Question - Define marketing and explain nature and scope of marketing.

Answer
Introduction
In today's world of marketing, everywhere you go you are being marketed to in one form or another. Marketing
is with you each second of your walking life. From morning to night you are exposed to thousands of marketing
messages everyday. Marketing is something that affects you even though you may not necessarily
be conscious of it.
After reading this post you'll understand - What exactly the marketing is, to whom it is beneficial for, and what
are the nature and scope of marketing.

Definition of Marketing
According to American Marketing Association (2004) - "Marketing is an organizational function and set of
processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing relationships in a
way that benefits both the organization and the stakeholder."
AMA (1960) - "Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services
from producer to consumer or user."
According to Eldridge (1970) - "Marketing is the combination of activities designed to produce profit through
ascertaining, creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs and/or wants of a selected segment of the market."

According to Kotler (2000) - "A societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others."

Nature of Marketing
1. Marketing is an Economic Function
Marketing embraces all the business activities involved in getting goods and services, from the hands of
producers into the hands of final consumers. The business steps through which goods progress on their way to
final consumers is the concern of marketing.

2. Marketing is a Legal Process by which Ownership Transfers

In the process of marketing the ownership of goods transfers from seller to the purchaser or from producer to
the end user.
3. Marketing is a System of Interacting Business Activities
Marketing is that process through which a business enterprise, institution, or organization interacts with the
customers and stakeholders with the objective to earn profit, satisfy customers, and manage relationship. It is
the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or
user.
4. Marketing is a Managerial function
According to managerial or systems approach - "Marketing is the combination of activities designed to produce
profit through ascertaining, creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs and/or wants of a selected segment
of the market."

According to this approach the emphasis is on how the individual organization processes marketing and
develops the strategic dimensions of marketing activities.

5. Marketing is a social process

Marketing is the delivery of a standard of living to society. According to Cunningham and Cunningham
(1981) societal marketing performs three essential functions:-
1. Knowing and understanding the consumer's changing needs and wants;
2. Efficiently and effectively managing the supply and demand of products and services; and
3. Efficient provision of distribution and payment processing systems.
6. Marketing is a philosophy based on consumer orientation and satisfaction

7. Marketing had dual objectives - profit making and consumer satisfaction

Scope of Marketing
1. Study of Consumer Wants and Needs
Goods are produced to satisfy consumer wants. Therefore study is done to identify consumer needs and wants.
These needs and wants motivates consumer to purchase.

2. Study of Consumer behavior

Marketers performs study of consumer behavior. Analysis of buyer behavior helps marketer in market
segmentation and targeting.

3. Production planning and development

Product planning and development starts with the generation of product idea and ends with the product
development and commercialization. Product planning includes everything from branding and packaging to
product line expansion and contraction.

4. Pricing Policies
Marketer has to determine pricing policies for their products. Pricing policies differs from product to product. It
depends on the level of competition, product life cycle, marketing goals and objectives, etc.
5. Distribution
Study of distribution channel is important in marketing. For maximum sales and profit goods are required to be
distributed to the maximum consumers at minimum cost.

6. Promotion
Promotion includes personal selling, sales promotion, and advertising. Right promotion mix is crucial in
accomplishment of marketing goals.

7. Consumer Satisfaction
The product or service offered must satisfy consumer. Consumer satisfaction is the major objective of
marketing.

8. Marketing Control
Marketing audit is done to control the marketing activities.
 Question. - Marketing Enviroment P’s of Marketing ?
Marketing is a continually evolving discipline and as such can be one that companies find themselves left very
much behind the competition if they stand still for too long. One example of this evolution has been the
fundamental changes to the basic Marketing mix. Where once there were 4 Ps to explain the mix, nowadays it is
more commonly accepted that a more developed 7 Ps adds a much needed additional layer of depth to the
Marketing Mix with some theorists going even going further.
Before we get carried away though what is the Marketing Mix and what is the original 4 Ps principle?
THE MARKETING MIX
Simply put the Marketing Mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help determine a product or brands
offering. The 4 Ps have been associated with the Marketing Mix since their creation by E. Jerome McCarthy in
1960 (You can see why there may have been some need to update the theory).
The Marketing Mix 4 Ps:
 Product - The Product should fit the task consumers want it for, it should work and it should be what
the consumers are expecting to get.
 Place – The product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to shop. This
may be High Street, Mail Order or the more current option via e-commerce or an online shop.
 Price – The Product should always be seen as representing good value for money. This does not
necessarily mean it should be the cheapest available; one of the main tenets of the marketing concept is
that customers are usually happy to pay a little more for something that works really well for them.
 Promotion – Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and, in more recent times, Social
Media are all key communication tools for an organisation. These tools should be used to put across the
organisation’s message to the correct audiences in the manner they would most like to hear, whether it
be informative or appealing to their emotions.
 People – All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff to the
Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part of your business
offering as the products/services you are offering.
 Processes –The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how the service is
delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.
 Physical Evidence – Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of what the
consumer is paying for is intangible. For example a hair salon would provide their client with a
completed hairdo and an insurance company would give their customers some form of printed material.
Even if the material is not physically printed (in the case of PDFs) they are still receiving a “physical
product” by this definition.
 Productivity & Quality - This P asks “is what you’re offering your customer a good deal?” This is less
about you as a business improving your own productivity for cost management, and more about how
your company passes this onto its customers.