Marketing - Total Marketing Orientation Plans

MARKETING

1. What is marketing? What is typical of a company with the TMO?

Marketing is the process of finding out the needs of customers or clients and channeling a flow of goods or services to meet those needs. A firm with a total marketing orientation plans all of its operations around customer needs.

2. What activities does marketing include? Why can marketing be seen as a cycle of 5 activities?

Marketing includes many activities such as finding out the customer's needs, finding out what customers are willing to pay, telling customers about the good or service and the terms on which it is available, getting the good or service from the point of production to the point of distribution, making sure customers are satisfied. Marketing can be seen as a cycle of five activities. First the firm must find out what kind of product will best serve customer's needs. A price must then be set that will attract customers and at the same time permit a profit. Customers must then he told about the product through advertising, personal selling or other means. The product must be delivered to the point of sale perhaps by way of intermediaries such as wholesalers or retailers. Finally, fellow-up services should be provided after the sale. This is important not only to get repeat business but also as the source of feedback that can be used to develop better products.

3. What is a company with a product orientation aimed at? Why did product orientation use to be the dominant point in business forms? Why were they forced to switch to the sales orientation?

A firm with a product orientation puts all its efforts into making a good-quality product at low cost. The product orientation was the dominant point of view in business firms. When industry was in its early stages of growth, a need for simple goods such as food and clothing could be taken for granted. In the depression of the 1930s, some product oriented firms realized that customers wouldn't always buy everything the firm could make. They were forced to switch to the sales orientation.

4. What types of buyer behavior do you know? When can consumers switch from one type of buying behaviour to another one? 

Consumers engage in different decision-making behaviours. A consumer practices routine response behavior when buying frequently purchased, low-cost items that need very little search and decision effort. Buyers engage in limited decision-making when they buy products occasionally and when they need to obtain information about an unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category. When a purchase involves unfamiliar, expensive, or infrequently bought products (cars, homes, private education), extensive decision-making comes into play. Impulse buying involves no conscious planning but rather a powerful, persistent urge to buy something immediately. If a routinely purchased product no longer pleases us, a consumer may use limited or extensive decision-making.