Marketing environment: Internal and External

The company’s marketing environment consists of micro environment and macro environment. The micro environment consists of the actors in the company’s immediate environment that affects its ability to serve the markets: the company, suppliers, market intermediaries, customers, competitors and publics. The macro environment consists of the larger societal forces that affect all of the actors in the company’s micro environment the demographic, economic, physical, technological, political, legal and socio-cultural forces.

MICRO ENVIRONMENT

Every company’s primary goal is to serve and satisfy a specified set of needs of a chosen target market. To carry out this task, the company links itself with a set of suppliers and a set of marketing intermediaries to reach its target customers. The suppliers – company – marketing intermediaries – customers chain comprises the core marketing system of the company. The company’s success will be affected by two additional groups namely, a set of competitors and a set of publics. Company management has to watch and plan for all these factors.

SUPPLIERS

Suppliers are business firms who provide the needed resource to the company and its competitors to produce the particular goods and services. For example Bakery Desotta must obtain sugar, wheat, cellophane paper and other materials to produce and package its breads. Labour, equipment, fuel electricity and other factors of production are also to be obtained. Now the company must decide whether to purchase or make its own. When the company decides to buy some of the inputs, it must make certain specification call for tender etc. and then it segregates the list of suppliers. Usually company choose the suppliers who offer the best mix of quality, delivery schedule credit, guarantee and low cost.

Any sudden change in the ‘suppliers’ environment will have a substance impact on the company’s marketing operations. Sometimes some of the inputs to the company might cost more and hence managers have continuously monitored the fluctuations in the suppliers side. Marketing manager is equally concerned with supply availability. Sudden supply shortage labour strikes and other events can interfere with the fulfillment of delivery promise customers and lose sales in the short run and damage customer goodwill in long run. Hence many companies prefer to buy from multiple sources to avoid overdependence on any one supplier. Some times even for the appendage services to marketing like marketing research, advertising, sales training etc. the company use service from outside. This dependency may also create some bottlenecks, at times, due to the behaviour of these agencies and consequently affect the marketing operations of the company.

COMPANY

Marketing management at any organisation, while formulating marketing plans have to take into consideration other groups in the company, such as top management, finance, R&D, purchasing, manufacturing and accounting. Finance department has to be consulted for the funds available for carrying out the marketing plan apart from others. R&D has to be continuously doing new product development. Manufacturing has to be coordinated based on the market demand and supply of the products. According has to measure revenues and costs to help marketing in achieving its objectives. Usually marketing department has to face the bottlenecks put up by the sister departments while designing and implementing their marketing plans.

MARKETING INTERMEDIARIES

Channel members are the vanguard of the marketing implementation part. They are the people who connect the company with the customers. There are number of middle men who operate in this cycle. Agent middle men like brokers and agents find customers and establish contacts, merchant middlemen are the wholesalers, retailers, who take title to and resell the merchandise. Apart from these channel members, there are physical distribution firms who assist in stocking and moving goods from the original locations to their destinations. Warehouse firms store and protect goods before they move to the next destinations. There are number of transporting firms consists of rail, road, truckers, ship, airline etc. that mover goods from one location to another. Every company has to decide on the most cost – effective means of transport considering the costs, delivery, safety and speed. There are financial intermediaries like banks, insurance companies, who support the company by providing finance insurance cover etc.

The behaviour and performance of all these intermediaries will affect the marketing operations of the company and the marketing executives have to prudently deal with them.

COMPETITORS

If one company plans a marketing strategy at one side, there are number of other companies in the same industry doing such other calculations. Coke has competitors in Pepsi. Maruti has competitions from Tata Indica, Santro etc. Not only that the competition comes from the branded segment but also from the generic market, where there are only few branded products of rice but there are numerous generic variety of rice according to the local tastes in each region the country. Sometimes competition comes from different forms. Airlines have to

overcome competitions not only from the other Airlines but also from Railways and Ships. Basically every company has to identify the competitor, monitor their activities and capture their moves and maintain customer loyalty. Hence every company comes out with their own marketing strategies.

PUBLICS

A public can facilitate or seriously affect the functioning of the company, Philip Kotler defines public as any group that has an actual or potential interest or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives. Kotler notes that there are different types of publics, Government publics, citizen action publics, local publics, general public and internal publics. Since, the success of the company will be affected by how various publics view their activity, the companies have to monitor these publics, anticipate their moves dealing with them in constructive ways.

CUSTOMERS

Customers are the fulcrum around whom the marketing activities of the organisation revolve. The marketer has to face the following types of customers.

• Customer Markets: Markets for personal consumption.
• Industrial Markets: Goods and services that could become the part of a product in those industry.
• Institutional Buyers: Institutions like schools, hospital, which buy in bulk.
• Reseller Markets: The organizations buy goods for reselling their products.
• Government Markets: They purchase the products to provide public services.
• International Markets: Consists of Foreign buyers and Governments.

MACRO ENVIRONMENT

Macro environment consists of six major forces viz, demographic, economic, physical, technological, political/ legal and socio-cultural. The trends in each macro environment components and their implications on marketing are discussed below:

DEMOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT

Demography is the study of human population in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, occupation etc. The demographic environment is of major interest to marketers because it involves people the people make up markets.

The world population and the Indian population in particular is growing at an explosive rate. This has major implications for business. A growing population means growing human needs. Depending onpurchasing powers, it may also mean growing market opportunities. On the other hand, decline in population is a threat so some industrial and the boon to others. The marketing executives of toy-making industry spend a lot of energy and efforts and developed fashionable toys, and even advertise “Babies are our business-our only business”, but quietly dropped this slogan when children population gone down due to declining birth rate and later shifted their business to life insurance for old people and changed their advertisement slogan as “the company has not babies the over 50s”.

The increased divorce rate shall also have the impact on marketing decisions. The higher divorce rate results in additional housing units, furniture, appliances and other house-hold appliances. Similarly, when spouses work at two different places, that also results in additional requirement for housing, furniture, better clothing, and so on. Thus, marketers keep close tract of demographic trends developments in their markets and accordingly evolve a suitable marketing programme.

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

Markets require purchasing power as well as people. Total purchasing power is functions of current income, prices, savings and credit availability. Marketers should be aware of four main trends in the economic environment.

(i) Decrease in Real Income Growth

Although money incomer per capita keeps raising, real income per capita has decreased due to higher inflation rate exceeding the money income growth rate, unemployment rate and increase in the tax burden.

These developments had reduced disposable personal income; which is the amount people have left after taxes. Further, many people have found their discretionary income reduced after meeting the expenditure for necessaries. Availability of discretionary income shall have the impact on purchasing behaviour of the people.

(ii)Continued Inflationary Pressure

The continued inflationary pressure brought about a substantial increase in the prices of several commodities. Inflation leads consumers to research for opportunities to save money, including buying cheaper brands, economy sizes, etc.

(iii) Low Savings and High Debt

Consumer expenditures are also affected by consumers savings and debt patterns. The level of savings and borrowings among consumers affect the marketing. When marketers make available high consumer credit, it increases market opportunities.

(iv) Changing Consumer Expenditure Patterns

Consumption expenditure patters in major goods and services categories have been changing over the years. For instance, when family income rises, the percentage spent on food declines, the percentage spent on housing and house hold operations remain constant, and the percentage spent on other categories such as transportation and education increase.

These changing consumer expenditure patterns has an impact on marketing and the marketing executives need to know such changes in economic environment for their marketing decisions.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT OR NATURAL Environment

There are certain finite renewable resources such as wood and other forest materials which are now dearth in certain parts of world.

Similarly there are finite non-renewable resources like oil coal and various minerals, which are also not short in supply. In such cases, the marketers have to find out some alternative resources. For instance, the marketers of wooden chairs, due to shortage and high cost of wood shifted to steel and later on fiber chairs. Similarly scientists all over the world are constantly trying to find out alternative sources of energy for oil due to dearth in supply.

There has been increase in the pollution levels in the country due to certain chemicals. In Mumbai-Surat-Ahemedabed area, are facing increased pollution due to the presence of different industries. Marketers should be aware of the threats and opportunities associated with the physical environment and have to find our alternative sources of physical resources.

SOCIO CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

The socio-cultural environment comprises of the basic beliefs, values and norms which shapes the people. Some of the main cultural characteristics and trends which are of interest to the marketers are:

(i) Core Cultural Values

People in a given society hold many core beliefs and values, that will tend to persist. People’s secondary beliefs and values are more open to change. Marketers have more chances of changing secondary values but little chance of changing core values.

(ii)Each Culture Consists of Sub-Cultures

Each society contains sub-cultures, i.e. groups of people with shared value systems emerging out of their common life experiences, beliefs, preferences and behaviors. To the extent that sub-cultural groups exhibit different wants and consumption behaviour, marketers can choose sub-cultures as their target markets.

Secondary cultural values undergo changes over time. For example ‘video-games’, ‘playboy magazines’ and other cultural phenomena have a major impact on children hobbies, clothing and life goals. Marketers have a keen interest in anticipating cultural shifts in order to identify new marketing opportunities and threats.

TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

Technology advancement has benefited the society and also caused damages. Open heart surgery, satellites all were marvels of technology, but hydrogen bomb was on the bitter side of technology. Technology is accelerating at a pace the many products seen yester-years have become obsolete now. Alvin Toffler in his book ‘The Future Shock’ has made a remark on the accelerative thrust in the invention, exploitation and diffusion of new technologies. There could be a new range of products and systems due to the innovations in technology.

This technology developments has tremendous impact on marketing and unless the marketing manager cope up with this development be cannot survive in the competitive market.

POLITICAL AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT

Marketing decisions are highly affected by changes in the political/ legal environment. The environment is made up of laws and government agencies that influence and constraint various organizations and individuals in society.

Legislations affecting business has steadily increased over the years. The product the consumes and the society against unethical business behaviour and regulates the functioning of the business organizations. Removal of restrictions to the existing capabilities, enlargement of the spheres open to MRTP and FEMA companies and broad banding of industrial licenses were some of the schemes evolved by the government. The legal enactments and rules and regulations exercise a specific impact on the marketing practices, systems and institutions in the country. Some of the acts which have direct bearing on the marketing of the company include, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (1954), The Drugs and Cosmetics Act (1940), The Standard Weights and Measures Act (1956) etc. The Packaged Commodities (Regulative) Order (1975) provides for clearly making the prices on all packaged goods sold in retail excluding certain items.

Similarly, when the government changes, the policy relating to commerce, trade, economy and finance also changes resulting in changes in business. Very often it becomes a political decisions. For instance, one Government introduce prohibition, and another government lifts the prohibition. Also, one Government adopts restrictive policy and another Government adopts liberal economic policies. All these will have impact on business.

Hence, the marketing executives needs a good working knowledge of the major laws affecting business and have to adapt themselves to changing legal and political decisions.

All the above micro environmental actors and macro environmental forces affect the marketing systems individually and collectively. The marketing executives need to understand the opportunities and threats caused by these forces and accordingly they must be able to evolve appropriate marketing strategies.

products - product life cycle

Businesses should manage their products carefully over time to ensure that they deliver products that continue to meet customer wants. The process of managing groups of brands and product lines is called portfolio planning.

The stages through which individual products develop over time is called commonly known as the "Product Life Cycle".

The classic product life cycle has four stages (illustrated in the diagram below): introduction; growth; maturity and decline

Introduction Stage

At the Introduction (or development) Stage market size and growth is slight. it is possible that substantial research and development costs have been incurred in getting the product to this stage. In addition, marketing costs may be high in order to test the market, undergo launch promotion and set up distribution channels. It is highly unlikely that companies will make profits on products at the Introduction Stage. Products at this stage have to be carefully monitored to ensure that they start to grow. Otherwise, the best option may be to withdraw or end the product.

Growth Stage

The Growth Stage is characterised by rapid growth in sales and profits. Profits arise due to an increase in output (economies of scale)and possibly better prices. At this stage, it is cheaper for businesses to invest in increasing their market share as well as enjoying the overall growth of the market. Accordingly, significant promotional resources are traditionally invested in products that are firmly in the Growth Stage.

Maturity Stage

The Maturity Stage is, perhaps, the most common stage for all markets. it is in this stage that competition is most intense as companies fight to maintain their market share. Here, both marketing and finance become key activities. Marketing spend has to be monitored carefully, since any significant moves are likely to be copied by competitors. The Maturity Stage is the time when most profit is earned by the market as a whole. Any expenditure on research and development is likely to be restricted to product modification and improvement and perhaps to improve production efficiency and quality.

Decline Stage

In the Decline Stage, the market is shrinking, reducing the overall amount of profit that can be shared amongst the remaining competitors. At this stage, great care has to be taken to manage the product carefully. It may be possible to take out some production cost, to transfer production to a cheaper facility, sell the product into other, cheaper markets. Care should be taken to control the amount of stocks of the product. Ultimately, depending on whether the product remains profitable, a company may decide to end the product.

Examples

Set out below are some suggested examples of products that are currently at different stages of the product life-cycle:

INTRODUCTION	GROWTH	MATURITY	DECLINE
Third generation mobile phones	Portable DVD Players	Personal Computers	Typewriters
E-conferencing	Email	Faxes	Handwritten letters
All-in-one racing skin-suits	Breathable synthetic fabrics	Cotton t-shirts	Shell Suits
iris-based personal identity cards	Smart cards	Credit cards	Cheques books

What is global marketing?

Global marketing is expansive, extensive, and complex. It can be seen as both a business strategy and an operation, as a force for good and/or as the ‘new imperialism’. It can be embodied in companies or perceived as a phenomenon (e.g. business globalization, the internet, etc.). One view of global marketing is as a giant supply chain management system or an added value system. Global giants such as Toyota (www.toyota.com), VW (www.vw.com) and DaimlerChrysler (www.daimlerchrysler.com) source their raw materials, semi-processed and processed materials, finance and human inputs from all over the world and deliver the results of the combination of these, i.e. vehicles, to numerous market segments, adding value as they do so.

Defining terms in the global marketing arena is a complex issue. Marketing across political and cultural boundaries raises many questions, problems, and juxtapositions, rendering precise definitions difficult. Typical issues centre on the standardization–adaptation argument; locus of control—central or devolved; and when exactly a multinational corporation focus becomes a global one. How does global marketing differ from domestic and international marketing? While there are no universal definitions, the following are those that we suggest for use throughout this text.

Domestic marketing

The focus of domestic marketing is primarily marketing carried out within a defined national or geographic boundary where the marketer is relatively free to plan, implement, and control marketing plans, including decisions on the marketing mix (i.e. the ‘controllables’), within a relatively known and easily researchable marketing environment (i.e. the ‘uncontrollables’). Over time, the marketer learns to anticipate the needs and wants of his/her market. There is little need to attend to the demands of the across-boundary markets, other than to monitor and meet the threat of imports. Focus and control are firmly on the domestic market.

International marketing

International marketing takes place when the marketer explores markets outside the national boundaries of the domestic market. This often begins with direct or indirect exporting to a neighbouring country. The focus is to find markets which have needs similar to those in the domestic market and can be satisfied with similar products and services. Typical of these are standard product parts and computers. While the marketing environment may be different and some adjustment may have to be made to the marketing mix elements, exporting in economic terms is basically the movement of surplus production overseas. Once again, planning, implementation, and control of the marketing mix are based in the exporting organization. When organizations begin operating across a number of national/political boundaries, they need a more cohesive and constructive approach to their engagement with their international markets. As they progress in their internationalization, organizations would increasingly recognize the importance of accounting for country-to-country differences in their international marketing planning decisions. Because they value these differences, there is the recognition that there are many distinct marketing systems, leading to the notion that international marketing can be viewed as ‘a collection of more or less coordinated domestic marketings’ (Perry, 1999: 45). In this sense, the characteristics of international operations are the differing effects of, and the emphases on, the uncontrollable marketing elements and hence the need for differing marketing mixes to address those differences.

However, international operators may wish to minimize the effect of these differences by operating a standardized marketing mix policy by appealing to global market segments. The emphasis may still be on central production, planning, implementation, and control, with deference paid to different market conditions. When organizations begin to produce in different countries and market according to the demands of local or regional markets, with the resultant devolution of production, planning, implementation, and control (‘think global, act local’), then they are evolving into a ‘multinational’. Despite this devolution, most multinationals have a corporate base from which to operate through a network of subsidiaries. The media company BSkyB (www.sky.com) is a typical example.

Global marketing

The concept of global marketing begins with the notion that the world has no centre. The ‘borderless’ global marketplace encompasses the participation of all countries—not only the industrialized and the newly industrialized nations, but also the emergent economies such as China and India—in international competition. This new ‘market internationalism’ is coupled with more integrative global structures, including free trade areas, common markets, and multilateral agreements (e.g. World Trade Organization) which link international markets more closely, even though protectionism and conflicts coexists with it. It rests upon ‘the dynamic premise that consumer preferences can be, and are, constantly being reshaped by common exogenous (rather than endogenous) forces, resulting in the convergence of many consumers’ wants and desires’ (Perry, 1999: 48). The growing availability and spread of communication and transportation technologies are making consumers more homogeneous and foreign markets more accessible. National borders are no longer effective barriers against external influences. For instance, the internet has made it possible for foreign companies to get around local advertising restrictions. Global marketing organizations would strive exclusively to ‘maximize standardization, homogenization, similarity, concentration, dependence, synchronization, and integration of marketing activities across markets’ (Svenssen, 2002: 581).

On the other hand, the truly global marketing organizations would also have an enlightened recognition that global consumers differ in their consumption behaviour from culture to culture. Markets are about people, not products. There may be global products, but there are not global people. There may be global brands but they are no global motivations for buying those brands (De Mooij, 1998). Global organization seeks to lever its resources across political and cultural boundaries to maximize opportunities and exploit market similarities and differences in search of competitive advantage. There is a proactive willingness to adopt a global perspective instead of a country-to country or region-by-region perspective in the development of a marketing strategy. It will move its resources from country to country to achieve its goals and maximize stakeholders’ value by globalizing marketing activities in the organization of worldwide efforts, the research of domestic and foreign markets, the pursuit of international partnerships, the sourcing of raw materials and support services, and the managing of international transactions. Organizations would operate as if the world were one large market, ignoring superficial regional and national differences while making sure that marketing activities fit the products and services to the practices and cultural characteristics of different markets.

Difference between Selling and Marketing

Selling	Marketing
1. Selling starts with the seller, Selling focuses with the needs of the seller. Seller is the center of the business universe. Activities start with seller’s existing products.	Marketing starts with the buyers. Marketing focuses on the needs of the buyer. Buyer is the centre of the business universe. Activities follow the buyer and his needs.
2. Selling emphasizes on profit. It seeks to quickly convert ‘products’ into ‘cash’; concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of pushing the product to the buyers.	Marketing emphasizes on identification of a market opportunity. It seeks to convert customer ‘needs’ into ‘products’ and emphasizes on fulfilling the needs of the customers.
3. Selling views business as a ‘goods producing processes’.	Marketing views business as a ‘customer satisfying process’.
4. It over emphasizes the ‘exchange’ aspect without caring for the ‘value satisfactions’ to the buyers.	It concerns primarily with the ‘vale satisfactions’ that should flow to the customer from the exchange.
5 Seller’s convenience dominates the formulation of the ‘marketing mix’.	Buyer determines the shape of the ‘marketing mix’.
6. The firm makes the product first the then decides how to sell it and make profit.	The customer determines what is to be offered as a ‘product’ and the firm makes a ‘total product offering’ that would match the needs of the customers.
7. Emphasizes accepting the existing technology and reducing the cost of Production.	Emphasis’s on innovation of adopting the most innovative technology.
8. Seller’s motives dominate marketing communications.	Marketing communications acts as the tool for communicating the benefits/ satisfactions of the product to the consumers.
9. Costs determine price.	Consumer determines price.
10. Transportation, storage and other distribution functions are perceived as mere extensions of the production function.	They are seen as vital services to provide convenience to customers.
11. There is no coordination among the different functions of the total marketing task.	Emphasis is on integrated marketing approach.

CONCEPT OF MARKETING

The marketing concept is the philosophy that firms should analyze the needs of their customers and then make decisions to satisfy those needs, better than the competition. Today most firms have adopted the marketing concept, but this has not always been the case.

In 1776 in The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote that the needs of producers should be considered only with regard to meeting the needs of consumers. While this philosophy is consistent with the marketing concept, it would not be adopted widely until nearly 200 years later.

To better understand the marketing concept, it is worthwhile to put it in perspective by reviewing other philosophies that once were predominant. While these alternative concepts prevailed during different historical time frames, they are not restricted to those periods and are still practiced by some firms today.

The Production Concept:

The production concept prevailed from the time of the industrial revolution until the early 1920's. The production concept was the idea that a firm should focus on those products that it could produce most efficiently and that the creation of a supply of low-cost products would in and of itself create the demand for the products. The key questions that a firm would ask before producing a product were:

* Can we produce the product?

* Can we produce enough of it?

At the time, the production concept worked fairly well because the goods that were produced were largely those of basic necessity and there was a relatively high level of unfulfilled demand. Virtually everything that could be produced was sold easily by a sales team whose job it was simply to execute transactions at a price determined by the cost of production. The production concept prevailed into the late 1920's.

The Sales Concept

By the early 1930's however, mass production had become commonplace, competition had increased, and there was little unfulfilled demand. Around this time, firms began to practice the sales concept (or selling concept), under which companies not only would produce the products, but also would try to convince customers to buy them through advertising and personal selling. Before producing a product, the key questions were:

• Can we sell the product?
• Can we charge enough for it?

The sales concept paid little attention to whether the product actually was needed; the goal simply was to beat the competition to the sale with little regard to customer satisfaction. Marketing was a function that was performed after the product was developed and produced, and many people came to associate marketing with hard selling. Even today, many people use the word "marketing" when they really mean sales.

The Marketing Concept

After World War II, the variety of products increased and hard selling no longer could be relied upon to generate sales. With increased discretionary income, customers could afford to be selective and buy only those products that precisely met their changing needs, and these needs were not immediately obvious. The key questions became:

* What do customers want?

* Can we develop it while they still want it?

* How can we keep our customers satisfied?

In response to these discerning customers, firms began to adopt the marketing concept, which involves:

* Focusing on customer needs before developing the product

* Aligning all functions of the company to focus on those needs

* Realizing a profit by successfully satisfying customer needs over the long-term

When firms first began to adopt the marketing concept, they typically set up separate marketing departments whose objective it was to satisfy customer needs. Often these departments were sales departments with expanded responsibilities. While this expanded sales department structure can be found in some companies today, many firms have structured themselves into marketing organizations having a company-wide customer focus. Since the entire organization exists to satisfy customer needs, nobody can neglect a customer issue by declaring it a "marketing problem" - everybody must be concerned with customer satisfaction.

The marketing concept relies upon marketing research to define market segments, their size, and their needs. To satisfy those needs, the marketing team makes decisions about the controllable parameters of the marketing mix.


The major differences between selling concept and marketing concept

 1. The selling concept starts with the seller and its focus is on existing products, it  being seller-oriented. The company believes in aggressive selling and other promotions. Customer value and satisfaction are no concern for the seller. The firm produces the products first and then figures out ways to sell and make profits. Different company departments operate without coordination.

2. Marketing orientation starts with the customer and the company strives to learn  customer needs and wants, develops appropriate products or services to satisfy the customer. Business is viewed as a customer need satisfying activity. All departments coordinate their activities and the focus is on customer needs. Profits are an outcome of doing the job well by the company. It requires reliable company wide  information system and maintains it. All departments are responsive to informational inputs. Everybody understands the critical role played by marketing, a fact visibly demonstrable when the head of marketing is part of top management.

THE SOCIETAL MARKETING CONCEPT

Marketing concept was accepted widely among companies in developed and some developing countries and continued to evolve and take on new meanings. Not long after this, criticism started about the nature of its social responsibility. The emphasis shifted to how marketing affected society as a whole in an age of depleting and increasingly scarce resources, environmental deterioration, etc. It was good enough to produce what customers needed or wanted, and for achieving organisational objectives, but in certain cases the concept could be in conflict with customers’ and society’s best long-run interests. Societal marketing concept is a management philosophy that takes into account the welfare of society, the organisation, and its customers.

Adoption of this concept requires that marketing decisions be made in an ethical and socially responsible manner. Companies must pay attention not only to the short-term needs of customers but also to their long-term well being. This includes, for instance, excess fat content in ready-to-eat foods, toxic wastes, and environmental issues.

The need is to strike a balance between the interest of customers, the company itself, and the society in which operations are conducted. Some responsible firms have started using recyclable packaging materials and products that do not harm the environment. Among the marketing tasks, demarketing is an approach that reflects the societal marketing philosophy.

Many companies encounter several hurdles in adopting the marketing concept. For some firms, it is simply too difficult to understand the underlying philosophy and they fail to implement it. Other companies face a conflict between short-term and long-term objectives and have no inclination to sacrifice short-term gains for the sake of customer satisfaction, simply because the customer is not the major priority of top management.

HOLISTIC MARKETING APPROACH

There have been major changes in almost every sphere of human activity over the last decade, like implication being that this requires fresh marketing thinking, a fresh approach to business, and this calls for a holistic marketing approach. This new thinking relies upon marketing research to define market segments, their size, and their needs. To more completely satisfy those needs, marketers need to have a more complete and cohesive approach to internal marketing, targeted marketing, relationship marketing, be visibly socially responsible, and make decisions about the controllable elements of the marketing mix.

MANAGEMENT BY EXCEPTION (M.B.E.)

It is a system of identification and  communication that signals the manager when his attention is needed: conversely, it remains silent when his attention is not required.

The primary purpose of such a system is to simplify the management  process itself.

It permits the manager to find the problems that need his action and to avoid  dealing with these the are better handled by his subordinates.

Elements of MBE: The MBE system’s structure is constituted by the following elements

1.	Measurement	by assigning values to performance
2.	Projection	Towards business objective & expectations.
3.	Selection	Follow progress towards its objectives
4.	Observation	to know current state of performance.
5.	Comparison	actual with expected and identify the            exceptions.
6.	Decision making	Prescribes the action that must be fallen in order
		(i) Bring performance back into control
		(ii) Adjust expectations to reflect changing conditions
		(iii) Exploit opportunity

It is also deeply rooted in the principles of the decision of labour, delegation or responsibility and authority and span of control.

Merits: The practice of MBE in management yields benefit in the following way

1. It save personal time
2. Concentrative executive effort
3. Reduces distortions
4. Facilitates broader management coverage
5. Lessens frequency of decision making.
6. Makes fuller use of knowledge of trends history and available business data.
7. Fully utilizes highly paid people on high-return work.
8. Identify crises and critical problems.
9. Provides qualitative and quantitative yardsticks for judging situations and people.
10. Enables inexperienced managers to handle new assignments with a minimum of related experience and training.
11. Alerts management to opportunity as well as difficulties.
12. Encourages more comprehensive knowledge of all phases of business operations.
13. Stimulates communication between different segments of an organization.

Demerits : Peter Druker’s critically viewed MBE as follows.

1. It breeds organization man thinking
2. It is often dependent upon unbelievable data.
3. It rewires a comprehensive observing and reporting system.
4. It tends to proliferate paper work
5. It often assumes an un relational stability in business affairs.
6. It gives false sense of security to management.
7. Standard of comparison tend to become obsolete.
8. Some critical business factors are difficult to measure
9. It can’t be a substitute for thinking.

Principles of MBE: The make the MBE system effective the following principles may be followed.

1. Practice of Self-control
2. Discard pre-conceived notions.
3. Be guided by policy
4. Learn to live with accountants.
5. Delegate for result.
6. Sharpen your observational power
7. Use MBE to describe subordinates in different phases.
8. Invite enough participation
9. Expect some people to call you lazy
10. Differentiate between “Big” and  “Little” jobs
11. Don’t be an “Over-the-Shoulder” supervisor
12. Avoid the “organization – man” attitude
13. Expect to work harder but to enjoy it more.