Creating Customer Relationships and Value through Marketing

1. What is marketing?
Marketing is the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit
the organization, its stakeholders and society at large.
2. What does marketing focus on?
Marketing focuses on discovering and satisfying consumer needs.
A market is made up of people with both desire and ability to buy a product-> People with demand for
the product
The 2 objectives are achieved by the idea of exchange.
3.
I.
II.
III.
IV.

What four factors are needed for marketing to occur?

2 or more parties with unsatisfied needs
Desire and ability on their part to communicate
A way for parties to communicate
Something to exchange: The trade of things of value between buyer and seller so that each is
better off after the trade.

4. An organization cant satisfy the needs of all consumers, so it must focus on one or more
subgroups, which are its target markets.
Target Market One or more specific groups of potential consumers toward which an organization
directs its marketing program.
5. What are the four marketing mix elements making the orgs marketing program?
I.
II.
III.
IV.

Product- Good/ service/ idea to satisfy consumers needs

Price- Amount of money which is exchanged for the product
Promotion- Means of communication between the buyer and seller
Place- Means of getting the product into the consumers hands

6. What are Uncontrollable Environmental Forces?

Environmental forces are those that the organizations marketing department cannot control. These
include social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory forces.
7. Many Asian firms have gone through four distinct orientations for their business, starting with
the production era and ending with todays customer era.
Production Era (1840- 1930) -> Sales Era (1920- 1970) -> Marketing Concept Era (1950- 1990s) ->
Customer Relationship Era (1990- current)
Customer Relationship Era:
Org that has a market orientation focuses its efforts on:
i.
Continuously collecting information about customers needs
ii.
Sharing this information across departments
iii.
Using it to create customer value

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): process of identifying prospective buyers, understanding

them intimately, and developing favourable long term perceptions of the organisations and its offerings
so that buyers will choose them in the marketplace.
8. What are the two key characteristics of the marketing concept?
An organization should (1) strive to satisfy the needs of consumers (2) while also trying to achieve the
organizations goals.

Extra Content:
Crowdsourcing: UNIQLO used power of social media to run the advertising campaigns without relying on
sponsored tweets or costly advertising budgets
Challenges of meeting consumer needs with new products:
1. Find out BOTH the need and want
2. Produce what they BOTH need and want

Customer value: Unique combination of benefits received by targeted buyers that includes price, quality,
convenience, on time delivery and both before- & after-sales service [Focus of many Asian firms]

Relationship Marketing: hallmark of developing and maintaining effective customer relationship

[Difficult to implement ]

Societal Marketing Concept:

Marketing Program: 3 steps
i. Knowing Customers- understanding their needs & wants
ii. Developing core strategy and concept
iii. Assembling the right mix of product, price, promotion and place

Marketing creates Utility: the benefits or customer value received by users of the product-> 4 types of utility form, place, time and possession

Uniqlos marketing program

Core strategy & Concept:

i. Securing raw materials at low
costs from suppliers
ii. Producing for the mass market
iii. Maximising the efficiency and its
production & distribution process

Target market:
i. Casual/ household shoppers
ii. Discerning fashion-conscious
individuals
iii. Fashionistas and early adopters