UNIT 1 UNDERSTANDING MARKETING

ТEXT A

WHAT IS MARKETING?

Marketing is the business function that identifies customer needs and wants, determines which target markets the organization can serve best, and designs appropriate products, services, and programs to serve these markets. However, marketing is much more than just an isolated business function — it is a philosophy that guides the entire organization. The goal of marketing is to create customer satisfaction profitably by building value-laden relationships with important cus­tomers. The marketing department cannot accomplish this goal by it­self. It must team up closely with other departments in the company and partner with other organizations throughout its entire value-delivery system to provide superior value to customers. Thus, mar­keting calls upon everyone in the organization to «think customer» and to do all they can to help create and deliver superior customer value and satisfaction. As Professor Stephen Burnett of Northwestern puts it, «In a truly great marketing organization, you can't tell who's in the marketing department. Everyone in the organization has to make decisions based on the impact on the customer».

Although marketing is all around us and we all need to know some­thing about it, most people are surprised to find out that marketing is so widely used. Marketing is used not only by manufacturing companies, wholesalers, and retailers but by all kinds of individuals and organiza­tions. Lawyers, accountants, and doctors use marketing to manage de­mand for their services. So do hospitals, museums, and performing-arts groups. No politician can get the needed votes and no resort the needed tourists without developing and implementing marketing plans.

People at all levels of these organizations need to know how to define and segment a market and to develop need-satisfying products and services for chosen target markets. They must know how to price their offerings to make them attractive and affordable and how to choose middlemen to make their products available to customers. And they need to know how to advertise and promote products so that customers will know about and want them. Clearly, marketers need a broad range of skills in order to sense, serve, and satisfy con­sumer needs.

People also need to know about marketing in their roles as con­sumers and citizens. Because someone is always trying to sell us something, we need to recognize the methods they use. And when students enter the job market, they must conduct «marketing research» to find the best opportunities and develop the best ways to «market» themselves to prospective employers. Many students will start their careers with marketing jobs in sales forces, in retailing, in advertising, in research, or in one of a dozen other marketing areas.

What does the term marketing mean? Many people mistakenly think of marketing only as selling and promotion. And no wonder — every day, people are bombarded with television commercials, news­paper ads, direct mail, and sales calls. It seems that we cannot escape death, taxes, or selling.

Therefore, many people are surprised to learn that selling is only the tip of the marketing iceberg: It is but one of several marketing functions — and often not the most important one. If the marketer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing good products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these goods will sell very easily.

Everyone knows something about «hot» products to which con­sumers have flocked in droves. When Polaroid designed its Spectra camera, when Coleco first sold Cabbage Patch Dolls, and when Ford introduced its Taurus model, these manufacturers were swamped with orders. They had designed the «right» products — not «me-too» products, but ones offering new benefits. Peter Drucker, a leading management thinker, has put it this way: «The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.»

This does not mean that selling and promotion are unimportant, but rather that they are part of a larger «marketing mix» — a set of marketing tools that work together to affect the marketplace. So mar­keting can be defined as a social and managerial process by which in­dividuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.

The official American Marketing Association definition of mar­keting is:

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

Note several things about this definition. First, marketing is viewed as a process of planning and executing, which suggests that marketing is a managerial process. Second, this managerial process involves con­ception (i. e., thinking of or deciding what idea, goods or service to market) and the pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services. Third, the managerial process is directed at creating ex­changes that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

Marketing is part of our society. Its influence on society is more than economic. Marketing has a cultural influence on society. As a cultural phenomenon it can help shape our wants and desires. Marketing is also important to an organization because it helps that organization create suc­cessful exchange relationships with potential buyers. For this to take place, the right products must first be produced and then correctly dis­tributed, promoted, and priced. Note that these tasks relate to our defini­tion of marketing.

Marketing is important to each of us because it allows us to spe­cialize. To better appreciate this, imagine a society in which each per­son must hunt, cook, and make his or her own clothing, shelter, and tools. Predictably, not everyone in this society would be equally profi­cient at all these activities. In fact, if the best hunter concentrated on hunting, the best toolmaker on making tools, and soon, then the soci­ety could create a higher level of wealth. However, this system would only work if everyone could exchange their surpluses for the goods and services they needed. By establishing a marketing system, people are given the freedom to specialize.

I. Key terms:

Product — продукт — anything, that can be offered to a market for atten­tion, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organi­zations, and ideas.

Service — послуга — any activity or benefit that one party can offer to an­other that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.

Target markets — цільовий ринок — a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve.

Wholesaler — оптовий торговець — a firm engaged primarily in whole­saling, i. e. in all activities involved in selling goods and services to those buying for resale or business use.

Retailers — роздрібні торговці — business whose sales come primarily from retailing, i.e. all activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final customers for their personal, non-business use.

Middlemen — посередники — distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them, including wholesalers and retailers who buy and resell goods.

Marketing research — маркетингові дослідження — the function, that links the customer, the consumer, and public to the marketer through information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems, to generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; to mo­nitor marketing performance, and to improve understanding of the marketing process.

II. Vocabulary notes:

Identify, V.

1) say, show, prove, who or what sb. or smth. is; establish the iden­tity of; identify smth. with smth; treat smth. as identical (with); equate (one thing with another) — ототожнювати, з'ясовувати тотожність; ідентифікувати; визначати; з'ясовувати;

2) identify (oneself) with sb./smth. — give support to, be asso­ciated with; feel close to — назвати себе; солідаризуватися, при­єднатися.

Identification, n.

identifying or being identified — ідентифікація, розпізнавання, з'ясовування істинності; ототожнення; пізнавання; визначення; з'ясування.

determine, v.

1) decide; fix precisely: to determine the meaning of a word — визначати;

2) calculate; find out precisely: to determine the speed of light — вимірювати, обчислювати;

3) determine to do smth.; determine on/upon smth. — decide firmly, resolve, make up one's mind — приймати рішення, вирішувати, зважу­ватися, робити вибір; to determine the case — вирішити справу, ухва­лити рішення у справі;

4) determine sb. to do smth. against smth. — cause to decide — спонукати, примушувати, стимулювати;

5) be the fact that determines — зумовлювати, детермінувати, прирікати;

6) to put an end to: to determine the crisis — покласти край кризі.

determinable, adj.

that can be determined — визначений, юр. що минає; a lease determinable at the end of five years — оренда строком на п'ять років;

define, v.

1) state precisely the meaning of (e. g. words) — визначати, да­вати точне визначення, характеризувати, давати характерис­тику;

2) state or show clearly — установлювати, окреслювати, ви­діляти; definition, n.

1) defining; statement that defines — визначення, дефініція, тлумачення;

2) clearness of outline; making or being distinct in outline — якість, чіткість, виразність, певність;

3) power of a lens (in a camera or telescope) to show clear outlines — чіткість (якість, різкість) зображення;

accomplish, v.

1) perform, succeed in doing — виконувати, досягати, удосконалювати; an accomplished fact — smth. already done — доконаний факт;

2) finish successfully — завершувати, доводити до кінця;

accomplished, adj.

clever, skilled — вправний, кваліфікований, досконалий, досвід­чений, освічений, культурний, вихований

impact (on), n.

1) collision — колізія, зіткнення, сутичка;

2) force exerted by one object when striking against another — удар, поштовх, імпульс;

3) strong impression or effect — вплив, дія;