Understand the Marketplace and Customer Needs
Designing a Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy
Preparing an Integrated Marketing Plan and Program
Building Customer Relationships
Capturing Value from Customers
The Changing Marketing Landscape
A simple definition of marketing is managing profitable customer relationships.
Marketing must both attract new customers and grow the current customers.
Every organization must perform marketing functions, not just for-profit companies.
Nonprofits (colleges, hospitals, churches, etc.) also must perform marketing.
Most people think of marketing as selling and advertising—“telling and selling.” Marketing must focus on satisfying customer needs.
Marketing is a process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return
In the first four steps, companies work to understand consumers, create customer value, and build strong customer relationships.
In the final step, companies reap the rewards of creating superior customer value. By creating value for consumers, they in turn capture value from consumers in the form of sales, profits, and long-term customer equity.
Five core customer and marketplace concepts are critical: (1) needs, wants, and demands; (2) marketing offers (products, services, and experiences); (3) value and satisfaction; (4) exchanges and relationships; and (5) markets.
Customer Needs, Wants, and Demands
The most basic concept underlying marketing is that of human needs.
Human needs are states of felt deprivation. They include physical, social, and individual needs. These needs were not created by marketers; they are a basic part of the human makeup.
Wants are the form human needs take as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. An American needs food but wants a Big Mac.
When backed by buying power, wants become demands.
The best marketing companies go to