Marketing

The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of
four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
(1) Identification, selection and development of a product,
(2) Determination of its price,
(3) Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and
(4) Development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
In other words, it is continuous process of understanding customer requirement and
satisfies those requirements in most effective way and get in a long term relationship with the customer.
For
example,
new Apple products are developed to
include
improved applications and systems,
are
set
at
different prices depending on how much capability the customer desires, and are sold in places where other Apple products are
sold. In order to promote the device, the company featured its debut at tech events and is highly advertised on the web and on
television.
Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs
from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt)
"Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not
concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business
process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs." In other words,
marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demand for that product and
fulfilling the customer's needs.

History of Marketing
It is hard for many to believe, but when compared to economics, production and operations, accounting and other business
areas, marketing is a relatively young discipline having emerged in the early 1900s. Prior to this time most issues that are now
commonly associated with marketing were either assumed to fall within basic concepts of economics (e.g., price setting was
viewed as a simple supply/demand issue), advertising (well developed by 1900), or in most cases, simply not yet explored (e.g.,
customer purchase behavior, importance of distribution partners).
Led by marketing scholars from several major universities, the development of marketing was in large part motivated by the need
to dissect in greater detail relationships and behaviors that existed between sellers and buyers. In particular, the study of
marketing led sellers to recognize that adopting certain strategies and tactics could significantly benefit the seller/buyer
relationship. In the old days of marketing (before the 1950s) this often meant identifying strategies and tactics for simply selling
more products and services with little regard for what customers really wanted. Often this meant companies embraced a sell-asmuch-as-we-can philosophy with little concern for building relationships for the long term.
But starting in the 1950s, companies began to see that old ways of selling were wearing thin with customers. As competition
grew stiffer across most industries, organizations looked to the buyer side of the transaction for ways to improve. What they
found was an emerging philosophy suggesting that the key factor in successful marketing is understanding the needs of
customers. This now famous Marketing Concept suggests marketing decisions should flow from FIRST knowing the customer and
what they want. Only then should an organization initiate the process of developing and marketing products and services.

The marketing concept continues to be at the root of most marketing efforts, though the concept does have its own problems
(e.g., doesnt help much with marketing new technologies) a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this tutorial. But overall,
marketers have learned they can no longer limit their marketing effort to just getting customers to purchase more. They must
have an in-depth understanding of who their customers are and what they want.

Evolution of marketing concept

Old concept of marketing was to make goods available so that people who had needs can buy. But as human needs changes and
many players offering same goods, the concept changes from making available to satisfying needs.
The core concept of marketing exchange process have stated since human civilization and it has transforms through many
phases into modern marketing management today.
Exchange oriented Stages: After the stages of nomads people started to settle on the banks of rivers and engaged in agriculture
and other economic activities. Then the problem of deficit and surplus in production came into existence. In order to have
smooth exchanges Barter System came into existence. This is the starting point of marketing activities.
Production oriented Stages (1760-1830): This stage came with the dawn of industrial revolution which started during 1760. The
concept behind this stage was if you can offer products with reasonable price and quality, nothing can prevent you from selling
and making profits. Here producer gave more emphasis on their production not on the customer requirements.

Sales oriented Stage: Technological development, improving living standard, development in communication and transportation
lead people to believe that they can demand more quality goods from the producers than they were offering. Producers started
realizing consumers will normally not buy enough unless approached with a substantial selling and promotional efforts. Under
this concept the greater emphasis was on increasing the sales than on customer satisfaction

Marketing oriented Stages: As the consumer demand and producers supply came into equal positions, the producers were
forced to rethink over the selling concept and thus it leads to introduction of marketing concepts. Moreover, intense competition
in the market made producers realize that products could not be sold without having a strong understanding of consumer needs
and preferences.
Consumer oriented Stage: This stage have totally opposite view than the other stages above. Here producers started producing
products keeping in mind the requirement of the customer. Production process are adjusted and re-adjusted in order keep align
with ever changing needs of customers. Competition becomes a keen factor here.
Management oriented Stages: This is the present stage of the evolution of marketing concept. Consumer marketing became an
accepted marketing philosophy. Today marketing is the most crucial in business planning and decision-making.

Marketing to Muslims
Islamic values can champion the cause of corporate social responsibility in both the Muslim and Western worlds. Values such as
transparency, discipline, humility, and purity are universal in their appeal.
Modern Muslim consumers are considered by many to being the single biggest market in the world that has been overlooked by
many brands in the past. The population currently stands at 1.8 billion and by 2050 the Muslim population is expected to grow to
2.6 billion, representing nearly 30% of the global projected population.
Most marketers have missed the mark so far by addressing only the emotional drivers in order to build brand personality and
image for the global consumers. As for Muslim consumers, the story is a bit different. One just cannot play around with the
emotional drivers only, understanding the core value system on which those emotional drivers are based on is also equally
important in order to create a ripple through the minds of Muslim consumers. If a company understands that an Islamic brand is
primarily based on the ethics and values of Islam, they will have won half the battle.
The purchasing power of this group is immense; growing at a rate of almost US$ 1.4bn daily (US$ 500 billion annually) which is
why most of the global brands are fighting over letting this genie out from the bottle and unfold the treasure that was hidden all
this while. There are 780 million Muslims under the age of 25, which is 43% of the total Muslim population and 11% of the entire
global population. They are young, confident, and proud of their identity with freedom and the ability to purchase whatever they
desire.
Fortune 500 companies such as Unilever, Nestle, Citi NA, McDonalds, Tesco, and Coke are all taking this market seriously and
have made significant investment in order to provide Halal (acceptable to Muslims, in accordance with good practice) products in
specific Muslim countries. The worlds leading advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather has understood the potential of this market
and has opened their Islamic branding wing Ogilvy Noor, which publishes the Noor Global Brand Index, to identify and rank
Muslim-friendly brands. They also publish Brand, Islam and the New Muslim Consumer reports annually to understand the
specific needs of this segment.
On the flipside, there is also a huge risk of brands isolating Muslim consumers. One can explain this with an excerpt from Apples
poster You can quote them, disagree with themBut the only thing you cant do is ignore them. In 1998, Nike had to recall
38,000 pairs of Nike Air shoes when the logo was declared by the Council of American Islamic Relations to be offensive to
Muslims as it resembled the word Allah in Arabic. After Denmark published the distorted photo of Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH), their annual export volume of US$2.6bn to Muslim countries literally disappeared. Even global tech giant Google was
given a run for their money when their online video portal YouTube was banned in many Muslim countries for hosting the
controversial video Fitna which disgraced Islam and the Prophet.
To avoid such instances, brand owners can develop a strong brand based on the ethics and values important to the Muslim
consumer group. The Ogilvy Noor report reveals how a successful Islamic brand can be created by circling around the Muslim
consumers and complying with the Islamic values by focusing on the following eight factors:
1

A brands role in the community: Including all aspects of a companys corporate citizenship

Product: Including both the range of offering, ingredients, and manufacturing process

3
The brand story and its PR strategy: Focusing on the tactics brands can employ when talking about themselves, to better
appeal to the new Muslim consumers
4

Corporate business practice: Every aspect of how the business is run internally

Visual identity: The specific needs of the Muslim consumer when it comes to visual information and appeal

Brand communication: How and what a brand is communicating to its audience

External endorsement: Who to partner with and who to avoid

Customer service and delivery: Why getting this is so important and how to do so

Muslim consumers must be targeted through a core product brand that stands up across a variety of markets. For this, it is
important to develop a comprehensive range of products that are universally accepted by all Muslims. Moreover, the Halal
market is not confined to Muslims only. It has also attracted non-Muslim consumers due to its perceived quality and health
benefits. Non-Muslims are also inclining towards the Islamic financial system because of its core values equitable sharing of risk,
and discouragement of excess leverage.
In conclusion, Islamic values can champion the cause of corporate social responsibility in both the Muslim and Western worlds.
Values such as transparency, discipline, humility, and purity are universal in their appeal. Islamic branded products offer a better
future for all, as they are based on the values of goodness and justice. Value propositions should be designed in a way that will
appeal to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike to move the addressable market from 1.8 billion Muslims to the full global
population of 7 billion.

Promoting online marketing for shoppers

A three-fold expansion of the virtual market in Bangladesh in just one year indicates increasing interest of consumers
or users in e-commerce. It bodes well for the future growth of on-line markets. Such a market, as a report in this
paper last Monday indicated, is already taking roots in the country. This will pave the way for its wider embrace by a
larger segment of the country's population in the coming days, if the right kind of supportive public policies is put in
place to ensure security of on-line trading and help foster and sustain people's trust and confidence in deals in the
virtual markets on a wider scale.
The government has so far been pro-active about pursuing technology-friendly policies. Also the private sector has as
well been energetic about reaping the benefits from an otherwise tech-savvy policy environment. Furthermore, the
existing state of terrible traffic jams in Dhaka and other cities and overcrowding at market places have become
nightmares for citizens. This has spurred a relatively faster growth of virtual markets to serve people who are
sickeningly getting tired of all such hassles. Thus many shoppers now order purchases of goods and services they need
just from home without visiting markets physically. Internet marketing has also enabled businessmen to be open for
business round the clock without worrying about store-opening hours or overtime payments for staff.
There is no denying that offering products and services for sales on the Internet is convenient for customers. They can
browse on-line stores at any time and place orders when it is convenient for them. With the passage of time, virtual
marketing will surely widen the scope for greater competition with physical shops, leading to supplies of goods and
services at affordable prices to customers. More than 300,000 people do reportedly visit three such on-line markets in
the country daily. The link between the virtual shops and the customers is a third-party vendor whom one can call as
the middleman.
As the internet user-base continues to expand, striking changes are taking place in the country. According to available
statistics, more than 350,000 Bangladeshi professionals have registered to work on-line courtesy of only one website.
The earnings of online professionals in Bangladesh since 2010 have been estimated at more than US$53 million, out

of which US$21 million were earned in 2013 alone through two websites. The country earns
now roughly US$100 million a year in the form of export receipts by its information technology
(IT) industry. Independent professionals contribute, as of now, to about one-fifth of the annual
export earnings by this sector. Such professionals have not received until recently any support
from the authorities. On-line works are provided with support including promotional assistance.
Such programmes are aimed at creating self-employment opportunities for more freelance
professionals.
Some words of caution against possible fraudulent practices will be quite relevant here. Such
practices are not unique to the IT sector alone. These hold true for marketing in general. As
far as virtual markets are concerned, goods displayed on-line may not conform to the choice of
the customers when these are brought home by the third-party vendors. To counter such
malpractices, the webs that put ads on display must be careful in choosing items for sale.
The authorities concerned do also need to be pro-active about dealing effectively with
fraudsters in virtual marketing. After all, it is the quality of goods put up on-line that matters
most to the virtual customers. That makes the case stronger for not getting lax on those who
are found to be indulging in any kind of fraudulent activities in the virtual markets.

Current Situation Analysis

Understanding the situation is essential to developing analysis of it and the appropriate,
creative recommendations that flow from it in the Marketing Plan. In this section,
we describe what is happening, without drawing any conclusions at all. Note that some
practitioners do the environmental issues as a separate section and handle situation
analysis in a separate section also.
This part discusses the industry, without dwelling on any particular firm within it. (We do
take a brief look at the firm that is the focus of the marketing plan, but in strictly
descriptive terms.) Historic growth rates and sales, trends and key influences are
discussed. Segments should be identified. Here are some headings which should be
explored:

The Market: What is this market all about? Is it new and volatile, stable and flat or
what? Is it easy to enter or leave the field? What seems
critical for success? If we were discussing the beer
industry, we should note that sales are declining year
over year, and many small, agile niche players are
entering the industry.


The Products: What products are out there? What variations? Are substitutes an
issue? What share of the total market does each of the variations hold? For instance, the
Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) segment saw considerable growth in the 1990s, but has been
killed since 2008 with volatile fuel prices. Hybrids and smaller, fuel-efficient cars are the way
to go now for many consumers.

The Competitors: Discuss the key players in the field, noting their size, goals,
market share, marketing strategies and whatever else is pertinent about them. We would
want to note that Wal-Mart has been a real influence in the market for department store type
merchandise.

Demographic Trends: Are there demographic profiles of the key buyers and if so,
how can we match them to known demographic trends such as the Baby Boomers? If we
were examining the travel industry, we would be very interested in the fact that people in
their 50s are the biggest travellers, and the boomers are entering their 60s as we approach
2010.

Social-Cultural Trends: This area is often rich with material that

helps us understand what is happening. For instance, the food business must
deal with people who worry about the amount of fat, cholesterol and salt in
their food. Just when you think you have a handle on where they are going,
they change! This is an extremely volatile area, which is why we need to watch it closely, in
the case of consumer goods.

Technological Issues: It would be rash to ignore this area for almost any industry.
While we should not assume the World Wide Web is the answer to everything, we should
ask how it might affect the industry we are examining! This should be a balanced view,
recognizing that while many things can happen on the Web, many things are just not in the
cards for it. Get well beyond advertising and recognize most people go online to pursue
interests, not look for ads to click on. Dont overlook other technological issues, such as
plummeting costs for computers or the reduced production costs which result from the
Learning Curve.

Economic Issues: This area deals with things like interest rates, exchange rates, the
stage of the economic cycle and broad economic trends. Do not assume that a sluggish
economy means people spend less on everything. They may want to save on their food bill
so they can still get their Florida vacation! Even with the crisis in 2009, there is a large
segment that is not changing its habits much.

Political-Legal Issues: This is a huge issue for industries such as tobacco, but it
also can be important to many others. When Quebec made snow tires mandatory, it had a
huge impact on demand. The move to free trade opens the doors to new opportunities -and new competitors!

Changing Channels: If it was not covered in any of the other areas, discuss any
changes to the kinds of channels used. A shift from Mom & Pop stores to warehouse-type
stores has occurred in the hardware business. Books are being bought over the Internet
more and more.

Your Firm: You should mention how your firm fits into this environment. Include
data on product lines, gaps, margins, problem areas and any other pertinent information.
Hold the hype.

Key Segments: It is helpful to sum up your picture of the industry with a profile of
the key segments, brief descriptions of the buyers in each, and the ideal 4Ps that they seek.
This will take information from many areas, but will tee up your opportunities nicely. For
more on this, visit Segmentation City, a site dedicated to doing it right. You also can open

this segment profile worksheet and use it as a way to work through what each segment seeks
(e.g. low calories), what influences it (e.g. friends, awareness) and which of the 4Ps is
important (product must be low-calorie, but price not a big issue).

Marketing Bangladesh
Standard Chartered CEO Jim McCabe talks to The Daily Star as Bangladesh Investment Summit kicks off
in Singapore today
Zina Tasreen, from Singapore
Jim McCabe
With a growth outlook of upwards of 6 percent, an overall stable credit rating, a sizeable youthful and
flexible demographic, and a Goldman Sachs billing of 'one to watch out', Bangladesh presents a rather
interesting investment case.But all too often, it gets buried under news of natural or man-made
disasters or political strife. In other words, the investment case for Bangladesh could do with some
publicity.
Enter: the Bangladesh Investment Summit, the brainchild of Standard Chartered Bangladesh that
provides a platform for the country's regulators, government higher-ups, banks and corporates to
market the land's investment climate to foreign investors and just piques interest.
As the leading bank in this country for more than 100 years, it was clear to us that more investor
activity is required so that the economy could grow and really expand, Jim McCabe, chief executive
officer of SCB, told The Daily Star on the eve of the third edition of the summit.
Subsequently, the British bank reached out to Finance Asia, the continent's leading financial publishing
company, about creating a platform to, basically, promote the country's investment opportunities on
the world stage. In December 2012, they put together a conference in Singapore, Asia's financial hub,
which the SCB CEO says was very successful. In 2013, when the political situation and the violence got
many concerned, we still felt it important to continue the story and not to stop as if we thought things
have changed.
So, another conference was held in June last year but in London, the finance capital of Europe, to target
investors from that continent. We were very, very pleased to have it fully subscribed -- 350 investors
from London were there.And so now that the first half of the year is over with and we have had the
budget and everything, we thought its time again to remind, to refresh and to expand the interest in the
country. So the timing seems quite appropriate.This year's summit, to be held again in Singapore,
would shed light on topics such as the economy's near-term outlook and key risks, foreign investment
initiatives by the Board of Investment, yield versus risk criteria that Bangladesh has to offer, and access
routes for foreign investors to the country's debt and equity capital markets.
The country's export diversification strategy, infrastructure projects, tenders under public-private
partnership, growth prospects for local corporates and potential for multinational corporations would
also be discussed at lengths.Gowher Rizvi, prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, would present a
keynote paper on Bangladesh's new narrative, while Farooq Sobhan, president of the Bangladesh

Enterprise Institute, would give a speech on the investment opportunities in the country.
Asked what Bangladesh's unique selling point is, McCabe said: Its potential and the fact that it sits
geopolitically in the middle of a very sweet spot between big economies like China and India.
The potential, the American banker says, is nowhere near full utilization. The 160 million Bangladeshis
are hard-working people -- I think they are easy to train and develop for new skills. It is a very rich
opportunity. The attendants in the past two summits, who ranged from asset managers to private
banks, private equity firms to big corporations, were pleasantly surprised by all that the country has to
provide for foreign investors. Now, some people may have come not knowing much about Bangladesh.
They left saying, 'Wow, I had no idea'. Other people, maybe, knew Bangladesh from before and had
disengaged for a number of years. They came back saying, 'Wow, I need to pay more attention to this'.
Or, a third group, who know about it, said, 'Thanks for the update. It reaffirms that I need to be
thinking in the same way I am or I need to step up', the SCB CEO said, adding that the events were
great networking opportunities as well. Asked if there have been tangible effect of the past two
summits, he said: After the opening summit in Singapore, we were very proud that foreign investment
funds started buying government securities in Dhaka. This means they have faith in the currency and
they were buying it completely unhedged.And since then, the volume has only been growing, said
McCabe, who has been serving in his current position since November 2009.It's not an enormous
amount of money, but what that means is that they want to add Bangladesh to their portfolio -- and
that's a good sign. The SCB CEO said the government is found wanting when it comes to execution: it
lays out its aspirations but the focus is seldom on implementation. You can stand up and pick indicators
all you want, but at the end of the day, you have to make it happen. Going forward, all public and
private sector emphasis needs to be on executing; the potential is so good that there would be good
targets to be met. Rather than philosophically discussing that inflation should be this and growth
should be that, just do it -- get out there, do it day in and day out and watch things happen. I think that's
attitude to take. The conversation is not about what is wrong -- it is about what could be right or what
could be better. Still, McCabe is optimistic of what lies ahead for the country, particularly the year 2015
as all the momentum that has been picking up 3-4 months post the national elections will crescendo
then.
As for his expectations from today's event, he said he hopes it will be a good plug for the country's
potential
-and
that
it
piques
people's
interests
in
Bangladesh.
If we get that alone, that's very powerful. It will give us momentum into 2015 and beyond.

The Future of Marketing: 4 Things You Need to Know

Technology is utterly changing the way that companies spend money on marketing.
Recently posted the 15 Greatest Marketing Innovations of All Time, so this is probably a good time for
me to write about where marketing is headed. The four trends below are based on an unpublished
chapter of "The End of Sales as We Know It," which I coauthored with Howard Stevens.

1. Marketing will become more tactical. In the 20th century, marketing was often seen as a strategic
investment, so important to corporate success that there was not much point in measuring it. With the
exception of direct marketing (catalogs, mailers, etc.), it was difficult to measure many marketing
activities anyway, so few companies tried.
Today, however, companies gather far more data than in the past and have become far more
sophisticated about measuring just about everything. There are now very few marketing activities that
aren't "sliced and diced" to see whether they're actually making money.
This is not to say that companies don't need a marketing strategy! However, now that activities under
the marketing rubric are measured, the marketing group itself must become ever more tactical in order
to make the metrics improve.
In other words, there will be a lot less of "the ads must be working because revenue went up" and a lot
more of "27% of our website leads converted into paying customers."
2. Commoditization will drive marketing investment. There's a growing awareness that product
categories go through four distinct stages, each requiring a different level of marketing investment:
1.
The entry phase. Sales plays the primary role, explaining the concept to buyers, getting them
excited about it, following up to get reference accounts, and so forth. By comparison, Marketing plays a
minor role, at best.
2.
The consulting phase. Once the product category is established, the salespeople continue to
cultivate new accounts while marketing helps Sales to identify new leads. Marketing acts as a service
organization to sales, with Sales still "leading the charge."
3.
The service phase. When several vendors provide essentially the same product, customers
decide which product to buy based the ability of vendors to precisely respond to their specifications,
their delivery requirements, payment convenience and so forth. During this phase, Marketing and Sales
are of roughly equal importance.
4.
The commodity phase. Once a product becomes a commodity, Sales moves into the background
(or goes away completely) while Marketing moves to the forefront, locating potential customers and
setting up of fulfillment channels that do not require the overhead of a dedicated sales team.
As companies better understand this inexorable process of commoditization, they can allocate
marketing budgets based upon the phase of the product category, rather than a preconceived notion of
appropriate marketing investment.
In other words, there will be a lot less of "this product is our future, so let's spend marketing dollars on
it" and a lot more of "it's time to shift responsibility for this product from Sales to Marketing."
3. Sales and marketing will stop squabbling. This trend emerges from the previous two, but to really
understand it, some background is necessary.

Historically, Sales and Marketing have tended to play the blame game rather than work together. The
common conflict usually sounds like this:

Sales: "Marketing give us bad leads, so it's their fault we're not making our numbers."

Marketing: "Sales doesn't follow up on the leads we give them, so it's their fault they're not
making their numbers."

Or maybe like this:

Sales: "We need better sales materials and sales tools."

Marketing: "We spent big bucks on those last year and you didn't use them."

Better measurement of Marketing and a better understanding of product category phases tend to
reduce opportunities for such disagreements to take place.
Better measurement helps Sales and Marketing define what constitutes a valid sales opportunity, based
upon profiles that both Marketing and Sales have agreed upon. Tracking how well those profiles result
in sales leads that convert into paying customers reduces the controversy.
A better understanding of product category makes it easier to plan and execute a gradual handover of
responsibility from when Sales plays the primary role (the entry phase) to when Marketing plays the
primary role (the commodity phase.)
4. Marketing will be more reactive and less proactive. The three trends above have been gradually
manifesting themselves for the past 20 years, fueled by the increased computerization of marketing and
sales environments. This fourth trend, however, is something relatively new, having developed only the
past decade or so.
Traditionally, marketing has been seen as a "proactive" activity where marketing activities "create" a
brand and "create" demand. That's beginning to turn upside down now that customers play a far more
visible and powerful role in brands are perceived.
Review sites that post buyer experiences, for example, now play a bigger a role in defining brand image
than any individual marketing activity. Using social media, companies can enlist customers and
prospects to help with everything from defining product requirements to designing advertising
campaigns.
If you think about Mad Men and mass advertising as the apotheosis of the old style of marketing,
branding was seen as resulting from a flash of brilliance from a marketing genius. Today, effective
marketing is more likely to emerge from a reading of what people are tweeting.
This is a profound change that's only beginning to be manifested in how companies and executives
decide where and when to invest in marketing.