their marketing efforts? What weight is given to the interests of the company, customers, and society? All these interests are broadly classified into four major marketing concepts that are used by the companies as the foundation for their marketing campaigns.

1) The Production Concept:

This concept is based on the belief that as humans, we prefer products that are inexpensive and easily available. The companies believe that if the product or service is cheap and can be made available in many places, it will automatically contribute to sales. They focus largely on large scale production and strengthening their distribution systems. The quality of the product and customer service is often a problem with this approach.

One of the historical examples of this concept is when Ford Motors manufactured its Model T. These were a ton of similar cars through its assembly line production without any customizations. Such an approach is most effective where the potential for economies of scale is significant, or when a company operates in very high growth markets.

2) The Product Concept:

This concept believes in potential customers and how customers’ brand loyalty is closely tied to a range of products, the quality, and the benefits they receive from the product and the company they invest in. Our obsession with Apple products and their features can be seen as a notable example of this.

The basic idea of this concept is that the customers get attracted to the good quality products thus making a company directing all their marketing efforts in increasing the quality of their product.

In this marketing concept, companies will focus on making superior products and improving them over time. The problem is many companies don’t balance the need for a product all while realizing what the marketing needs. There is a fine line between concentrating on the customer and still stating your role and leadership in the industry.

3) The Selling Concept:

The selling concept is the bread and butter of marketing inputs and efforts as it believes that customers will not buy enough of a company’s product so companies need to convince and persuade them to do so.

In today’s marketing, we know that selling is not the way to full marketing success. It was a more popular marketing concept in the WWII days that used aggressive advertising to promote products and bonds to the consumers.

This concept only offers a short term advantage to the companies while damaging their reputation in the longer run.

This selling concept puts a lot of power and ability into the hands of a company that has a whole plan to effectively stimulate more buying with its potential customers. A lot of the time we also see this action used when a company has to deal with overcapacity and requires selling what they make instead of what the market needs or wants.

Companies that choose to use this marketing concept must be good at finding potential customers and sell them on the benefits of their “not needed product.”

4) The Marketing Concept:

The marketing concept is the concept of competitiveness. It’s a concept that believes that the success of a company depends on the marketing efforts that transfer a better value proposition than its competition companies.

This marketing concept talks about the needs and wants of target marketing as well as delivering greater value than its competition. Through marketing strategies, it’s your goal to be the preferred option compared to your competitors. Competitive advantage is the key!

It is a more customer-oriented approach that focuses on achieving consumer satisfaction.

Competitors like Coke and Pepsi selling similar items yet delivering different value propositions have best adapted this strategy.

Pepsi: Focuses on engaging the youth and young generations
Coke: Focuses on engaging everyone in a more holistic approach!

All of these marketing concept mindsets can help you achieve organizational goals in case you understand the needs, wants, and requirements of your target market while delivering quality products people are looking for.

Thus, all these marketing concepts are of crucial importance to determine how a company will deal with its customers and products and also to find the right products for its customers.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZcY4Twqes[/embedyt]

If you need some help with understanding more marketing strategies and marketing concepts, reach out to us!
We would be happy to help!