Market Structure and marketing

A market can be defined as any form of contact between buyers and sellers for the purpose of buying and selling goods and services. Markets can be local, national and international. Markets always have two sides: the demand side and the supply side.

The supply side is represented by sellers and the goods and services they wish to sell. Now we can see that buyers, means of payment, sellers, goods and services are the four main elements of the market.

The demand side of the market is composed of buyers wishing to acquire goods and services. Consumers use different means of payment, e.g. cash (paper money and coins), checks, credit cards, and etc. The demand for a product is not only influenced by price. All individual may be influenced by their personal tastes, the size of income, advertising, the cost and availability of credit.

Consumers have a wide choice in how they spend their income, and there is a large quantity and many different types of goods and services that the consumer can buy. One difficulty that confronts a firm is to decide what to produce. Satisfying the wants and needs of consumers is very important in any business. Some things, such as food, are essential. Food is an example of a single-use consumer good. Most people, having satisfied their needs, wish to satisfy their wants by the purchase of items such as cars, TVs, microwave ovens and compact disc players. They are sometimes called consumer durable products. They also may purchase services such as dry-cleaning, haircuts, trips to the cinema and meals out.

Today, a successful company is one, which tries to discover what the consumer wants and then makes that product and sells it at a profit. Such firms are market-oriented. They are in complete contrast to a product-oriented firm, which first produces a product and then tries to sell it.

Market research involves studying the market to find out what the customer really wants. There are two main sources of information:

1. Primary information which is not already available. To collect this information a firm has to question consumers directly about their tastes and preferences. This method is also called field research.

2. Secondary information is information that is already available to the firm. It can come from a variety of sources, such as government statistics, business and trade publica­tions. Collecting information this way is called desk research.

What do we call marketing? Possibly the most general definition tells that marketing is the theory and practice of exchange relationship between buyers and sellers.

Another meaning of the term "marketing" is the process of developing, pricing, promoting and distributing the goods and services that satisfy consumers' needs. McCarthy called these stages "the marketing mix", which is the combination of four.

Promotion

When a company starts to sell goods in a new market, they often do some market research. One way to study the market is to take part in a Trade Fair where companies can exhibit samples of their products and see what response they get from customers. The Trade Fair is an exhibition of goods, and a company exhibits a sample of its product at its stand. This is also a form of publicity (or advertising) and the company representative can hand out brochures to promote the product further. Often journalists (the press) write about the Trade Fair and sometimes companies hold a press conference if they want to promote a model or range (each different type of a car, a bike etc. is a model. All the different models made by a company make up its range. The full range of goods is normally displayed in the company's catalogue). Another way of promoting a new product is to place advertisements in magazines or newspapers. The aim of promotion is to interest customers, clients or buyers in the product. When they decide to buy, customers place an order. At a Trade Fair companies are trying to get as many orders as possible. However, before a client places an order he wants to know many things: how long delivery takes, whether the company can supply spare parts, what the after sales service is like.