The marketing concept is the philosophy that companies should focus on and strive to satisfy customer needs while also making profits. More specifically, it involves identifying target customers, understanding the needs and wants of customers, and developing products or services according to those needs--thereby satisfying the needs better than competitors.
Modern trends in marketing include relationship marketing, business or industrial marketing, and societal marketing . Modern marketing is also inseparable from the digital realm. E-marketing and online marketing are essential tools for modern firms. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, not only referring to the Internet, but also including e-mail and wireless media as well as driving audiences from traditional methods like radios and billboards to Internet properties or landing pages.
Modern Trends In Marketing
Modern trends in marketing include relationship marketing, industrial marketing, and societal marketing.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing was first developed through direct response marketing campaigns emphasizing customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in recognizing the long-term value of relationships and extending communication beyond intrusive promotional messages. Relationship marketing refers to a short-term arrangement where the buyer and seller have an interest in providing a more satisfying exchange. This approach tries to transcend the simple post-purchase exchange with a customer to make a deeper connection by providing a holistic, personalized experience to create stronger ties. Relationship marketing is often applied when there are competitive alternatives for customers to choose from and when there is an ongoing and periodic desire for the product or service.
The practice of relationship marketing has been facilitated by several generations of customer relationship management software that allow the tracking and analysis of customer preferences, activities, tastes, likes, dislikes, and complaints. With the growth of the Internet and mobile platforms, relationship marketing has continued to evolve as technology opens more collaborative and social communication channels. This includes tools for managing relationships that go beyond simple demographic and customer service data. A key principle of relationship marketing is the retention of customers through varying means and practices to ensure repeated trade from preexisting customers by satisfying needs better than the competition. The overall goals of relationship marketing are to find, attract, and win new clients; nurture and retain those the company already has; entice former clients back into the fold; and reduce the costs of both marketing and also servicing clients.
Business/Industrial Marketing
Business marketing is the practice of selling products and services to other companies or organizations that either resell them, use them as components in products or services they offer, or use them to support their operations. Also known as industrial marketing, business marketing is at times called business-to-business marketing, or B2B marketing.
The tremendous growth and change in business marketing is due to three "revolutions" occurring around the world today. First is the technological revolution. Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace, speeding up the pace of new product and service development.
Second is the entrepreneurial revolution. To stay competitive, many companies have downsized and reinvented themselves. Adaptability, flexibility, speed, aggressiveness, and innovation are the keys to remaining competitive. Marketing is taking the entrepreneurial lead by finding market segments, untapped needs, and new uses for existing products; and by creating new processes for sales, distribution, and customer service.
The third revolution is occurring within marketing. Companies are looking beyond traditional assumptions and adopting new frameworks, theories, models, and concepts. They are also moving away from the mass market and being preoccupied with transactions. Relationships, partnerships, and alliances define marketing today. The cookie cutter approach is out. Companies are customizing marketing programs to individual accounts.
Societal Marketing
Societal marketing holds that the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of a target market and to deliver satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances social, ethical, and ecological well-being. It is linked with corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. The main focus of societal marketing is on customer satisfaction and the welfare of society at large, which can be attained through providing eco-friendly products--for example, those that remove social and environmental ills like drugs and pollution.
In terms of societal marketing, products can be classified in terms of long-term benefits and immediate satisfaction:
- Deficient products bring neither long-run or short-term benefits;
- Pleasing products bring a high level of immediate satisfaction, but can cause harm to society;
- Salutary products bring low short-term satisfaction, but benefit society;
- Desirable products combine long-run benefits and immediate satisfaction.
Societal marketing suggests that, for the well-being of society, deficient products should be eliminated; products should be modified to reach the fourth category by incorporating missing short-term benefits into salutary products and long-term benefits into pleasing products; and a company's ultimate goal should be to develop desirable products.