The Science of Marketing

The Science of Marketing

Marketing defined by Kotler and Armstrong (2004) marketing is "a social

process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want

through creating and exchanging products and value with others".

Marketing is an extensive topic. Primarily when we consider what is

marketing we think about the advertising, publicity and selling of a

product or service. In actual fact the prime concern of marketing is

customers, and the establishment and growth of relationships between

organization's and consumers. It consists of studying the wants and

needs of the customers and how to make the perfect product which is

priced, promoted and distributed in the right place to make it

successful and fulfilling. It is vital for marketers to understand

the wants and needs of consumers to ensure their marketing activities

fulfill these. Initially they have to assert themselves with the fact

that the human being has needs, these include the basic needs such as

food, water, shelter, and clothing, social needs such as belonging and

affection, and then individual needs of knowledge and self-expression. Marketers need to ensure that they always meet these

needs as they are set in our human makeup. A human without these

needs being met will not be satisfied and will not want or demand

other products. Putting this example in place within the tourism

industry, a customer whose hotel does not meet their requirements will

not have their need of shelter sufficiently fulfilled. Humans also

have wants; these are formed by an individual's culture and

personality. Wants tend to be objects (hamburgers) that will fulfill

one of the basic needs (food). Humans choose products that provide

them with the greatest amount of value and satisfaction for their

money. Demands are wants that are backed by buying power. As Kotler

explains "given their wants and resources, people demand products with

the benefits that add up to the most satisfaction".

Marketing affects everybody in their day to day lives. Throughout our

lives we are all consumers who are subjected to marketing activities,

which then have influence on the decisions we make and how we go about

our daily routines. The way products and services are marketed

impacts upon our experience of them, and the satisfaction gained. In

the Travel and Tourism Industry, the experience tends to be

interactive; therefore attractions need a great amount of marketing by

organization's in order to encourage people to believe that their

attraction is the one they should choose to visit. For example in my

personal opinion, I feel that the Science Museum in London tends to

provide better interactive and attractive marketing than that of the

Victoria and Albert Museum. The difference in marketing activities

could be due to the fact of the market segmentation, and that the

Science Museum is marketed at the family segmentation group, whereas

the V&A Museum would tend to be marketed towards the A and B

socio-economic groups, which would consist of middle aged, middle

classed citizens.

Therefore marketing focuses upon finding the relevant customers to

market goods and services at, satisfying customer needs and ensuring

that needs are met which means customer loyalty is met, therefore

customers are retained. Therefore in summary; as said by Rodger

(1971) marketing is the process of "converting consumer spending power

into effective demand for a specific product".

Organizations, especially in the Travel and Tourism Industry must plan

the way in which they are going to go about marketing their good or

service. Planning aids organization's to study their history and make

decisions in relation to altering ways that they carry out their

marketing activities. They can study any external developments that

may have an influential factor on the success on their organization

and act upon their findings. For example in the tourism industry, if

long haul destinations continue to become more and more popular, then

organization's should alter the bulk of their marketing to advertise

exotic long haul destinations as opposed to holidays to destinations

with little glamour such as Turkey and Greece. This planning can also

help and prepare organization's to meet change and adapt to it quickly

so they do not lose the market or money, for example changing the

sort of holiday a tour operator primarily considers as the main market

leader from short haul