Introduction
Marketing principles refer to those principles that govern marketing. To be successful in marketing, a business organization should identify its customers’ needs and fulfill them (Bose 2000). The companies that will be discussed in this paper are McDonalds and the Bloomingdales.
Discussion
1a) Numerous marketing definitions have been put forward with each definition straining on different issues. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CMI) defines marketing as a management procedure accountable for recognising, anticipating and fulfilling consumer wants profitably.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) has developed a new marketing definition which reveals the wide role of marketing in the contemporary society. It defines marketing as an action for establishing, conversing, delivering and trading in goods and services which are useful to consumers, clients, associates and the whole society (Bose 2000).
Marketing is all about satisfying the needs and wants of the final consumer. A need is a primary necessity that a person wishes to fulfill including food, protection, clothing and love. A want is an aspiration for a particular good or service so as to meet the principal needs. Considering the market and particularly the targeted customer needs and wants is essential for the success of marketing.
A business organisation should come up with a marketing tactic that aims at the desired groups. It is a primary idea of marketing that business organisations endure and flourish through fulfilling the needs and wants of consumers. A business organisation should equate its capacities with the wants of the consumer.
Organisations suffer from competitor pressures, and fluctuations in the political, financial, social and technical surrounding. A business organisation should thus put into consideration the needs and wants of its customers. Success of any business organisation is reliant on fulfilling the customer wants (Pickton 2010).
The vital inspiration of marketing is value and satisfaction whereby a firm offers a valuable product to its customers who are ready to pay so as make the business progressive putting into consideration the associated opportunity costs.
Value must be observed from the consumer’s perception since different consumers value different product characteristics. There are different types of consumer value. These include form, place, time and possession utility.
In form utility, the good or service is made accessible to the final customer in a useful form while, in place utility, goods are delivered to the consumer at a place where he needs them. Time utility entails the notion of delivering goods to the final consumer at the right time. Possession utility entails the idea that a customer can do all his shopping from distinct manufactures in one shopping stall.
There is a changing emphasis when it comes to marketing. During the ancient times, marketing was an addendum whereby it was done after product design and manufacturing. Today, marketing is attaining a new eminence whereby it is the initial thing a business starts with before even introducing a new product to the market. In the past, marketing was understood as an influential activity intended to persuade the customer to buy a certain product.
Lately, marketing has shifted towards a relational form. Marketing in the modern society is focused towards providing quality goods by comprehending what the final consumer needs and then consequently putting that knowledge into use. The aim of marketing today is to establish an enduring association between the customer and the business organisation and the business organisation and shareholders (Schiffman & Leon 1997).
The exchange relationships in marketing involve both buyers and sellers. This involves getting customers what they want without considering the fact that this may involve developing totally new products.
Exchange relationships in marketing are focused towards benefiting both consumers and the wider society. They are founded on faith and dedication towards developing customer value. The cooperation resulting from these exchange relationships generates a competitive advantage due to satisfactoriness and sufficiency.
If the context of exchange relationships in marketing is used in a manner that is right to the principles, and as a truthfully relational type of social organisation for the exchange of goods and services, then marketing can in due course improve the consumer’s way of life (Paul 1966).
Marketing concept is the idea that business organisations should assess the needs of consumers and then make verdicts to fulfil those needs better than their competitors.
It holds that for an organisation to be successful, and then it should be more efficient than its opponents in incorporating marketing actions towards identifying and fulfilling the needs and wants of their potential consumers. It depends on marketing research to identify market divisions, their extent and wants.
Adam Smith states that the wants of producers should be well thought out when it comes to fulfilling the consumer needs. The marketing concept is divided into production and sales concept. The production concept holds that a business organisation should focus on those goods and services that it can produce more proficiently.
According to this concept, the supply of goods and services with low costs increases consumer demand. In the sales concept, business organisations produce goods and services while at the same time persuading customers to purchase them through sales promotion and personal selling (Bose 2000).
The marketing concept is based on four pillars, which include target market, consumer wants, profitability, and integrated marketing. The pillar of the target market states that there is no business organization that can function in every market and meet every consumers needs. It cannot always perform well in a wide market.
The pillar of consumer wants explains the fact that the key to proficient marketing is recognizing the consumer needs and satisfying them in a more effective manner than the competitors.
This pillar classifies marketers into responsive and creative marketers. A responsive marketer satisfies a stated need while a creative marketer realizes and generates solutions that consumers did not request for but to which they excitedly respond.
When all departments in a business organization cooperate to serve the consumers welfare, then the product is the pillar of integrated marketing. This takes on two different degrees with the first degree being that the several marketing functions including sales promotion, product placement, and research must cooperate. The second degree is that this must be properly coordinated with the other sectors of the organization.
The last pillar is profitability which states that the goal of marketing is to assist companies achieve their objectives. Marketing managers in any company have to analyze the productivity of all available marketing strategies and verdicts and select the most profitable verdicts for a lasting survival and expansion of the business (Pickton 2010).
The evolution of marketing is related to competitive strength resulting from the instant and remote surrounding of a business organisation. In the past, competitive strength had minimal standards and the production context arose. This was founded on sequential production and immense product supply.
After some time, the product concept arose, aimed at augmenting income by increasing extra characteristics to the product, making it more appealing to the consumers. The sales concept was established as a rejoinder to the product concept phenomenon.
This aimed at boosting the sales attempts by increasing the organisations profits. In the 1950s, the marketing concept came into being. This was founded on the needs of the market but not on the accessible stock. Up to today, marketing attempts to orient all the actions in a company to consumer satisfaction, achieving profits in return.
In the 1960s, competitiveness in marketing activities continued increasing, and the marketing concept continued to expand so as to respond to these transformations. This concept introduced new techniques of fulfilling customer wants from troublesome inventions originating from within the company (Bose 2000).
Business orientations refer to the primary services provided by a business to its customers. It exists in four forms which include the expert, the product, self service and the good. Business orientations are divided into both customer and competitor orientation.
A business organization that carries out production and marketing with the goal of meeting the wants of its potential customers is said to be both customer and competitor oriented. It does this both efficiently and effectively. The utilization of market led notions in the nonprofit department in an organization needs a basic shift in company philosophy.
Societal issues and emergent philosophies include product, selling, and marketing. Product philosophy deals with a business organization being knowledgeable about its products while selling philosophy entails a business organization selling goods and services it wants. The philosophy of marketing indicates that a company must focus on fulfilling the wants of consumer as well as achieving its goals.
The limitations of the marketing concept arise when a company fails to define its services in relation to consumer wants and when the work force in an organization does not admit the accountabilities for consumer satisfaction. Another limitation of the marketing concept is that the business world is not ideal. The marketing concept is only a steering post whose execution relies upon a range of factors influencing the organization (Paul 1966).
Marketing audit is an essential component of the marketing planning procedure. It is performed both at the beginning of marketing and at some point during the execution of the plan. It puts into consideration both the interior and the exterior influences of marketing. It also elucidates the opportunities and risks involved in marketing and permits the business manager to make changes where necessary.
SWOT analysis is a tool used in marketing audit for the internal and external surrounding. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing a business organization. Environmental analysis is based on the external surrounding only (Pickton 2010).
Integrated marketing is the harmonization of all marketing tools, opportunities, purposes, and sources within a business organization into a plan that makes the best use of the effect on the final consumers at a reduced cost. It regulates consumer associations that drive the value of products.
A marketing-oriented organization is focused on being close to its clients and at the forefront of its competitors to pull its customers towards it. There are four key features, which identify this organization. These include shared values whereby all verdicts in this organization put the needs of the customers first and share the ordinary values of better- quality goods.
The organizational framework of such an organization has few components and its principles are not complex. The strategy of this organization is long lasting, plastic, and participative. Finally, this organization puts into consideration the anticipations of the shareholders before making significant verdicts.
McDonald’s is the leading chain of fast food production restaurants in the world providing food to about 6 million consumers every day (Bose 2000). In my own opinion, it is a marketing- oriented organization, which makes use of a civil marketing tool. It exhibits all the characteristics of a marketing oriented organization as explained above.
1b) The benefits to McDonalds of adopting a marketing oriented approach include increased customer satisfaction and customer retention. The customers are more satisfied and, therefore, stick to buying food in this company. The costs associated include costs involved in customer care, costs of marketing focus and maintaining total quality.
2a) Business organizations need to understand the surrounding they are working in to gain a competitive advantage over other organizations. This marketing environment is categorized into micro and the macro environment. The micro environment comprises of all the aspects within the business while macro environment comprises of all aspects, which cannot be controlled by the business.
The micro environmental factor affecting McDonalds that will be discussed in this paper is suppliers. This have a very low negotiating power when it comes to pricing since McDonalds require a set number of food components and the only bargaining power is in the drink sector especially between Coke and Pepsi (Paul 1966).
The macro environmental factors affecting McDonalds that will be discussed in this paper is economic and technological factors. In economic aspects, consumers in the UK prefer joints dealing with fast foods to the posh hotels. This minimizes their expenses and boosts the sales of McDonalds.
The other macro environmental factor is technology. Numerous technological advancements and especially the EPOS connection with distributors, software of logistic arrangements and dependence on cashless techniques of payment have increased marketing in McDonalds.
2b) Segmentation entails determining the existing customers who have distinct wants. It is the identification of sectors of the market that are distinct from one another. It allows a business organization to meet the needs of its final consumers in a better manner.
For instance, some customers insist on performance and alacrity while others are interested on safety. It calls for recognizing customers and fulfilling their wants better than the other business competitors. McDonalds offers different products to different markets. The two products that will be discussed in this paper are the French fries and soup. McDonalds has a huge reputation for family affable foods, which are reliable, and of good quality.
The family and especially the young, is, therefore, one of the market of its products. The product offered mostly to the young ones in the family is French fries. Another product is the soup, which is only found in its branch in Portugal. This is targeted for the aged in the society (Paul 1966).
McDonalds could use the appropriate segmentation criteria by using psychographic criteria whereby consumers are classified according to their way of life. Actions, interests, and points of view are the tools used for measuring the people’s way of life. It could also use demographic criteria, which is based on variables such as age, gender, occupation, and religion.
Behaviouralistic segmentation is based on customer reaction towards goods and services. Variables in this criterion include brand reliability, willingness to buy and the level of usage. The final segmentation criteria I would propose for McDonalds is geographic which involves region, size of the town, population density and the type of weather (Paul 1966).
Macro segmentation focuses on the features of the buying organization. It breaks the market into organization size, geographic position, purchasing power, and type of organization. It divides a business organization into extensive categories hence assisting an overall product strategy.
Micro segmentation involves a higher level of knowledge and is necessary for the execution of the implementation concept. It deals with aspects that affect the daily operation of a business organization. The most familiar criteria in micro segmentation involve the features of the decision-making departments.
For a company to obtain the anticipated profit, then both macro and micro segmentation have to work together (Bose 2000).
There are variables used in segmentation. Demographic variables are used to depict personal figures such as income, sex, level of learning, customs, geographical position and family size. Another foundation for segmentation is behavior. Some customers tend to attach themselves to their best brands even when there is a better quality one in the market.
Some are profound users of a certain commodity while others are radiant users. The benefit sought is another segmentation variable. This bypasses descriptive variables, which are demographic. For instance, some customers use toothpaste to enhance their oral well-being while others use it for freshening their breaths (Bose 2000).
The benefits of segmentation include better satisfaction of consumer needs since it develops different goods and services for each segment. It also increases the profits for each organization in that customer/consumers have different earning levels and thus differ in their sensitivity in pricing.
Through segmentation, businesses can increase standard prices and consequently augment profits. Segmentation leads to expansion of the company. The company also retains its clients by selling products that are attractive to customers at varying life stages.
Business organizations need to convey their marketing information to a pertinent consumer audience. Through segmentation, it is easier to reach the target consumer frequently and at a low cost. Through cautious segmentation, business organizations can attain competitive advantage hence become the favored alternative to consumers and suppliers (Crane 2010).
2c) Once a business organization has effectively recognized the segments in the market, then what follows is targeting this segments with goods and services that intimately match the wants of consumers in that segment.
Targeting strategies include niche marketing, undifferentiated marketing, and selective marketing. Niche marketing deals with targeting one specific well-recognized group of consumers within the market. This targeting strategy is disadvantageous due to the limited capability of sales expansion and economies of scale.
The endurance of the business organization may be critically affected if sales start declining. Undifferentiated marketing deals with trading on only a single good. It is based on the presumption that the wants of consumers are similar if not alike. The business organization benefits from the fact that it can manufacture goods on a large-scale hence low costs involved.
It is, however, disadvantageous in the fact that the final consumers are less concerned in standardized goods. Selective marketing entails focusing on each segment with a good whose marketing mix is developed to match the wants of customers in a segment. It increases consumer fulfillment and creates a greater level of consumer allegiance. This targeting strategy, however, leads to perplexity amidst consumers due to the presence of many brands in the market (Adcock & Bradfield 1997).
Positioning is a marketing strategy that seeks to make a product occupy a different position relative to other competing products in the consumers mind. It is applied by business organizations by straining on the distinguishing characteristics of their products or developing an appropriate image through sales promotion. Once a product is positioned, it is hard to reposition it without interfering with its trustworthiness (Crane 2010).
One of the key constituents of the marketing mix is price. This is a significant strategic matter since it is connected to product positioning. In addition, pricing influences other marketing mix components such as product characteristics, channel verdicts and advertising. Marketing mix is, therefore, a significant place in the marketing mix.
2d) Buyer behavior entails the physiological procedures that buyers go through in identifying needs, finding techniques of attending to those needs and making purchase verdicts. McDonalds should put into consideration buyer behavior to know which foods should be supplied in higher quantities than others.
Aspects that are important to McDonalds for a student consumer buying lunchtime snack include choice and preference whereas for a Parent organizing a birthday celebration for a young child the important aspects include beliefs and communication (Adcock & Bradfield 1997).
3a) A competitive advantage is referred to advantages of a business organization over its competitors achieved by providing consumers with better quality goods either through price reduction or by offering greater benefits to the final consumer.
McDonalds sells hamburgers, chicken sandwich, fries, desserts, and soft drinks. McDonalds establishes competitive advantage by adopting differentiation and cost leadership strategies.
These strategies put into consideration the abilities of McDonalds in terms of production and distribution of its products. The consumer anticipations are assessed during delivery and estimate the chances of new entrants entering the market (Crane 2010).
3b) McDonalds gives vigilant contemplation to the residency of its restaurants. During their marketing investigations, they consider the populace of a specific area, infrastructure, and demographics to ensure that there is maximum customer publicity.
3c) Prices set by McDonalds reflect their objectives and market conditions. Prices in McDonalds are always related to the personalities and beliefs of the organization managers.
The company studies the market and observes the way certain foods are performing. This is how they establish if a certain food is going to be encompassed in the foods they offer. This is also how they determine if they are going to keep on preparing a certain food product.
Foods with low or no profits are discontinued from the production process. They also put into consideration market conditions in terms of rival progress and pricing to determine their own victory measures. To enhance sales and win consumer confidence, McDonalds makes good food and sales it at an affordable price compared to its competitors (Crane 2010).
3d) Promotion is among the pillars of McDonalds. The promotion that McDonald uses is through a spokesperson by the name Ronald McDonald. He is quite entertaining to the young and offers a kind of home feeling to the McDonald customers.
3e) The additional elements of the extended marketing mix include people, process, and physical evidence. This has been added because marketing in the contemporary society is customer oriented and the service department of the financial system has taken over economic actions.
Physical evidence is important since it makes consumers to come into direct contact with the foods prepared in McDonalds. Processes assist in making marketing effectual.
For instance processes for dealing with consumer complaints and recognizing the needs of consumers. People as an extended marketing mix ensure that the clients are loyal to the business organization. This 3p’s ensure that the customer wants are given precedence (Adcock & Bradfield 1997).
4a) The chosen organization that will be discussed in this paper is Bloomingdale’s. This is the most widely known clothing store in America and a national vending brand.
It has 36 stores in 12 nations. This company has sections in 15 of the principal section stores in America and has returns of $1.1 billion each year. Brothers Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale own it. It started when these two settled on selling skirts on their Ladies Notion Shop.
This has attested to be to a certain extent a hit for feminine shoppers. Afterwards, this company grew to sell an array of women and men fashion. One product that is supplied by Bloomingdales is trousers. The two different market segments that this product is aimed at are both men and women.
The theory of the marketing mix involves the 4p’s that is product, promotion, place, and price. The two separate marketing mixes that could apply to this two different market segments include product and place. Product as a marketing mix involves ensuring that the trousers provided by this organization fulfill the requirements of the two different customers.
Their appearance is also supposed to be attractive to the customers. Place is the other important marketing mix. Different companies use different techniques to reach their consumers. For instance, Bloomingdale’s uses a franchising system which allows it to work in a broad range of ecological situations and with different market segments.
4b) Bloomingdale’s markets its products to both businesses and consumers. Business marketing involves marketing the goods and services to other business organizations who in turn resell these goods. Consumer marketing is aimed at the final customer.
Business marketing pays attention to rational verdict making rather than the expressive verdict making in consumer marketing. Few consumers in business marketing lead to fewer business clients. The principal strategy difference between business and consumer marketing is advertising the benefits for the organizations clients while at the same time also advertizing the benefits for the businesses customers (Adcock & Bradfield 1997).
4c) Domestic marketing is done in the marketer’s resident country while international marketing is done in a foreign nation. International marketing suffers from the problem of language barrier, which is not an issue in domestic marketing. Cultural differences are also present in international marketing.
Bloomingdales needs to consider factors such as customs, traditions, demographics, social behaviors, geographical locations, and regulations when marketing. It is recommended that this organization carries out investigations on all the nations it wishes to target. If done successfully, international marketing is a boost to business organizations (Adcock & Bradfield 1997).
References
Adcock, D., & Bradfield, R., (1997) Marketing: principles and practice. London: Financial Times Pitman.
Bose, C. (2000) Modern Marketing – Principles & Practice.PHI Learning Calif: SAGE.
Crane, G. (2010) Marketing for Entrepreneurs: Concepts and Applications for New Ventures. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications
Paul, J. (1966) International Marketing: Text and Cases New York: McGraw-Hill
Pickton, D. (2010) Marketing: An Introduction. London: SAGE.
Schiffman, G., & Leon, G., (1997) Consumer behavior. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall