Экономические науки/ 6.Маркетинг и менеджмент.

Vlasova I. A.

Medvedeva A.V

Dolgikh R.S.

Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade Named after Mikhailo Tugan-Baranovsky

MARKETING: EVOLUTION AND PURPOSE

The idea of marketing must have existed for many centuries. Yet, at the beginning it probably was not so sophisticated theory as it is today. Because of the globalization and rapid development of information technologies people, or market participants, have been urged to systematize their market experience into a well-organized theory. In our course of study the marketing has been defined by the term that sounds more specific: «an approach to business focusing on satisfying customer needs and wants». To serve its key purpose, the marketing strives to find an answer to such questions as why customers do not or, conversely, do readily buy products offered by the sellers, who the ideal buyers are, and what should be done to have the buyers buy what the sellers offer. In fact, the terms «buyers» and «sellers» are not absolutely accurate as applied to marketing. To be more accurate, the marketing approach implies that the business activities are centered on customer, because the concept of business here means both profit and non-profit organizations. So, the words «buy» and «products», or «services», can be identified as the key terms reflecting the idea of marketing. It should also be noted that the words «buy» and «services» represent a wide range of services, non-profit activities, and behavior.

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING CONCEPT: The key points of marketing concept are customer satisfaction, profit, and properly organized efforts to make profit through customer satisfaction. At the same time, strategically, it is important to understand that a business can be profitable, or successful, only if it finds a way to satisfy customers better than its competitors. This means, that today's business can attract customers only through successful competition. Because of the highly competitive environment, today it is not enough just to satisfy. The important thing is to be better. In other words, if a business is unable to compete, it fails to implement the key marketing ideas simply because such business will fail to satisfy customers. Moreover, under the competitive environment it becomes important not only to meet, but also to exceed the customers' needs. In an organization, the role of marketing concept is more profound: here the marketing concept implies that everyone's job is to serve the customers directly, or to serve those who serve the customers. For example, to contribute to profit through saving costs or, in other words, to serve the internal customers. This idea is especially important to emphasize in terms of the roles we may play in an organization in our day-to-day life: we do not necessarily have to deal with customers directly to contribute to the common goal of customer satisfaction. But our roles in it can be significant without doing so.

MARKET SEGMENTATION AND CONCEPT OF POSITIONING : In simple terms, the idea of market segmentation (naming and segmenting) is how not to lose the focus. For this purpose, identifying most promising consumers is really a critical part of marketing activities. Would it be a reasonable decision for us to try selling air conditioners in Northern Territories and snow-removing equipment in South California? Hopefully not. The idea of positioning is also important in terms of consumers' psychology. With the diversity of products today, it becomes important to be able to have a proper understanding of consumer’s needs and attitude, to see what and why they need and how their needs are satisfied by the existing market.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: Integrated marketing communications may be defined as what we manage to achieve through all our efforts to promote a product or service. In simple terms, it might look like our ability to work out the right way to influence consumers using our communications skills. The practical approach (defined in theory as AIDA = Attention + Interest + Desire + Action) could be basically described as a complex process of informing and persuading. In other words, we need to design our messages to influence the consumers’ perception about our products. The importance of this ability in real life can hardly be overestimated. In today’s world of tough competition the communication process should be viewed as one of key elements of success. Life is full of practical examples of how the effective communication just works wonders. In a literal sense, the power of word can just be materialized. A dentist would not attract many clients without sending a specific message saying that he or she can do a good job, and accountant would not attract many customers and would not be employed by a company without convincing them he is a good specialist.

The idea of marketing must have existed for many centuries. Yet, at the beginning it probably was not so sophisticated theory as it is today. Because of the globalization and rapid development of information technologies people, or market participants, have been urged to systematize their market experience into a well-organized theory. In our course of study the marketing has been defined by the term that sounds more specific an approach to business focusing on satisfying customer needs and wants. To serve its key purpose, the marketing strives to find an answer to such questions as why customers do not or, conversely, do readily buy products offered by the sellers, who the ideal buyers are, and what should be done to have the buyers buy what the sellers offer. In fact, the terms buyers and sellers are not absolutely accurate as applied to marketing.

CONCLUSION: The most important conclusion regarding my learning outcomes in this course of study might be summarized as follows: the complex reality of today's economic life requires a comprehensive knowledge and profound understanding of the marketing theory. The great variety of specific marketing decisions the businesses have to make in day-to-day life always relies not only on our specific accumulated experience and skills, but also on our learning process and ability to filter and make use of specific marketing information in every particular case, be it a small family business or a large corporation.