3. Question: Define and provide real life examples of all the Major Marketing Philosophies
taught in the class. Choose any product of service that is available to consumers of Bangladesh
for your examples.
Answer: Marketing management wants to design strategies that will build profitable
relationships with target consumers. There are five alternative concepts under which
organizations design and carry out their marketing strategies: the production, product, selling,
marketing, and societal marketing concepts.
The Production Concept
The production concept holds that consumers will favor products that are available and
highly affordable. Therefore, management should focus on improving production and
distribution efficiency. This concept is one of the oldest orientations that guide sellers.
The production concept is still a useful philosophy in some situations.
For example, The Bangladesh Railway solely dominates the railway services in Bangladesh.
Since it is a government service it has no competitors and therefore has a total hold of this
market making it a monopoly. And for these reasons this service follows The Production
Concept, concentrating only on the availability of the product in the highest affordable price,
focusing on company operations rather than customer’s needs and wants. This only Railway
Service of Bangladesh has gone through very little improvement with years. The trains are old
and the environment within the trains is not up to the mark at all. And the customer service is
also very poor. Despite of this poor condition of the trains as well as the services, the majority of
the population who travel long distance use this means of travel as it comes in a really cheap
price and this service is widely available throughout the country. However, although useful to the
majority of people, this concept will obviously lead to marketing myopia because companies
following this philosophy focus too much on their operations losing the sight of their real
objective, satisfying customer needs and building customer relationships.
The Product Concept
The product concept holds that consumers will favor products that offer the most in quality,
performance, and innovative features. Under this concept, marketing strategy focuses on making
continuous product improvements.
4. For example, a year back Nestle Bangladesh brought a new kind of dry beverage mix by the
name of Nesfruta. Unlike similar product like Tang, it was quite upgraded with no artificial color
and extremely concentrated food content. For other products like this, a minimum of two tea
spoons of the mix is needed to make a glass of the drink. But with Nesfruta due to its high
concentration only one tea spoon was sufficient. But the Bangladeshi people not being habituated
to such kind of a drink did not take the product in a way as it was expected. This happened
because the company did not consider the customers’ needs and wants, rather it went for
upgrading the product and as a result it failed in the market. Product quality and improvement
are important parts of the marketing strategies. However, focusing only on the product can lead
to marketing myopia, as it has happened in this case.
Selling concept
It is the idea implemented for marketing unsought products as consumers will not think of
buying or will not buy enough of the products unless the firm undertakes a large-scale selling
and promotion effort. Examples of such notorious goods are the products sold on “Asian Sky
Shop” or on “Telebrands”. Their products such as rapid hair growth which basically looks like
black powder covering the user’s scalp, is not something anyone is likely to buy. But through
intensive hour-long advertisements on television, people start feeling like this is the solution to
all their problems! Same goes for the famous “Sauna Belt”, cheaper than sauna treatments, can
be used at home easy, portable and sit and losing weight solution is not something people would
generally consider buying. But the intense, mind-blogging advertisements would make you a
believer. And all advertisements end with the “special” once in a life time offer of buy now and
get 20% off PLUS one free! This actually works as these advertisements come on television with
famous actors endorsing it making these goods a fad in society. A great way of selling what you
can make. But are the customers likely to re-buy these products remain a question.
Marketing Concept
Management philosophy according to which a firm's goals can be best achieved through
identification and satisfaction of the customers stated and unstated needs and wants, better than
their competitors do. Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or
service to customers. It can sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products, but selling is
only a small fraction of marketing. Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and
a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers, and managing
customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its shareholders. The
5. management of marketing is the art of choosing target markets, as well as acquiring and keeping
customers through providing superior customer value. That is why it is called the outside in
concept.
Recently in Bangladesh the trend of marketing has changed. Before launching any new product,
test marketing is done throughout the country. So that they can capture their target market and
accordingly fulfill the needs and wants of the customers. For example, if we consider Aromatic
beauty soap of Aromatic Cosmetics Ltd. When Lux was launched in Bangladesh they were able
to capture the whole market. As a result, the other beauty soap companies were going out of
market. Therefore, the marketing department of Aromatic followed the efficient and effective
marketing technique. That is, they launched their new soap with a slogan, "100% halal," and was
able to regain the market. They followed the outside in concept and conducted a survey. They
did this by preparing a questionnaire for their targeted customers. After the survey was
completed they got a good response from the customers. Thereby, they were confident enough to
launch this new product with the slogan in a large scale. Although they were more successful in
capturing the rural market of Bangladesh which is the majority population, they became a threat
to Lux. To sum up Aromatic beauty soap was successful in following the universal marketing
concept, "Make what you can sell."
Societal Marketing Concept
The societal marketing concept is an enlightened marketing concept that holds that a company
should make good marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants, the company's
requirements, and society's long-term interests. It is closely linked with the principles of
corporate social responsibility and of sustainable development. Thereby they fulfill the
consumers’ long run and society’s long run interest. The societal marketing concept holds that
the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to
deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that
preserves or enhances the consumer's and the society's well-being. Most companies recognize
that socially responsible activities improve their image among customers, stockholders, the
financial community, and other relevant publics. Ethical and socially responsible practices are
simply good business, resulting not only in favorable image, but ultimately in increased sales.
In Bangladesh there are a lot of companies following societal marketing concept. One of the
examples would be Dutch Bangla Bank Limited. It is one of the largest private donors in
Bangladesh exceeding BDT 1.3 billion. There marketing strategy helps to create goodwill of the
company. The bank donates mainly towards social awareness programs, medical and educational
fields. Notably DBBL maintains the largest scholarship program in Bangladesh whereby
college/university education tuition and expenses are fully paid for unconditionally by the bank.
So they maintain a good relationship with their customers and also contribute in the well being of
the society. In addition, they also take care of the needs and wants of the customers by providing
6. ATM booths throughout the country. Moreover, they have a number of loan schemes such as,
household loans, student loans, etc. As a result, they are providing desired satisfaction to all
levels of people.