Unit 1: Introduction to marketing
Marketing Management notes · PTU syllabus (BBA 302-18)
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Unit summary
Marketing is about understanding customers and creating value for them profitably. This unit covers the nature and scope of marketing, customer needs, wants and demands, the five marketing management philosophies, and analysis of the micro and macro marketing environment.
After this unit you can
- Define marketing and explain its nature and scope
- Distinguish needs, wants and demands
- Compare the production, product, selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts
- Analyse the micro and macro marketing environment
PTU syllabus topics
- Nature and scope of marketing
- customer needs
- wants and demand
- marketing concepts — production
- product
- selling
- marketing and societal marketing
- analysing the micro and macro marketing environment
- 1Production concept
Make it cheap and available
- 2Product concept
Make it better
- 3Selling concept
Push hard to sell
- 4Marketing concept
Find needs, then satisfy them
- 5Societal marketing
Satisfy needs and society's well-being
Topic 1
Nature and scope of marketing
Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return (Kotler). The AMA defines it as the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society. Nature: customer-oriented, a continuous process, exchange-based, goal-oriented and both an art and a science. Scope: goods, services, events, experiences, persons, places, ideas, organisations and information can all be marketed.
Topic 2
Needs, wants and demands
Needs
Basic human requirements
Hunger, safety, belonging
Wants
Needs shaped by culture and personality
A pizza to satisfy hunger
Demands
Wants backed by ability and willingness to pay
Buying a ₹400 pizza from Domino's
Other core concepts: value (benefits − costs), satisfaction (performance compared with expectations), exchange, transactions, relationships and markets.
Topic 3
Marketing management philosophies
- 1Production concept
Consumers want cheap, available products — focus on efficient production
- 2Product concept
Consumers want the best quality — focus on product improvement
- 3Selling concept
Consumers must be persuaded — focus on aggressive selling
- 4Marketing concept
Find needs and satisfy them better than competitors
- 5Societal marketing concept
Satisfy needs while preserving consumer and society's well-being
Starting point
Factory
Market
Focus
Existing products
Customer needs
Means
Selling and promotion
Integrated marketing
End
Profit through sales volume
Profit through customer satisfaction
Topic 4
The marketing environment
Micro: company itself
Departments working together
Micro: suppliers and intermediaries
Resellers, logistics, agencies
Micro: customers and competitors
Markets served and rivals
Micro: publics
Media, government, local communities
Macro: demographic and economic
Population, income, spending
Macro: natural, technological, political, cultural
Resources, innovation, laws, values
Exam tip
In exam answers, give an Indian example for each environmental factor — e.g. rising disposable incomes (economic) and UPI adoption (technological).
Key terms
- Marketing
- Creating value for customers and capturing value in return
- Demand
- A want backed by purchasing power
- Marketing concept
- Achieving goals by satisfying customer needs better than competitors
- Societal marketing
- Balancing customer wants, company profit and society's welfare
- Marketing environment
- Forces outside marketing that affect it
Quick revision
- Need → want → demand.
- Five philosophies: production, product, selling, marketing, societal.
- Selling starts at the factory; marketing starts with the market.
- Micro environment: company, suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, publics.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.Define marketing.
- Q2.Differentiate between needs, wants and demands.
- Q3.What is the societal marketing concept?
- Q4.Differentiate between the selling and marketing concepts.
- Q5.List four factors of the macro environment.
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain the nature, scope and importance of marketing.
- Q2.Explain the five marketing management philosophies.
- Q3.Analyse the micro and macro marketing environment with examples.
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