Fundamental Principles of Marketing: Strategy and Management

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Key Features of Modern Marketing

The definitions above highlight the following features:

  1. Business Process: Marketing is a continuous business process undertaken to earn profit from the buying and selling of goods and services.
  2. Customer-Driven: In this process, goods and services are provided according to customer demand.
  3. Comprehensive Scope: The process is not merely related to buying and selling. It includes all activities required to deliver goods from producers to the end customer.
  4. Satisfaction-Oriented: The marketing process offers satisfaction to customers, which in turn increases the number of customers.
  5. Utility Fulfillment: The marketing process fulfills the following factors:
    • To make goods available when they are required.
    • To provide goods at the place where they are useful.
    • To provide goods to those who require them.
  6. Dual Principles: Modern marketing advocates twin principles: first, to offer satisfaction to the customer, and thereafter, to earn a profit.

Core Characteristics of Marketing

The following are the core characteristics of marketing:

  1. Customer-Centered

    The customer plays the most important role and is treated as the king, who is the basis of marketing. All policies and programs are centered around the customer. Due importance is given to the customer’s likes and dislikes.

  2. Focused on Real Wants

    The concept mainly focuses on the real wants of the customer. The objective is not merely to sell goods and earn a profit. For example, if an organization is engaged in marketing medicines, it primarily focuses on the life and health of customers along with selling medicines. Similarly, cosmetics companies focus on the customer’s beauty.

  3. Objective Achievement and Social Welfare

    The primary objective of marketing is the maximum satisfaction of the customer. Customer satisfaction is the soul of marketing. Every organization considers customer satisfaction while thinking about profit. Organizations trust that if customers are satisfied, it leads to profitability. A satisfied customer is an asset to the organization.

  4. Coordinates Various Functions

    The marketing process is important and is related to various other business functions. Therefore, emphasis is given to coordinating with other business functions, which is one of the objectives of the marketing process. Hence, various functions and departments are taken into consideration when decisions are made. Particularly when long-term decisions are taken, factors like customer satisfaction, sales, and production are considered.

The Importance of Marketing

Marketing plays a crucial role in the modern industrial social setup. Marketing is a base of our life. Food, clothing, shelter, happiness, and health are our main requirements, and we are dependent on marketing for the fulfillment of these requirements. Production and consumption are the pillars of the economy, and it is necessary to maintain continuity and balance between these activities. The following points explain the importance of marketing:

Marketing and Society

In reality, marketing is a social process that plays an important role in social development. This can be clarified with the help of the following points:

  • Improvement in the Standard of Living: Modern society is divided into three classes: rich, middle class, and poor. The standard of living of a society mainly depends on the purchasing power of these classes. A better standard of living requires the fulfillment of various wants, which is possible with the help of marketing.
  • Generates Employment Opportunities: Marketing is an important instrument of employment generation. The process includes various activities such as buying, selling, transport, storage, finance, risk-taking, classification, and standardization. These activities offer numerous job opportunities.
  • Stabilizes the Economy: Marketing helps in stabilizing the economy. Economic growth depends on economic stability, which in turn depends on the balance between production and consumption.
  • Creates Utility: Marketing is an economic activity that creates ownership, place, and time utility in goods and services. Marketing creates demand. Various activities of marketing create utility; for example, the exchange of goods offers ownership utility, while time and place utility are created through warehousing and transportation.

Marketing and Organizations

Various organizations get benefits from marketing in the following ways:

  • Generates Income: Organizational profit depends on its income, while the future of an organization depends on its profit. Organizations can earn profit through various marketing activities. Marketing provides a ‘market’ for goods and services.
  • Aids in Decision Making: A producer manufactures goods and services and has to make major decisions like what to produce, where to produce, and how much to produce. All these decisions directly affect profit.
  • Informs About the Changing Environment: The modern economy is dynamic in nature. There are tremendous and rapid changes in the environment.

Understanding Social Marketing

The marketing mechanism is responsible for providing produced goods to customers and satisfying their needs. Unfortunately, many marketing organizations fail to achieve this objective, which has led to an increase in the number of unsatisfied customers and the rise of consumer movements. No doubt, 100% customer satisfaction is impossible because likes and dislikes are always changing. In spite of this, one should not forget that the customer is the king of the market. While pursuing this important objective, many organizations have neglected social responsibility and health, which has led to the following problems:

  1. Danger of Pollution: Large-scale production is a feature of industrialization that satisfies customers. But the other side of the coin is the problem of pollution, which adversely affects social health.
  2. Wastage of Resources: “Use and throw” is a new mantra accepted by consumers. After use, the product is thrown away or discarded. In other words, this new mantra is nothing but a wastage of resources on one hand and an imbalance in the environment on the other.
  3. Water Pollution: All living creatures mainly depend on rivers for their water requirements. But discharging liquid substances into rivers has created a serious problem of water pollution.
  4. Plastic Pollution: The use of plastic carry bags is very common. After their usage, these bags are thrown away at random, creating a social problem.
  5. Safety Problems: In the process of industrialization, preference is given to family/small cars, which increases the demand for them. However, an increase in the number of vehicles leads to the problem of accidents.

An Introduction to Global Marketing

Global marketing is not a new concept. From ancient times, India has been trading with other countries. But today, due to growth and development in transport and information technology, the economic structure has changed considerably. In July 1991, India adopted liberalization, privatization, and globalization as its new economic policy. Apart from this, on January 1, 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established on democratic principles. There are 132 members, and India is one of them. The WTO has given speed to the process of globalization. The following changes have occurred:

  1. From a trading point of view, national boundaries have diminished.
  2. Import-export restrictions have been relaxed.
  3. Capital and developed techniques have been liberalized.
  4. Import duty on foreign goods has been reduced.

Five Aspects of the Marketing Environment

  1. Demographic Aspect

    This concept includes:

    • Size of population, rate of increase in population, age composition, sex composition.
    • Size of family.
    • Economic level of the population.
    • Level of education.
    • Caste, religion, etc.

  2. Economic Aspect

    Population doesn’t necessarily mean a market; with an increase in population, there is no surety that the demand for goods and services will increase. A customer’s desire and their purchasing power are two important factors that facilitate demand. The economic condition is one of the major aspects of the environment that affects marketing strategy. The economic aspect includes the following:

    • Economic policies related to industries, trade, financial support, agriculture, tax, transport, income, prices, etc.
    • Trade cycles, trade deficits, and important economic events at national and international levels such as booms, inflation, droughts, heavy rains, etc.
    • Organizational problems in the economy.
    • Rules and regulations framed by the central government, state government, and municipal corporations.

  3. Competitive Aspect

    Competition is treated as the soul of the modern economy. Improvement in the quality of goods, the introduction of new products, and momentum to the economy are the advantages of competition. But cut-throat competition is dangerous to producers and customers. It is necessary to frame marketing policies according to the competitive aspect. A business has to consider:

    • The number of competitors and their products.
    • The price of products fixed by competitors.
    • The distribution chain of competitors.
    • Marketing strategy for sales promotion.

  4. Social and Cultural Aspect

    Business and society are inseparable. Social and cultural aspects affect the standard of living; the needs and wants of human beings depend on it. The social and cultural aspect includes the following:

    • Classification of society, its numbers, rural and urban population, etc.
    • Social values and morals.
    • Social institutions, their structure, and problems.
    • The cultural traditions of society.
    • Customs and religious beliefs.
    • Social, cultural, and religious organizations.

  5. Legal and Political Aspect

    The success of a business mainly depends on the political environment. A businessperson can conduct their business successfully in a stable political environment but has to face a number of problems if the political environment is unfavorable. The reasons for instability include civil war, terrorism, emergencies, administrative structural changes, etc.

Functions of Marketing Management

It is the responsibility of marketing management to work towards the achievement of objectives. For a favorable environment, it is required to balance market-related activities. For this, the acceptance of an effective direction system is needed. The following are the functions of marketing management:

  1. Market Opportunities Assessment: It is an important function of marketing management to research the market. A changing environment offers various opportunities to market goods and services. All markets do not have similar opportunities. Nature, scope, customer demand, and situations differ from market to market. Hence, it is required to search for which market has an opportunity to sell. This may seem easy, but the scope of this function is wide. The performance of this function affects the budget, research, production of new products, investment, and profit planning.
  2. Planning Marketing Functions: Planning is an inseparable element of marketing management. This function mainly depends on market opportunity. Customers prefer a regular supply of good quality goods and services at a reasonable price. For this, marketing planning is needed. This function includes understanding the needs of customers, considering available resources, making organizational decisions, implementing decisions, and gathering feedback.
  3. Marketing Organization: A marketing organization is required to implement any new scheme effectively, to introduce a new product, and to enter national and international markets. In simple words, a marketing organization is inevitable for facing marketing challenges.
  4. Motivation: Marketing organizations have objectives, and marketing management helps to achieve them. Marketing management must perform functions that include delegating duties and responsibilities, instructing, understanding problems, helping in solving problems, supervising, and controlling.
  5. Evaluation and Control: This is the most important function of marketing management. It is of utmost importance to evaluate the performance of the marketing function for the achievement of objectives and to maximize profit. The following are the phases in evaluation and control:
    • To determine standards.
    • To compare the actual performance with predetermined standards.
    • To find out the difference between the actual work and the standards set.

Why Marketing Planning is Crucial

Marketing planning plays an important role. There is keen competition in the market, and every producer tries to attract more and more customers for their products and services. Consequently, on one hand, expenditure on advertisement and sales has increased, and on the other, profit has reduced. In such a situation, it is advisable to develop an action plan for the fulfillment of objectives. There is no alternative to planning for achieving objectives and offering satisfaction to customers. Hence, planning is treated as an important part of marketing. The importance of marketing planning is clear from the following:

  1. Marketing planning raises the effectiveness of the marketing process and enhances productivity and profit.
  2. It is possible to achieve objectives at a minimum cost of production because marketing planning enables the coordination of available resources with marketing opportunities.
  3. Through marketing planning, it is possible to implement an effective communication system that develops internal coordination for effective decision-making.
  4. Marketing planning gives an idea about probable risks and uncertainty in anticipation. It is possible to find long-term and short-term solutions, thereby minimizing future risks and uncertainty.
  5. Marketing planning helps new producers entering the market.

Selecting the Right Marketing Strategy

It is necessary to select one of the three strategies mentioned above. It is obvious that the strategy should be profitable. The selection of a profitable strategy is affected by the following:

  1. Available Resources: The economic resources available to a business organization affect its marketing strategy. A business organization with a huge amount of economic resources can select a strong or penetrative strategy. If economic resources are limited, the organization can select a centralized strategy.
  2. Product Homogeneity: Some products are similar, and customers feel that these products are homogeneous, e.g., salt, grapes, steel, etc. For such products, a strong strategy is appropriate. On the other hand, for goods that are not homogeneous, where changes are possible, a penetrative or centralized strategy is advisable, e.g., cameras, cars, radios, etc.
  3. Product Lifecycle: Efforts are undertaken to attract customers for newly introduced goods and services. At this stage, a strong strategy is more useful. An organization can also select a centralized strategy.

Objectives of Marketing Planning

The following are the various objectives of marketing planning:

  1. To Coordinate Functions of Various Departments: In the modern age, the scope of business has become comprehensive and more complicated. Businesses that are successful in coordinating the various functions of their departments have proven successful. Planning is an important instrument for interdepartmental coordination. In fact, to balance all departmental functions is an objective of marketing planning.
  2. To Help Production Planning: In the modern age of competition, the customer is the king of the market and a dominating factor. In the past, the marketing department was concerned with marketing goods produced by the production department. Today, its responsibility has increased.
  3. To Help Financial Planning: Financial planning is mainly based on information. The marketing department provides this information to the financial department. This information includes sales turnover, income from sales, expenditure on employee salaries, raw material requirements for products, etc.
  4. To Help the Decision Process: An organization has to make various decisions. Environmental awareness is important for decision-making. It is the responsibility of the marketing department to make decisions related to marketing. Generally, the marketing planning department makes the following three important decisions:
    • What to produce?
    • Which market to capture and how much to supply?
    • Which measures are to be undertaken for balancing production and demand for goods?
  5. To Accelerate the Delegation of Authority: Once the plans are prepared, it is easy to delegate authority and responsibility. Marketing planning gives an idea about to whom, which, and how many powers should be delegated. Powers and authority are important to deal with emergencies, which is possible due to marketing planning.

Common Problems in Marketing Planning

Marketing planning is a part of comprehensive business planning. The marketing process is a structural process in which decisions for the future are taken after studying the past and present environment. The progress of any business organization mainly depends on its marketing plans. Hence, planners should know the problems involved. The following are problems in marketing planning:

  1. Lack of Accuracy: Marketing planning is based on collected data and information, which should be reliable. It is difficult to collect such correct and reliable data. Similarly, market conditions are always changing. Therefore, planning done on inaccurate information lacks accuracy.
  2. Uncertainty of External Factors: External as well as internal factors affect marketing planning. Internal factors are within the control of the organization. If there is opposition, there is a solution. But external factors are uncontrollable. These factors include social, cultural, political, geographical, and technological factors. Changes in these factors create problems in planning.
  3. Lack of Motivation and Enthusiasm: The success of planning depends on the cooperation of officers. A lack of motivation and enthusiasm among officers creates problems in marketing planning. It is necessary that there should be cordial relations and coordination among the officers, which requires motivation. But a lack of motivation, leadership, and initiative creates problems.
  4. Overburden on Officers: Officers from the marketing department are responsible for various duties and responsibilities and have to face many problems. If their regular workload is too high, it is impossible for them to shoulder the responsibility of planning. Generally, an excessive number of employees and improper delegation of duties are the causes due to which they are unable to concentrate on planning.
  5. Planning Expenditure: Proper planning offers various benefits and advantages to a business organization. Planning is the sum total of the consumption of time, money, and energy. A large-scale business can afford the cost of planning. Similarly, the benefits from planning are not instant; it requires patience. Sometimes, planning gets neglected due to its cost factor.

Advantages of Market Segmentation

Producers and customers are benefited in the following ways:

  1. Proper Utilization of Resources: Market segmentation on an appropriate principle enables an organization to utilize available resources optimally. It also enables the effective implementation of sales promotion plans. Establishing a balance between various resources is possible. The producer receives an instant and good response from customers for efforts undertaken for sales promotion.
  2. Awareness about Competition: Segmentation develops awareness about competitors and their capacity. It is advisable not to spend on a large scale for advertisement and publicity if competitors have captured the market strongly. On the other hand, the market can be captured by effective and strong advertisement and marketing strategy.
  3. Awareness about Change in Demand: Segmentation restricts the size of the market, making concentration on the market possible. Changes in demand can be easily identified, and essential steps can be undertaken to adapt to the changing environment.
  4. Effective Marketing Program: A marketing program is implemented for fulfilling the needs of customers. Essential and required information can be obtained due to segmentation. Because of this, it is possible to implement a marketing program effectively. The program includes present and future needs.
  5. Search for Market Opportunities: The process of market segmentation offers the latest information about market opportunities. A producer can decide about the appropriate market for their product and can make efforts to capture the market. All these lead to an increase in sales and thereby an increase in profit.

Functions of a Sales Promotion Department

The main function of this department is to fill the gap between marketing and personal selling.

According to William Stanton, “The main function of the sales promotion department is to coordinate the activities of advertising and personal selling, so that the efforts would be complementary to each other and properly coordinated.”

Today, the functions of the sales promotion department are very important and have a broader aspect. Following are some of the important functions:

  • Institutional Functions: This includes the company’s product work and efforts by the salesman.
  • Coordinating Functions: This includes many activities such as coordination among departments, communication with the sales department, and relations with the advertising and production sections.
  • Merchandising Functions: This includes activities related to commerce and trade, competitions, exhibitions, etc.
  • Publicity Functions: This includes activities such as advertising, mail, telegrams, outdoor advertising, mass communication, meetings, exhibitions, conferences, etc.
  • Educational Functions: This includes activities such as correspondence, animation, research, and analysis.
  • Marketing Functions: This includes functions of retailers, storage of goods in small quantities, wholesalers, distributors, sales exhibitions, decorations, future businessmen, and middlemen.

The Need for Marketing Services

In today’s world of a free economy, the significance of services is increasing. It is seen that there is a continuous increase in the marketing of services in both developed and developing countries.

It is seen that developed countries are making progress by utilizing maximum prevailing conditions as compared to developing countries. In developing countries, there is a gradual, favorable growth of the service industry.

The following are the reasons for this development:

  1. Tremendous Increase in Income: Due to industrialization, there is an increase in national income, which results in an increase in per capita income. The expenditure power and savings of people are increasing. A major part of income is spent on amusement, entertainment, and enjoyment of available facilities. People are attracted to the service industry because of advertisement and other marketing techniques, which leads to the development of this industry.
  2. Improvement in Specialization: Nowadays, human life is becoming more advanced and artificial due to economic changes. In developed countries, one can see a peak of specialization. Due to specialization, there is a tremendous increase in the number of experts. Any problem is diagnosed and solved with the help of experts.
  3. Changes in Likes and Dislikes: There is a change in the lifestyle and standard of living of people because of the influence of Western culture, liberalization, and globalization.
  4. Importance of Business-Oriented Education: Due to globalization, all countries are coming closer to each other. International tourists, foreigners, and government officials constantly travel from one country to another. So, in every country, services of the hotel industry, business, banking, insurance, internet, and e-mail are becoming very popular and essential. For this reason, there arises a need to establish institutes that provide business-oriented education. Nowadays, these institutes are established and are providing education. All this leads to the development of the service industry. Because of the commercialization of services, there is an increase in competition, and now various services are available that use modern marketing techniques.
  5. Modernization of Marketing: The modernization of the market results in the development of the service industry. Modernization results in the improvement of the quality of services, improvement in distribution services, reduction in cost, and availability of products to consumers at reasonable prices.

A List of Important Services

  • Consumption: Electricity and water supply.
  • Law, Administration, and Defense: Police, army, navy, air force, municipal services, urban administration, law.
  • Transport: Railway (passengers and cargo) transport, air transport, water transport, postal and mail services, telegraph, television, radio, etc.
  • Distribution: Retail and wholesale distribution, distributors, agents, middlemen.
  • Insurance, Finance, Banking Services: Insurance companies and agents, brokers, banking, etc.
  • Business, Scientific Study, Trade: Advertising, market survey and research, medical advice, legal advice, educational research and experts, repairs and maintenance, computer programs, employment exchange, etc.
  • Entertainment and Leisure: Cinema, dramas, clubs, health centers, auditoriums, restaurants, hotels, video games, casinos, personality development programs, etc.
  • Other Services: Beauty parlors, rehabilitation centers, home delivery services, dry cleaning, children’s homes, and other services.

Objectives of Marketing Research

The objectives of marketing research can be discussed below:

  1. To Assess the Probable Market for Collecting Information: It is necessary for every industrialist to collect updated information relating to the marketplace, field of market, and structure and situation in the market. The marketplace, field of market, and structure and situation in the market have an influence on sales and the cost of goods sold. The structure of the market is continuously changing.
  2. To Estimate Potential Consumers (Buying Power): Marketing research is a vehicle by which an industrialist can obtain information about present and potential customers, their locality, needs, income criteria, likes and dislikes, habits, and standard of living.
  3. Invention of New Markets: Nowadays, production is done on a large basis. The main responsibility of a sales manager is to sell the produced goods.
  4. To Study Consumer Psychology: Every industrialist is interested in feedback from customers (matters of post-launch products) such as merits, quality, value (price), design, packing, etc.
  5. To Assess Efficient/Effective Distribution Methods: The appropriate ways through which goods are made available to the markets is called the distribution function.

Limitations of Marketing Research

Marketing research does not solve all marketing problems. Whether the collected information is true, sufficient, and beneficial to the manager basically depends on components like the available time for research, adequacy of money, precautions of the researcher, and their point of view. Many times, the objective of marketing research is not served. It suffers from the following weaknesses:

  1. Time-Consuming: Many research projects involve a huge expenditure of time in the collection and analysis of data. Time cannot always be afforded by the researcher as required. One cannot expect perfect work in less time.
  2. Limitation Relating to Money: The efficiency and depth of marketing research depend on the availability of money. Marketing research is an expensive task. Many managers treat marketing research as a non-productive task. Therefore, small business firms may not be able to afford marketing research.
  3. Lack of Precautions: The precautions taken by a researcher influence each level of the research function. Every researcher has a different type of knowledge and experience. A researcher gives preference to their experience at the time of analyzing any situation. On that basis, the diagnosis of each problem can be possible. Therefore, reports on one particular problem made by different researchers may be different.
  4. Lack of Perfection/Accuracy: Marketing research is a study of human behavior; therefore, it cannot be 100% accurate.
  5. Capacity/Ability of the Researcher: The success of research mainly depends on the efforts of the researcher. If the researcher is knowledgeable, intelligent, and experienced, then the conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions provided by them are factual. Otherwise, the suggestions and conclusions of an inexperienced researcher may not be factual.

The Importance of Marketing Control

Any marketing management that is sensitive to market needs gets benefits from a system of marketing control. The following points can elaborate on the importance of marketing control:

  1. Protection from Financial Damages/Hazards: With the help of marketing control, a businessman/manufacturer will become aware of deviations in marketing efforts. If these deficiencies are not resolved, they tend to cause financial damage in the future. Hence, there is a need to remove these deficiencies from time to time. Due to marketing control, the manufacturer will understand the deficiencies and reformulate plans to remove them.
  2. Coordination Between Programs of Different Departments: With the help of marketing control, a manager will come to know the pattern/nature of sales of production. With this help, they will make proper changes in other departments. Therefore, in this way, marketing control helps to provide existing information to other departments.
  3. Helps Management in Detecting Deviations: A well-designed marketing control system helps management in identifying deviations. It monitors favorable or unfavorable variations and addresses the mechanism in time. Thus, it keeps the implementation of the plan on the planned program.
  4. Assessment of Responsibility: Through marketing control, the responsibility for failure will be assessed, and favorable efforts will be taken to remove deviations in related work, e.g., providing adequate training to staff, providing guidance to them in their work, etc.
  5. Helps in Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses of Staff: A marketing control system helps management in locating the responsibility for any kind of marketing failure. The marketing result is the outcome of the interaction of various components and forces of the marketing mix, and hence, locating responsibility at a particular point becomes essential.