Marketing Lecture Notes

Business Administration 1 Module

  • Deals with classic primary value-adding activities of a company.
  • Focuses on interrelationships and management within market-oriented corporate management.
  • Courses include introduction to business administration, procurement, production, and marketing.
  • Duration: 1 semester.
  • Type: Compulsory.
  • Language: German.
  • ECTS credits: 5.
  • SWS: 4.
  • Examination: Module exam, 120 minutes.
  • All lecture material is relevant for the exam.
  • Independent study is strongly recommended.

Recommended Reading

  • Homburg, Christian (2020), Grundlagen des Marketingmanagements: Einführung in Strategie, Instrumente, Umsetzung und Unternehmensführung, 6th edition, Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
  • Text references in the script refer to the 4th edition.

Agenda

  • Marketing Basics
  • Strategic Marketing
  • Product Policy
  • Pricing Policy
  • Communication Policy
  • Distribution Policy

Marketing Basics: Definitions

  • Peter Drucker (1954): Marketing is fundamental and permeates all areas of the company, viewed from the customer's perspective.
    • Importance of marketing in the overall context of the company
    • Turning away from the functional theory of marketing
    • Very general paraphrase with focus on mindset
  • Nieschlag / Dichtl / Hörschgen (1985): Marketing is a market-oriented entrepreneurial style characterized by creativity and systematic approach.
  • Heribert Meffert (2000): Marketing means planning, coordinating, and controlling all company activities for current or potential markets to satisfy customer needs.
  • Philip Kotler (1999): Marketing is a process where individuals and groups satisfy needs and wants by creating, offering, and exchanging products of value.
    • Marketing = market-related management activities with target reference
    • Very general description with a focus on needs and exchange
  • Activity-oriented definition: Marketing = Bundle of market-oriented activities of a company
    • Emphasis on the marketing mix
  • Integrative marketing definition: Marketing has an external and an internal facet.
    • External facet: Conception and implementation of market-related activities towards buyers, including gathering information and designing the marketing mix.
    • Internal facet: Creating conditions within the company for market-related activities, managing the company according to market orientation.
    • Both aim to optimize customer relationships in line with company objectives.
  • Relationship-oriented definition: Marketing = Building, maintaining and strengthening customer relationships
    • Highlighting of customer relationships
  • Leadership-oriented definition: Marketing = Management of the entire company according to the guiding principle of market orientation / market-oriented decision-making behavior of companies
    • Emphasis on the company's internal framework conditions for market-related activities

Marketing Basics: Emergence

  • Selling Concept:
    • Seller's market: Supply < Demand
    • Focus: Supply
    • Demand
  • Marketing
    • Buyer's market: Supply > Demand
    • Focus: Demand
    • Supply
  • Seller's Market vs. Buyer's Market:
    • Power: Suppliers stronger in seller's market, buyers stronger in buyer's market.
    • Relationship between supply and demand: Supply < demand in seller's market; Supply > demand in buyer's market.
    • Focus: Internal (products) in seller's market, external (markets) in buyer's market.
    • Bottlenecks: Procurement/production in seller's market, sales in buyer's market.
    • Concept: Sales concept in seller's market, marketing concept in buyer's market.
    • Perspective: Telling & Selling (old) vs. satisfying customer needs (new).

Marketing Basics: Changing Meaning

  • Production Orientation Phase (until 1950s):
    • Seller's market: Supply < demand.
    • Problems: Raw material procurement, production process, expansion of production and distribution.
  • Product Orientation Phase (from 1950s):
    • Seller's market: Supply < demand.
    • Problems: Differentiated customer needs, improving product quality.
  • Sales Orientation Phase (from 1960s):
    • Supply = demand.
    • Problems: Saturation signs, growing competition.
    • Consequence: Advertising, sales, and distribution efforts.
  • Market Orientation Phase (from 1970s):
    • Buyer's market: Supply > Demand.
    • Aggressively courted buyers’ market.
    • Market conditions: Income, product life cycles, supply, internationalization, information.
  • Competitive Orientation Phase (from 1980s):
    • Buyer's market: Supply > Demand.
    • Difficulty in competitive edge.
    • Problem: Lack of company profile vs competitors.
    • Consequence: Strategic triangle thinking.
  • Environmental Orientation Phase (from 1990s):
    • Growing importance of environmental factors: ecological, political, technological, social.
    • High complexity and dynamics.
    • Result: Time competition; successful companies recognize and react quickly.
  • Network Orientation Phase (from 2000):
    • Globalization, information technology, deregulation.
    • Consequence: Formation of strategic networks.

Marketing Basics: Specializations

  • Differentiation by:
    • Nature of goods: Goods vs. services marketing.
    • Market area: National vs. international marketing.
    • Purpose: Business vs. non-profit marketing.
    • Functional area: Sales, procurement, personnel, financial marketing.
    • Use of goods: Consumer goods vs. capital goods marketing.
    • Industry: Manufacturer vs. trade marketing.
  • Consumer Goods:
    • B2C, tangible goods/services for private end consumers.