Marketing is essential for any business.  It’s how you reach your customers, engage with them, and demonstrate the value of your product or service.  No matter what industry you are in, success depends on a well thought out marketing strategy.  This is an approach that helps you to identify the needs of the customer, boost sales and increase profit, and make your company stand out against the competitors.

There are a number of different marketing philosophies or concepts, each with certain advantages.  The key to implementing a solid marketing strategy is to use the concept that best fits your business.  One of the benefits to using a marketing company, especially a local service like an online marketing agency Sydney, is that they will be able to determine which of these approaches to marketing will work best for you.  In this post, we’ll explore the five key concepts in marketing and look into the benefits of each.

The five key marketing concepts are:

  • Production Concept
  • Product Concept
  • Selling Concept
  • Marketing Concept
  • Societal Marketing Concept

Let’s have a closer look at each of these.

Production Concept

The production concept is one of the most traditional approaches to marketing.  In essence, the philosophy is that products will bring in more sales when they are readily available and inexpensive.  The key to the production concept is to make both production and distribution as efficient as possible.  The less money spent on production and distribution, the cheaper the product can be sold for while maintaining a profit margin.  While this is helpful in some instances, it can lead to a tendency to focus solely on the operation of the company and lose sight of the customer.  Plus, the quality of the product can suffer if low operational costs are the only goal.

Product Concept

The product concept arose when a wide variety of inexpensive products began to flood the market.  At this point, product quality became more important.  Innovative features and product performance are the focus of this perspective.  So, the product marketing strategy emphasises continuous improvements and refinements in the product.  While product quality is important, this marketing strategy can still leave a company out of touch with the customers’ needs.  For example, your company might make the best obsolete product on the market, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s obsolete.

Selling Concept

The selling concept for marketing emphasises reaching the customer.  When this is the driving concept, the marketing efforts will be directed towards large-scale promotions and selling efforts.  While both of the previous concepts overlook the customer itself in favour of the product, in this perspective, the focus is on making the customer aware of the product.

This strategy can bring increased legitimacy to a product, even when its quality is on par with several other products on the market.  It emphasises single sales rather than the development of a lasting relationship with the customer.  The challenge is that this marketing approach rarely takes into account the market.  It is most successful when measures are taken to find prospects that are interested in the given product.  Social media management is helpful for this strategy, as it lets a company reach a wide range of different interested parties through targeted algorithms.

Marketing Concept

The marketing strategy is focused specifically on knowing the market.  The key is to tune in to the needs of the customer and meet these needs better than the competitors.  This is a more sophisticated approach. It makes the customer the most important element of the sales process.  So, instead of first creating a product, and then trying to find the right customers for the product, this approach emphasises market research, finding out what the customer needs and then meeting that need with the best value.  The marketing concept is less risky since it’s focused on targeted market awareness and customer satisfaction.  One benefit of this approach is that it can be focused on local businesses, and you can use a local online marketing Sydney agency in order to target customers in your area.

Societal Marketing Concept

The societal marketing concept is the most sophisticated marketing strategy.  It explores the relationship between customer desires in the short term and customer welfare in the long run.  Essentially, the focus is on delivering value to the customer with the product, just as with the marketing concept strategy.  However, it also emphasises improving societal and customer well-being.  This means that sustainability in sourcing, production, and distribution become important.  The future viability of the business is seen as just as important as profits in the moment.  This factors in human welfare and ensures that the marketing and sales are responsible on both an environmental and social level.

If you’d like to find out the marketing concept best suited to your company feel free to contact us. Reputation by Design are dedicated to helping you reach your sales goals and make your business as successful as it can be.