Marketing Fondamental

At a time when life cycles are shortening, when product ranges are proliferating, when distribution chains are changing, technology continues to evolve; mastery of marketing has become an essential element in standing up to the competition; therefore a poorly managed marketing system can cause endless problems! Business leaders are finally beginning to understand that customers, wholesalers and resellers have become more demanding, that they are demanding more sophisticated products and that, as a result, they are increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of service offered. and increasingly eager to make their discontent known.

All specialists agree that the problems posed by marketing and logistics systems have their roots in much deeper and more general phenomena.

1. It has been realized that in many industrial sectors, product life cycles are contracting. The lifespan of audio equipment (e.g., home music equipment and car radios) has declined from a few years to a few months over the past decade. Thus, companies which have done everything possible to lower costs by adopting batch manufacturing in large series, find themselves regularly overstocked and unable to keep up with the pace of new product launches by the competition.

2. Product ranges have continued to proliferate and as they must be more and more extensive to satisfy the ever-increasing tastes and demands of customers, the level of stocks in the factory and in the field necessarily increases.

3. The balance of power in the distribution chain is shifting from the manufacturer to the sellers. A study of the color television market carried out by the McKinsey office (based in Amsterdam) showed that a few years ago the purchasing decision was based on brand image and technical characteristics. Currently, it is the resellers who have the most influence on the customer's decision. As resellers can easily divert the customer from one brand to another, they can reduce their stock levels with complete peace of mind and demand deliveries within a very short time. Manufacturers must face this pressure or risk losing their market share; they are therefore obliged to improve the functioning of their logistics and marketing system.

4. The appearance of inexpensive and powerful information processing and transmission systems has revolutionized the means of controlling logistics systems. With these new techniques, business managers can update manufacturing-level sales and inventory forecasts more quickly and more often and factories can respond more flexibly to changing market conditions.

Ultimately, it is clearly understood that marketing, as we know it, has evolved so much to the point of constituting a separate discipline in the field of management (Marketing management). Markets guide production and constitute the key to success of firms in their attempt to position themselves in an increasingly competitive context.

These course notes are mainly intended for students in business or management sciences and could also constitute a good basis for anyone wishing to know what Marketing is.