MRK 106 FQ VALERI OPARYCHEV CASE STUDY SUBJECT: MY INTERPRETATION OF THE COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES The purpose of this case study is to present a brief overview of the marketing study outcomes and personal interpretation of the key points of marketing theory covered in this course. The interpretation will be aimed at emphasizing the practical importance of marketing today. 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. COMPONENTS OF MARKETING STRATEGY AND THEIR IMPORTANCE The key components here are target market (a group of customers to satisfy) and product mix (product, price, place, and promotion). In real life, these components boil down to the following objective all businesses need to fulfill: to increase the number of customers so as to increase sales. To achieve this goal, the marketing strategy should give us tips on how to do that. In every particular situation we face in day-to-day life we have to find answers to specific questions. For example, to sell an accounting service like filing a personal income tax return we would need to determine what has to be done to attract customers (Product), what kind of office would be needed to deliver the service (Place), how much it would cost and what price would be right (Price), and what should be done to attract more customers (Promotion). It is easy to see that this pattern would have to be followed in every real-life situation. Even looking for a job we would have to be concerned with where we can work (Place), what we can do (Product), at what remuneration (Price), and how to attract employer's attention to be employed (Promotion). And in every case we would look for specific customers who need to have their income tax return filed and a specific employer who employees specifically like we are (Target market). So, one way or the other, the marketing strategy will work for our purpose. The question is just how to identify its components in specific terms as applied to every specific objective. UNCONTROLLABLE ENVIRONMENTS AFFECTING MARKETING DECISIONS BOTH DOMESTICALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY Unlike the 4P's of marketing that can be controlled by us, some environments are uncontrollable by nature, because we just have no chance to influence them. They may include, for example, cultural, economic, legal, political, technological, and social environments. This should not mean, however, that we should let them control us without any response. To succeed, businesses have to re-adjust themselves and find the best ways to work in them. The important point is that we need not only identify them, but also try to see if there are new opportunities. For example, the changing demographics inside our country should make us look around to see how to readjust our products and services to different tastes and preferences. Internationally, we should always be aware of tariffs and quotas and estimate our competitive potential. Watching the changes we develop possible scenarios, make relevant decisions, and get ready to implement them. What can be the consequences of the war in Iraq for marketing decisions? Tremendous, to say the least of it. So there are a lot of things for marketing specialists to think of both internationally and domestically. ............