Marketing Functions – Market and Marketing Philosophies
Before enumerating the functions of marketing, it is pertinent to note that the main objectives of marketing activities are to fill these gaps or gaps in exchange, thus facilitating the flow of goods, services and ideas from producers to end users. In order for marketing to conceive and deliver a satisfaction package through an exchange process, it must perform some basic functions. These functions are divided into three types. Namely: Transactional, Logistic and Facilitator.
1. Transactional functions
These include the following activities:
(a) Purchase: Search and choice of alternative products or evaluation of goods.
(b) Advertising: An impersonal presentation and promotion of goods and services through the media.
(c) Personal Selling – This is the person-to-person conversation and presentation of goods and services.
(d) Sales Promotion and Merchandising: Activities that stimulate consumer purchase and distributor effectiveness.
2. Logistic functions
These include:
(a) Selection of distribution channels and channel members.
(b) The transportation and storage and physical handling of the goods.
3. Facilitating functions
a) Financing of products through capital contribution
(b) Assumption of risk – by having or taking possession
(c) Test of market information
(d) Post-sale transaction: provide after-sale services.
A synthesis of the above functions shows that by performing the functions listed above, marketing creates four basic utilities: form, place, time, and possession utilities.
Form utility: Marketing creates form utility by transforming marketing information into goods, services, or ideas.
Place utility: This means making the product available where consumers need it.
Use of time: Having it available when needed.
In short, the marketing objectives are to have the right product in the right place, at the right time, and to the right person.
What is a market?
For the common person, the word market evokes the image of a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange their goods. This is the traditional view of a market. The meaning of a market has been expanded to include new perspectives. These are captured in the following explanation:
Kotler (1997:13) defined a market as “all potential customers who share a particular need or want and who might be willing and able to engage in an exchange to satisfy that need or want.” Nwokoye (1996:7) defined the product or service market as “individuals or organizations that have purchasing power and are current or potential buyers of a product or service.” The two definitions show that:
1. A market consists of individuals or organizations: business enterprises, nonprofit organizations, and government that take the form of buyers or sellers.
2. That said market participant has a common, current or potential need.
3. That market participants have the will to participate in the transaction.
4. That the participants have the ability to participate in the transaction: purchasing power or something of value.
From the two definitions, it is clear that a wide range of participants are involved in marketing, namely producers, manufacturers or processors, farmers, retailers, consumers, shipping companies, advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and users. . There are different types of markets based on their shared characteristics. Examples include consumer markets, industrial markets, reseller markets, government markets, automobile markets, regional markets, and international markets, etc.
In this article, the term market is operationally defined as a social system that facilitates the exchange of goods and services among individuals, households, groups, and organizations to satisfy their shared needs and wants.