Friday, January 18, 2008

The Marketplace and The Marketing Concept

The marketplace is the commercial environment where we make exchanges. Money is exchanged for goods and services, work is exchanged for wages, and sometimes goods are traded for other goods and services. Our society relies on the marketplace to communicate customers wants and needs to manufacturers of products. Even though marketing is more than selling, the sale is the central transaction of the marketing process. A sale is an exchange of a product for something else of value, usually cash or credit. The sale rewards both buyer and seller by giving each something of value. An in crease in sales volume tells marketers and producers the demand is high and to offer more products.

Marketing plays a major part in our economy. It determines the way we choose to use our nations resources. In your study of marketing you will look at 2 marketing concepts: micromarketing--how products are conceived, promoted, priced, and distributed in individual marketing situations and macromarketing-- the process that directs the flow of goods and services in an economy. Here in the United States, the consumer is the driving force of our economic system. Other economic systems are driven by different forces--government for example.

The Marketing Concept is the idea of fulfilling the wants and needs of customers at a profit or other gain for a nonprofit organization. A business that applies the marketing concept, first determines the customers it is best equipped to serve and then works to meet their needs. Instead of trying to sell one product to everybody, the firm markets its products to the customers most likely to buy them.

Organizations employing the marketing concept create win-win exchanges for both buyers and sellers in transactions. Ford created a win-win situation with the design of the Taurus. The design was developed from extensive research on a focused target market. When the company produced the car its customers wanted and the customers responded by buying it in record numbers.

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