Marketing and selling concepts and how they relate to customers
In my previous article — Getting started in marketing — , I talked about the differences between marketing and sales. It doesn’t make sense to sell aggressively (without a proper plan) and expect high profits. Also, it does not make sense to produce products just because the company is capable of producing and expect people to buy them. No one is going to buy a product just because there is supply.
One of the reasons why people buy a product or service is need (except for unnecessary and luxury expenditures, basically). A person needs a product or service and then buys a product or service. When they do that, they do research, they have many different company options and at the end, there is a final decision. As a result of this decision, you as a company either make money or lose potential money. It means competition. However, if you do what you do well and differentiate yourself from others, you will have satisfied customers. So the selling concept should be programmed in a way that works for the customer and makes them feel happy. The important point here is to know your customer. You need to try to learn your customers’ needs, wants and desires. While trying to understand these, you need to fulfill these needs and desires better than your competitors. You can better understand how you can get to know your customer better and how you can provide them with the right product or service by learning the concepts of “Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning”. So, I think it will be more understandable if we show “Selling vs Marketing” in the table as Kotler and Armstrong explained.
It is clear from the table that in the sales concept, profit comes from the number of products produced. The more products that can be produced and “sold”, the more profit is left after expenses are subtracted. (Basically, Revenue — Cost = Profit). Sales alone is insufficient in today’s conditions. When we look at the marketing concept, we see that everything is more detailed. There is a market, customer needs have been analyzed and an integrated marketing plan has been implemented (in simple terms, plans have been made on how and through which channels the customer can be reached, and a consistent and multidimensional brand experience is presented to the customer). As a result, profit comes from customer satisfaction. As the bond between the customer and the company increases, the customer tends to buy more from that company. This way, the company gains customers, naturally makes money over time and expands its customer base. One of the most important points of marketing is the customer. One of the most important metrics of a good marketing plan and implementation is customer satisfaction because you are doing all these practices to increase the loyalty of your customers to your company and to create a good image in their minds so that they buy from your company. Facilitating the interaction of your customers with the company and potential customers with your company, then creating a good image in their minds will increase the value of your brand. I have already mentioned the importance of impressing your current customers and potential customers and creating a good image in their eyes according to scientific data. Most customers’ loyalty to a brand can increase when they see that the brands they like and buy products/services from are doing a good job (This good jobs can be doing a successfull marketing campaing or PR, a social responsibility project, etc.). So, the relationship between society, consumers and company is a very significant concept to be analyzed. So, let’s talk about societal marketing concept.
We see three terms in the concept of societal marketing. These are: society, consumers and company. The logic is that these three elements interact with each other. The main purpose of a marketing campaign is to contribute to society, the customer and the company, so that society will benefit, the company’s customers will be satisfied and the company will make money. However, one of the most important points here is that this action should benefit society. It is important that social responsibility and ethics are at the forefront. A good example of this is Apple’s Red Product campaign. In this campaign, a certain portion of the profits from Apple’s red products are invested in funds to fight diseases such as HIV, Covid-19. When we look at this campaign, we see that all three elements of the societal marketing concept are positively affected. When we look at Society, there really is a donation by Apple and society is positively affected by it, so there is a human welfare. When we look at the customers, psychologically there is a sense of helping. They feel like a favor has been done by choosing these products and they are happy about it. It is possible to say that the number of customers that prefer to buy red products to help the society is too big to be underestimated. Besides, when we look at the company, Apple, there is indeed a gain both financially and in terms of brand image. Here is a good example of societal marketing!
