Chapter 1 intro to E marketing

Marketing Definitions & Core Philosophy

  • Kotler’s Definition: Marketing is a "social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others."

    • Puts exchange of value at the center.

  • Process Orientation

    • Matches customer wants & needs with an organisation’s ability to satisfy them.

    • Conducted through the exchange of value between customer and firm.

    • Primary organisational revenue-generating interface.

  • Modern Philosophy (Philip Kotler, 21st century)

    • Move from “telling & selling” to creating value by interacting and co-working with customers.

    • Requires a balanced, planned & integrated use of the marketing mix.

Marketing Trends Driving Importance

  • Smart Insights (2017) identifies three accelerators:

    • Increasing competition

    • Greater consumer choice & consumer power

    • Technology & wider access to information

What Gets Marketed?

  • Tangible & Intangible market entities (Chiefmartec.com):

    • Goods

    • Services

    • Experiences

    • Events

    • Persons

    • Places

    • Properties

    • Organisations

    • Information

    • Ideas

Core Activities of Marketers

  • S-T-P Framework:

    • Segmenting the overall market.

    • Targeting chosen segments.

    • Creating & communicating value (Positioning + tactical mix).

Characteristics of a Marketing-Oriented Organisation

  • Customer satisfaction as a central focus.

  • Products defined by customer needs, not by production capability.

  • Marketing activities integrated across the whole organisation (no silo).

  • Marketing intelligence actively collected, valued, shared.

Marketing as a Matching Process

  • Diagrammatically:
    \text{ORGANISATION RESOURCES} \longleftrightarrow \boxed{\text{MATCHING}} \longleftrightarrow \text{CUSTOMER WANTS & NEEDS}

  • Matching is constrained/enabled by the Marketing Environment.

Macro-Environment Factors (PEST + N)

  • Economic, Political, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal, Natural.

Micro-Environment Factors

  • Organisation itself.

  • Value-chain partners & intermediaries.

  • Suppliers.

  • Customers.

  • Competitors.

  • Publics / Stakeholders (not directly involved).

The Marketing Mix (Four Ps)

  • Product – what to make and sell; features, design, quality, branding.

  • Price – the charged amount; discounts, allowances, payment period.

  • Place – distribution channels, coverage, locations, logistics.

  • Promotion – advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity.

Four-P Example – iPhone (Altimeter Consulting, 2014)

  • Product: phone + iPod + web browser; 3G broadband; innovative design.

  • Price: depends on tariff & model, range 350\text{–}750 (GBP); trend downward.

  • Place: O2 exclusive (locked); unlocked via online retailers.

  • Promotion: web & TV ads, retail presence, extensive PR, product placement.

Goods vs Services Marketing

  • Goods Marketing

    • Durable goods: physical, used over extended time.

    • Non-durable goods: consumables (non-metal/wood/hard-plastic).

  • Services Marketing (Smart Insights 2010)

    • Rented-goods services: car lease, hotel room, equipment rental.

    • Owned-goods services: repair, maintenance, lawn/home care.

    • Non-goods services: advice, tutoring, legal & accounting.

Marketing Planning Process

  • A series of coordinated activities that set marketing objectives & craft strategies to achieve corporate mission & goals.

Marketing Audit – Three Analytic Layers

  1. Macro environment → PEST analysis.

  2. Industry/Micro → Porter’s Five Forces.

  3. Organisation/SBU → SWOT analysis (often mapped to each “P”).

  • Audit tools recap:

    • \text{PEST}

    • \text{Porter’s 5 Forces}

    • \text{SWOT}

Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP)

Market Segmentation

  • Effort to identify & categorise customers/markets by shared traits.

  • Four primary consumer segmentation bases:

    1. Geographic – nations, states, regions, cities.

    2. Demographic – age, gender, family size/life-cycle, income.

    3. Psychographic – social class, lifestyle, personality.

    4. Behavioral – occasions, benefits sought, usage, response.

Market Targeting

  • Evaluate segments & focus resources on those with high potential to respond (country, region, group of people).

Positioning

  • Occupying a clear, distinctive place in the consumer’s mind vs competitors using:

    • Attribute/Benefit

    • Quality & Price

    • User or Usage Occasion

    • Competitive frame of reference

Consumer Behaviour Framework

  • Influencing factors:

    • Psychological – motivation, perception, learning/memory, beliefs, attitudes, personality, self-concept.

    • Personal – age/life-cycle, occupation, education, economic situation, lifestyle.

    • Social – household type, reference groups, roles, status.

    • Cultural – culture, subculture, social class.

    • Environmental – economic, technological, political, prior experiences.

  • Buyer Decision Process → shapes responses such as product category, brand, reseller, timing, amount, and repurchase interval.

Buying Decision Roles (can involve up to five distinct actors)

  1. Initiator – first suggests idea.

  2. Influencer – shapes evaluation/criteria.

  3. Decider – has final authority to choose.

  4. Buyer – executes purchase.

  5. User – ultimately consumes/uses.

ADDITIONAL:

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

  • Value creation over mere selling implies long-term relationship orientation & ethical respect for consumer welfare.

  • Consumer power & information access heighten the need for transparency and trust.

  • Integrated intelligence sharing encourages cross-functional collaboration and data-driven decision making.

Numerical & Statistical References (explicitly mentioned)

  • Marketing mix price illustration: iPhone range 350\text{–}750 GBP.

  • Contemporary era reference: 21^{st} century marketing shift.

Connections to Foundational Models

  • STP builds on the classical Four Ps, making targeting & positioning explicit.

  • Porter’s Five Forces links marketing to strategic management & industry structure.

  • PEST analysis extends macro-environment scanning from corporate strategy into day-to-day marketing planning.