As we know, every company has different idea regarding philosophy of marketing. Some companies concentrate on the large scale production while some concentrate only on the quality of the product etc.
Therefore, under the marketing philosophy, there are following five concepts:
1. Production Concept:
Production concept lays emphasis on availability and affordability of products. If these two elements are present in marketing, the enterprise will succeed. Accordingly, marketing should aim at the reduction in the cost of production and concentrate on mass production and distribution. This concept holds that potential exchange would be realized when the products are inexpensive and are widely available.
However, this concept is not entirely true. Sometimes customers don’t always buy products which are inexpensive and easily available. For example, fleet shoes.
2. Product Concept:
Product concept lays emphasis on ‘quality of production’ rather than ‘quantity of production’. Accordingly, the enterprise should concentrate on product and its continuous improvement over time because customers favour high quality products and are ready to pay higher prices for them.
The enterprises following this concept direct their maximum efforts into creating superior products and improving the existing products. However, the main drawback of this concept is that customers will buy the product only if they require the same. For example, a firm may be dealing in very spacious, luxurious and expensive cars but the customers will demand same only when they really need them and can afford their price.
3. Sales Concept:
This concept stresses on attracting and persuading customers to buy the product by making aggressive selling and promotional efforts. Thus, the focus of business firms is to ensure the sale of products through aggressive selling techniques such as advertising, personal selling and sales promotion without giving any consideration to customers’ satisfaction.
The main aim of selling is to convert the goods into cash by using fair or unfair means. But the buyers cannot be manipulated every time; hence selling can be successful only for short period but not during long period.
4. Marketing Concept:
According to this concept, customer satisfaction is the key to organisational success. It assumes that a firm can achieve its objective of maximizing profit in the long run only by identifying and satisfying the need of present and prospective buyers in an effective way. Business firms don’t sell what they can make; rather they make and sell what customers want.
This concept is based on the following pillars:
(i) To identify the market or customers who are selected as the target of marketing effort.
(ii) To understand the needs and wants of customers in the target market.
(iii) Developing products or services for satisfying the needs of the target customers.
(iv) To ensure better satisfaction of needs of the target market as compared to competitors.
(v) To do all this at a profit.
5. The Social Marketing Concept:
The marketing concept has been criticized by some of the people because of the challenges posed by social problems like environmental pollution, deforestation, population explosion, inflation etc.
This is because any activity which results in customer satisfaction but is harmful for the interest of the society at large cannot be justified. Therefore, the firms must perform the functions of marketing keeping in view the social welfare. For example. No to plastic bags, recycled paper.