Chapter 1
Marketing has 2 facets, first it is a philosophy, an attitude, a perspective, or a management
orientation that stresses customer satisfaction. Second, marketing is an organizational function
and a set of processes used to implement this philosophy.
According to the American Marketing Association’s AMA marketing is the activity, set of
institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that
have value for costumers, clients, partners and society at large.
“Marketing is too important to be left only to the marketing department”
One desired outcome of marketing is an exchange of people giving up something in order to
receive something else they would rather have. An exchange can take place only if the following
5 conditions exist:
1. There must be at least 2 parties
2. Each party has something that might be of value to the other party
3. Each party is capable of communication and delivery.
4. Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer.
5. Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.
Marketing can take place even if an exchange will not take place.
4 competing philosophies strongly influence an organization’s marketing processes. These are:
production, sales, market and societal marketing orientations.
Production orientation
A production orientation is a philosophy that focuses on the internal capabilities of the firm
rather than on the desires and needs of the marketplace. This means that a management will ask
these questions “what can we do best? What can our engineers design? What is easy to produce
given our equipment?”. A production orientation can fall short if it does not consider whether the
goods and services that the firm produces most efficiently also meet the needs of the
marketplace. On the other hand, what firm can best produce is exactly what the market wants.
Sales orientation
A sales orientation is based on the belief that people will buy more goods and services if
aggressive sales techniques are used and that high sales result in high profits. To sales orientated
firms, marketing means selling things and collecting money.
Market orientation
Marketing has 2 facets, first it is a philosophy, an attitude, a perspective, or a management
orientation that stresses customer satisfaction. Second, marketing is an organizational function
and a set of processes used to implement this philosophy.
According to the American Marketing Association’s AMA marketing is the activity, set of
institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that
have value for costumers, clients, partners and society at large.
“Marketing is too important to be left only to the marketing department”
One desired outcome of marketing is an exchange of people giving up something in order to
receive something else they would rather have. An exchange can take place only if the following
5 conditions exist:
1. There must be at least 2 parties
2. Each party has something that might be of value to the other party
3. Each party is capable of communication and delivery.
4. Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer.
5. Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.
Marketing can take place even if an exchange will not take place.
4 competing philosophies strongly influence an organization’s marketing processes. These are:
production, sales, market and societal marketing orientations.
Production orientation
A production orientation is a philosophy that focuses on the internal capabilities of the firm
rather than on the desires and needs of the marketplace. This means that a management will ask
these questions “what can we do best? What can our engineers design? What is easy to produce
given our equipment?”. A production orientation can fall short if it does not consider whether the
goods and services that the firm produces most efficiently also meet the needs of the
marketplace. On the other hand, what firm can best produce is exactly what the market wants.
Sales orientation
A sales orientation is based on the belief that people will buy more goods and services if
aggressive sales techniques are used and that high sales result in high profits. To sales orientated
firms, marketing means selling things and collecting money.
Market orientation
