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MARKETING
As defined by the committee on definitions of the American Marketing Association, marketing is ‘the performance of business activities directed toward and incident to, the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. ’’
Today discovering demand, managing demand, and physically supplying demand constitute the three major divisions of Marketing effort undertaken by many firms. Marketing management approached this status in the 1950’s when the General Electric Company enunciated a policy declaring that “marketing begins with the consumer”. By discovering and filling unmet wants, its marketing program was designed to produce what General Electric could sell because customers had certain unmet wants. Subsequently, having what you could sell instead of trying to “high pressure” customers into buying what you have required provided the use of marketing research and environment “scanning” of conditions affecting business.
The key concept of market selection and product planning is the Product Life Cycle. It predicts that any product pass through various stages between its life and death (introduction - growth - maturity - decline). So companies can make better marketing decisions if they find out where each of their products stands in its life cycle.
MARKET ECONOMY
Throughout history, every society has faced the fundamental economic problem of deciding what to produce, and for whom, in a world of limited resources. In the 20th century, two competing economic systems, broadly speaking, have provided very different answers: command economies directed by a centralized government, and market economies based on private enterprise. Today, in the last decade of the 20th century, it is clear that, for people throughout the world, the central, command economy model has failed to sustain economic growth, to achieve a measure of prosperity, or even to provide economic security for its citizens.
Yet for many, the fundamental principles and mechanisms of the alternative, a market economy, remain unfamiliar or misunderstood - despite its demonstrable successes in diverse societies from Western Europe to North America and Asia. In part, this is because the market economy is not an ideology, but a set of time-tested practices and institutions about how individuals and societies can live and prosper economically. Market economies are, by their very nature, decentralized, flexible, practical and changeable. The central fact about market economies is that there is no center. Indeed, one of the founding metaphors for the private marketplace is that of the ‘invisible hand’.
Market economies may be practical, but they also rest upon the fundamental principle of individual freedom: freedom as a consumer to choose among competing products and services; freedom as a producer to start or expand a business and share its risks and rewards; freedom as a worker to choose a job or career, join a labor union or change employers.
It is this assertion of freedom, of risk and opportunity, which joins together modern market economies and political democracy.
Market economies are not without their inequities and abuses - many of them serious - but it is also undeniable that modern private enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit, coupled with political democracy, offers the best prospect for preserving freedom and providing the widest avenues for economic growth and prosperity for all.
Buyers, sellers and the market
Customers and clients
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Company Products/services Customer / client base |
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Autocomp |
products: car components |
customer base: car companies |
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Best Travel |
services: package holidays |
customer base: general public |
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Digby and Charles |
professional services: architecture |
client base or clientele: companies, government organizations and the public |
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Digitco |
products: cheap computers |
customer base: general public |
People who buy 'everyday' services such as train travel or telephone services are called customers. You can also talk about the users or end-users of a product or service, who may not be the people who actually buy it. For example, when a company buys computers for its staff to use, the staff are the end-users.
People who buy products or services for their own use are consumers, especially when considered as members of large groups of people buying things in advanced economies.
Buyers and sellers
A person or organization that buys something is a buyer or purchaser. These words also describe someone in a company who is responsible for buying goods that the company uses or sells. These people are also buying managers or purchasing managers. A person or organization that sells something is a seller. In some contexts, for example selling property, they are referred to as the vendor. People selling things in the street are street vendors.
The market
The market, the free market and market economy describe an economic system where prices, jobs, wages, etc. are not controlled by the government, but depend on what people want to buy and how much they are willing to pay.
Word combinations with 'market'
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market
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forces pressures |
the way a market economy makes sellers produce what people want, at prices they are willing to pay |
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place |
producers and buyers in a particular market economy, and the way they behave |
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prices |
prices that people are willing to pay, rather than ones fixed by a government |
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reforms |
changes a government makes to an economy, so that it becomes more like a market economy |
Note: Marketplace is written as a single word.
Markets and competitors
Companies and markets
You can talk about the people or organizations who buy particular goods or services as the market for them, as in the 'car market', 'the market for financial services', etc. Buyers and sellers of particular goods or services in a place, or those that might buy them, form a market. If a company:
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enters
penetrates |
a market
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it starts selling there for the first time. |
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abandons gets out of
leaves |
it stops selling there. |
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dominates |
it is the most important company selling there. |
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corners monopolizes |
it is the only company selling there. |
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drives another company out of |
it makes the other company leave the market, perhaps because it can no longer compete. |
More word combinations with 'market'
'Market' is often used in these combinations:
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market
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growth |
In the late 1990s, Internet use was doubling every 100 days. Market growth was incredible. |
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segment |
Women are a particularly interesting target for the Volvo V70. They are an important market segment for Volvo. |
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segmentation |
The Softco software company divides the software market into large companies, small companies, home office users, and leisure users. This is its market segmentation. |
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share |
Among UK supermarkets, Tesco sells more than any of the other chains. It has the highest market share. |
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leader |
Tesco is the market leader among UK supermarkets as it sells more than any of the other chains. |
Competitors and competition
Companies or products in the same market are competitors or rivals. Competitors compete with each other to sell more, be more successful, etc.
The most important companies in a particular market are often referred to as key players.
Competition describes the activity of trying to sell more and be more successful. When competition is strong, you can say that it is intense, stiff, fierce or tough. If not, it may be described as low-key.
The competition refers to all the products, businesses, etc. competing in a particular
situation, seen as a group.
Marketing and market orientation
Marketing
Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit, Companies point out how the special characteristics or features of their products and services possess particular benefits that satisfy the needs of the people who buy them.
Non-profit organizations have other, social, goals, such as persuading people not to smoke, or to give money to people in poor countries, but these organizations also use the techniques of marketing.
In some places, even organizations such as government departments are starting to talk about, or at least think about their activities in terms of the marketing concept.
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