• Product development
• Market research (including forecasting)
• Advertising
• Public relations (product publicity)
• Sales promotion
• Customer service
Differing Schools of Thought
Certainly, there may be ideological differences between departments within an organization and often between members of the same department as well. In fact, some individuals may claim to subscribe to a particular school of thought without truly understanding the implications of their positions. As this pertains to the marketing discipline, there are basically four ideological “camps”: the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and the societal marketing concept.
The Product Concept
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” This concept—the product concept suggests that the integrity of the product supersedes all other considerations and that quality alone determines the fate of the product. Therefore, no substantive marketing effort is required. A critical flaw in this approach is that potential customers may not even be aware of the product’s existence, much less be able to evaluate it for purchase.
Another shortcoming is that “quality” may be subjective, differing from one individual to the next. (Surely, you’ve heard the saying, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”) Those who subscribe to the product concept are often of the “techie” persuasion, with a background (or responsibility) in engineering, production, and operations management or a similar area.
The Selling Concept
The selling concept is predicated upon the notion that consumers will not make purchases in the absence of strong selling and promotional efforts. The negative stereotype of the automobile salesperson comes to mind in this regard. This individual has little concern for the consumer’s well-being once the sale has been made. As a result, purchasers tend not to return. Surprisingly (or perhaps not), this doesn’t bother the salesperson, since there are “a lot of fish in the sea.” A major limitation of this position is that it greatly underestimates the cost of losing a customer and wrongly assumes that there is an infinite universe of potential customers from which to draw. “Shirtsleeves” salespeople with little exposure to other influences within the marketing function may be prone to this mindset.
The financial people within their organizations, those who set or at least influence the setting of sales quotas, may also embrace the selling concept, in that they may, intentionally or otherwise, directly or indirectly, be pressuring the sales force to generate short-term profits at the expense of longer-term customer satisfaction.
The Marketing Concept
The marketing concept reflects the so-called “classical training” that MBAs receive. It is based upon the premise that the company must conduct research to learn what the customer wants. Having done so, the marketing mix or four Ps—product, price, place (channels of distribution), and promotion—are adjusted so that the customer will buy the product and use it with a high level of satisfaction. This approach complements the product concept, communicating the attributes of “the better mousetrap,” and rather than assume that “the world will automatically beat a path to your door,” makes that path to the company’s door as attractive and easy to reach as possible. The marketing concept also tends to emphasize relationship-building, since (as
we will learn later on) a company’s future and long-term profitability ultimately depend upon satisfying the customer, not only initially, but repeatedly over time.
Marketing-oriented organizations such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) liberally employ “800” toll-free telephone numbers to address any concerns that customers might have. This is not as altruistic as it might seem. After all, the information that the company receives from the resulting telephone calls is, essentially, valuable and free market research.
If, for example, a sizable number of customers were to call and complain that they had found the corners of the Ivory soap bars they had purchased to be chipped, the company’s product management team would almost certainly remedy the problem, perhaps by repackaging the product for greater protection. Moreover, P&G also unconditionally guarantees its products and offers refunds or exchanges, generally at the customer’s option.
The Societal Marketing Concept
The societal marketing concept is actually a version of the marketing concept that includes the long-term welfare of the consumer and that of the general public as well. A notable success story in this category includes biodegradable laundry detergents in an age of ecological consciousness. However, the motorcycle manufacturing company that created a vehicle which reduced the loud, high-rpm sound typically associated with motorcycles to a quiet purr did very poorly with the product and was forced to abandon it. Apparently, the company’s research and planning effort did not reveal what most of us probably suspect to be the cause: motorcycle enthusiasts actually want that noise.
In an organizational environment, policy decisions are often made by committee. The parties bring their various orientations to the table with them so that even an organization which, on the whole, embraces the marketing concept may have “pockets” of countervailing forces. Therefore, the various influences we have just discussed rarely exist in pure form within the organization. (One might seriously question the desirability of an organization in which everybody shared the same influences and agreed on everything.)
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