Marketing Management [antikvár]

preface The 1990s represent the last decade of the last century before the next millennium. Already sea changes have been taking place in the global economy: the rising power of the Far East in global markets; the development of a European Common Market of 324 million consumers; the disillusionment with state-operated economies and the turn to market-driven economies; the political reforms in Eastern Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere; the giant advances in technology; and so on. All this means that old business road maps cannot be trusted. Companies are learning that it is hard to build a reputation and easy to lose it. Companies that focus inward become blind to seismic changes in markets, competition, distribution, media, and technology that are occurring outside. Mass markets are fragmenting into micromarkets; mukiple channels of distribution are replacing single channels; customers are buying direct through catalogs and telemarketing; price discounting and sales promotion are eroding brand loyalty; conventional advertising media are delivering less and costing more. These and other changes mean that companies must reexamine and sometimes reverse the very premises on which they built their business. In the end, the companies that best satisfy their customers will be the winners. It is the special responsibility of marketers to understand the needs and wants of the marketplace and to help their companies translate them into solutions that win customers' approval. Today's smart companies are not merely looking for sales; they are investing in long-term, mutually satisfying customer relationships based on delivering quality, service, and value. Marketing is the business function that identifies unfulfilled needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude, determines which target markets the organization can best serve, decides on appropriate products, services, and programs to serve these markets, and calls upon everyone in the organization to "think and serve the customer." From a societal point ofview, marketing is the force that harnesses a nation's industrial capacity to meet the society's material wants. Marketing must not be seen narrowly as the task of finding clever ways to sell the company's products. Many people confuse marketing with some of its subfunctions, such as advertising and selling. Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make! It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers, and benefits for the stakeholders. Market leadership is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality, and customer service. If these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion, or salesmanship can compensate. William Davidow observed: "While great devices are invented in the laboratory, great products are invented in the marketing depanment." There is a wide chasm between an invention and an innovation. Too many wonderful laboratory products are greeted with yawns or laughs. The job of marketers is to "think customer" and