INTRODUCTION ABOUT MARKETING

Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function, it is the whole

business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer point of view.
- Peter F Drucker
Marketing occupies an important position in the organization of business unit. Traditional
view of the marketing assets that the customer will accept whatever product the seller presents to
them. In this way, the main concern of the producer is to produce without considering the choice
or the behavior of the customer. But this point of view of marketing has now changed.
The modern concept may be viewed from the customer. Producer does not produce
whatever he likes but whatever consumer wants. In this way, marketing performs all those
functions which are necessary to pass on goods from producer to the consumer in a process to
satisfy their needs. Thus, the prime objective of modern marketing is the satisfaction of
customer`s needs. Therefore, marketing functions are not limited to the functions of buying and
selling but they include all functions necessary to satisfy the customer such as financing, storage,
risk bearing, and after sale services, etc.
Meaning and definition of Marketing
Human wants unlimited and repetitive in nature. Business activities aim at acquiring of
wealth, converting it into desired form and making the final product available for exchange for
the satisfaction of human wants. These activities fall under industry, commerce and trade. These
three branches have one common function-the exchange function. This important and powerful
function is termed as marketing. Thus, marketing here means exchange of goods for money or
moneys worth. Marketing is a very popular but is widely misunderstood term.
Even persons involved in marketing misunderstood the term. Generally, the purchase and
sale of commodities is taken to mean marketing. Thus, a producer and businessman consider
marketing a selling activity, whereas a purchaser feels that purchasing goods is marketing. But
marketing is not only purchase and sale of commodities. It is something more.

In order to understand the correct meaning of marketing we have to understand different

points of view. Mainly, there are two angles from which we can discuss the meaning of
marketing.
(i)

Product oriented view, or old concept.

(ii)

Customer oriented view or new or modern concept.

Product Oriented View

It is a traditional concept of marketing. This view is based on the assumption that the
product whatever it is acceptable to the customer. The producer is concerned only with the
production without taking into account the choice or the behavior of the consumer. A few
definitions supporting this view are given below.
Marketing comprises both buying and selling activities.
Pyle
Marketing consists of those efforts which affect transfer in the ownership of goods and
services and provide for their physical distribution.
Clark and Clark
Adam Smith in his book Wealth of Nations held that consumption is the sole end and
purpose of all production and interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it
may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.`` Under Mercantile system, the interest of
the consumer was virtually sacrificed to that of the producer. They considered production and not
consumption as the ultimate end and object of industry and commerce. It was a stage when the
role of marketing was ignored. With the dawn of Industrial Revolution major changes took place.
There was a shift from agriculture to industry, the living standards of the people rose with
the development of transport and communications. The importance of marketing concept was
realized for the first time.
However, no serious efforts were made to satisfy the wants of the consumers. The above
definitions of marketing are product oriented because they lay more emphasis on the product
rather than on the consumers.

According to them the marketing process comes to an end as soon as the product reaches
to the hands of the consumers. In fact, marketing is wider than this.
Customer Oriented View
Marketing is related to the needs of the buyer. Only such products are brought forward
which can satisfy the wants and tastes of the consumers. Modern writers thus give more
importance to the consumer. To please the consumer after sales services are needed. Here we
quote some of the well known customer oriented definitions of marketing:
a) Marketing is the business process by which products are matched with markets and
through which transfer of ownership are affected.
Cundiff and Still
b) Marketing is the creation and delivery of a standard of living.
Malcolm McNair
c) Marketing is a total system of interacting business activities designed to plan, price,
promote and distribute want satisfying products and services to present and potential
customer.
William J.Stanton
These definitions suggest that marketing is concerned with the movement of goods and services
from the plant to the consumer. Marketing activities are directly concerted with the demand
stimulating and demand fulfilling efforts of the enterprise. All these activities are interrelated and
interact with one another.
IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING
Marketing is a potential force that commands high significance for the society as a whole.
The main object of production, now-days, is distribution of goods and service through marketing
and to make as much profit as possible.
According

to Philip Kotler, ``Marketing is analyzing, organizing, planning and

controlling f the firms customer impinging resources, policies, activities with a

satisfying the needs and wants of chosen customer groups at a profit.
3

view to

William J. Santon mentions that ``Marketing is a total system of interacting business

activities designed to plan, price promote and distribute wants satisfying products and services
to present and potential customers. The president can no plan, the production manager can no
manage, the purchasing agent can now purchase, the chief financial officer cannot budget and the
engineer and designer cannot design until the basic marketing determination have been made.
Importance of Marketing to Society
1. Delivery of Standard of Living: The main object of marketing is to provide goods and
services to the people in the society according to their needs, and taste at reasonable price. It
is to satisfy the wants of people by the discovery of needs of the society.
2. Provides Employment: According to an estimate, 40 per cent of the labour force in
developed economies (U.S.A., Japan, Germany, etc.) is engaged in different marketing
processed such as marketing research work, wholesale and retail business, transport,
communications, storing, and warehousing, publicity work, etc. In underdeveloped
economies like India, there is a great scope for increasing opportunities for employment by
developing marketing processes.
3. Decreases in Distribution Cost: Marketing aims at reducing the cost of distribution as far as
possible so that the commodities might be within the reach of maximum number of
consumers. It increases the level of consumption in the society.
4. Increase in National Income: Sound marketing system is associated with creation of
increased demand for goods and services. An increased demand stimulates production
activity in the country which in its turn increases the national income which is in the interest
of the whole economy.
5. Protection against Business Slump: Trade cycles cause fluctuations in prices. Sometimes
there is a period of depression followed by a period of boom. A period of depression and low
prices is very harmful to the economy.

(B) Importance of Marketing to the Firm: Marketing plays an important role for the wellbeing of a firm. This is evident from the following words of Peter F. Drucker, the importance of
distinguishing and the unique function of the business.
(a) Helpful in Business planning and Decision Making: Marketing is helpful not only to plan
the production but it is helpful also in business planning and taking various decisions
regarding the business. In today`s economy, production is planned according to the sales
forecasts and not according to the production capacity of the firm.
(b) Helpful in Communication between Firms and Society: Business collects various
information regarding consumer`s behavior and changes therein from time to time through
marketing. Marketing also provides information to the firm of the competitors, price
policies, production policies, advertising and sales promotion policies.
(c) Importance of Marketing in underdeveloped or Developing Economy: Marketing has a
special significance in underdeveloped economies. A rapid development of the economy is
possible only by adopting the modern methods of marketing. Marketing in underdeveloped
economies is still in its infancy.
(d) Importance of Marketing in Developed Economy
Rich economies or the economies of abundance the way of life itself connote a certain
degree of development in marketing. In such countries the volume of production with all its
up-to-date technology is generally more than the demand. In order to maintain the level of
production it is absolutely necessary that the produced amount is disposed off readily in the
country itself or abroad on the basis of non price competition.
Indian economy is a developing economy. Economic environment in India has changed
and has been acquiring greater dynamism and robustness. The functions of marketing have also
undergone tremendous changes.

CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION
Understanding the buying behavior of the target market for its company products is the
essential task for the marketing dept. The job of the marketers is to think customer and to guide
the company into developing offers, which are meaningful and attractive to target customers and
creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to customer and benefits to
the stakeholders.
The computer processor company divides its buying behavior in both way i.e. Consumer
and Business. The both of term have same meaning as to define in the chapter of buying
behavior. The both consumer and business are divided further as SMB Small Medium Big - to
identify the type of client according to their sales and SMB have their own group of clients.
CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR:It includes all those person who are the direct user of the computers and their processors
or for their employees and family member use. They are not indulging in the sale activity of the
computer and other Products. i.e. home users, companies for their employees.
Consumer buyer behaviour is considered to be an inseparable part of marketing and
Kotler and Keller (2011) state that consumer buying behaviour is the study of the ways of buying
and disposing of goods, services, ideas or experiences by the individuals, groups and
organizations in order to satisfy their needs and wants.
Buyer behaviour has been defined as a process, which through inputs and their use
though process and actions leads to satisfaction of needs and wants. Consumer buying
behaviour has numerous factors as a part of it which are believed to have some level of effect on
the purchasing decisions of the customers.
Alternatively, consumer buying behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of final
consumers, both individuals and households, who buy goods and services for personal
consumption .

From marketers point of view issues specific aspects of consumer behaviour that need to
be studied include the reasons behind consumers making purchases, specific factors influencing
the patterns of consumer purchases, analysis of changing factors within the society and others.
Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and
using products.
Need to understand:
1) why consumers make the purchases that they make?
2) what factors influence consumer purchases?
3) The changing factors in our society.
Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A
firm needs to analyze buying behavior for buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a
great impact on the firms success.
The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix (MM) that
satisfies (gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the what, where, when and how
consumers buy.Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies.
Consumer decision processes are the decision making processes undertaken by
consumers in regard to a potential market transaction before, during, and after the purchase of a
product or service. More generally, decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course
of action from among multiple alternatives. Common examples include shopping, deciding what
to eat. Decision making is said to be a psychological construct. This means that although we can
never "see" a decision, we can infer from observable behavior that a decision has been made.
Therefore we conclude that a psychological event that we call "decision making" has occurred. It
is a construction that imputes commitment to action. That is, based on observable actions, we
assume that people have made a commitment to effect the action.

In general there are three ways of analyzing consumer buying decisions. They are :
1) Economic models - These models are largely quantitative and are based on the
assumptions of rationality and near perfect knowledge. The consumer is seen to
maximize their utility. See consumer theory. Game theory can also be used in some
circumstances.
2) Psychological models - These models concentrate on psychological and cognitive
processes such as motivation and need recognition. They are qualitative rather than
quantitative and build on sociological factors like cultural influences and family
influences.
3) Consumer behaviour models - These are practical models used by marketers. They
typically blend both economic and psychological models.

As customers taste and preferences are changing, the market scenario is also changing
from time to time. Todays market scenario is very different from that of the market scenario
before 1990. There have been many factors responsible for the changing market scenario. It is
the customers changing tastes and preference, which has bought in a change in the market.
Income level of the people has changed; life styles and social class of people have completely
changed now than that of olden days.
There has been a shift in the market demand in todays world. Technology is one of the
major factors, which is responsible for this paradigm shift in the market. Todays generation
people are no more dependent on hat market and far off departmental stores. Today we can see a
new era in market with the opening up of many departmental stores, hypermarket, shoppers
stop, malls, branded retail outlets and specialty stores. In todays world shopping is not any more
tiresome work rather its a pleasant outing phenomenon now.
If a marketer can identify consumer buyer behaviour, he or she will be in a better position
to target products and services at them. Buyer behaviour is focused upon the needs of
individuals, groups and organisations.
It is important to understand the relevance of human needs to buyer behaviour
(remember, marketing is about satisfying needs).