‘The marketing philosophy should be instilled throughout the organisation’. Discuss this statement and it’s implications with reference to an organisation of your choice.

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‘The marketing philosophy should be instilled throughout the organisation’. Discuss this statement and it’s implications with reference to an organisation of your choice.

Introduction

What Is The Marketing Philosophy

Kotler (1994) communicates four business philosophies also referred to as orientations towards the marketplace. Firstly the production philosophy states that consumers will purchase those products, which are available in the greatest quantity and at the least possible cost to them. Secondly the product philosophy states that consumers will prefer goods that are superior to others in quality or features. Thirdly the selling philosophy shifts the emphasis from the product to aggressive selling and promotions. Closing the sale is the goal of the organisation.

Fourthly and finally, the marketing philosophy rejects the notion that the most central factor in business philosophy is either the production capability or aggressive sales. Instead, this philosophy focuses on the needs and wants, both present and future, of potential customers. Kotler (1994) offers further clarification:

“Selling, focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer”.

Marketing orientation is more than simply ‘getting closer to the consumer’. An organisation can be market orientated only if it completely understands the market.

Marketing has two aspects. First, it is a philosophy, an approach, a viewpoint or a management orientation that relates to customer satisfaction. Second, marketing is a set of activities used to implement this philosophy.

The American Marketing Association’s definition includes both of these viewpoints, as does the following definition from Kotler that continues to highlight marketing as a philosophy of business:

 “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals”. The American Marketing Association.

“Marketing is getting the right goods and services to the right people at the right place at the right time at the right price with the right communication and promotion”. Kotler.

A company that is a prime example of an organisation that takes a marketing orientated view of its business is EasyJet.

EasyJet is one of Europe’s leading low-cost airlines. Since it’s first flight in November 1995, the airline has grown from a Luton base, offering two routes from Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh, served by two Boeing 737 aircraft, to an airline offering thirty-six routes from sixteen European destinations and flying twenty-five 737 series aircrafts.

The marketing concept is a philosophy of doing business, which puts the customers’ needs at the centre of the organisation. The heart of the marketing philosophy is that the wants and needs of the consumer form the basis for all activates of the business firm. The satisfaction of these wants and needs provides the rationale for the firm’s existence, and the degree to which they are satisfied provides information as to the efficiency of the way in which the firm is managed.


The concept of EasyJet is to keep costs low by eliminating the unnecessary costs and ‘frills’, which characterise ‘traditional’ airlines. They achieve this in a number of ways, namely:

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  • The use of the Internet to reduce distribution costs. EasyJet operates under the branding of the ‘web’s favourite airline’, based on the fact that EasyJet sells a higher proportion of seats online, through EasyJet.com, than any other airline. EasyJet was one of the first airlines to embrace the opportunity of the Internet when it sold it’s first seat online in April 1998. In August 2001 approximately 89% of all seats were sold over the Internet, making EasyJet one of the UK’s biggest Internet retailers.
  • Direct sell only. EasyJet only sells tickets over the Internet, through the telephone sales ...

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