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Part I
About Marketing
Chapter 1Production and Development of MarketingFocus on: 1. What are the connotation and features of marketing? 2. What is the main pathway on which marketing evolves? 3. Discuss the contributions to marketing by classical schools, management schools and behavior schools. 4. Analyze the concerns for marketing by commodity research approach, functional research approach, institutional research approach, management research approach and systematical research approach. 1.1
Production of Marketing As an applied science, marketing is based both on such theories as management, psychology, and sociology and on the social practice. Its origin, development and application depend on the marketing practice of the firm and also react on it. The scholars at home and abroad have been making an extensive and deep study of the birth and growth of the marketing idea, of which the exploration of marketing by Peter Druke, a famous professor in management in the Western University of the United States is well established by many marketing experts.
Peter Druke thought that the marketing was originated in Japan during the 17th century. He also pointed out that until the mid of the 19th century, the marketing came into being in the United States, and that in the western countries, the first that regards the marketing as a distinctive function of the firm and the satisfaction of the customer’s demands as the special task of management is Cyrus H. McCormick (1809-1884), the harvester inventor in the United States.
Besides, Cyrus H. McCormick invested the basic tools of the modern marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, market positioning concepts, pricing policies, supplying parts and various services for customers and providing them with the payment credit by installments, etc. Half century passed and the marketing has been studied systematically and used widely in the firms in the United States. By the end of 19th century, the scholars in the United States had started to issue and publish some theories as promotion, products, ads, pricing, product designs, brand business, package and physical distribution and so on. At the beginning of the early 20th century, “Marketing” had been up on the stage of the universities in the United States. For example, W. E. Kreusi taught a course named “The Marketing of Products” in the University of Pennsylvania in 1905; R. S. Butler in the University of Wisconsin taught “Marketing Methods” in 1910. Butler said that personnel promotion and ads must relate to the final outcome of the selling concept. In 1912, the Harvard University published the first teaching book of the marketing written by J. E. Hagertgy in the world, in which the issues about promotion, distribution, and ads, etc. were discussed comprehensively. As soon as the book was spread, a great response from the enterprise was made. Some of them established marketing departments in their organization such as Curtis Publishing Company in 1911, U. S. Rubber Company in 1916, etc. However, the study on the marketing of this time is mostly based on the seller market which is quite different from the principles and concepts of modern marketing. Moreover, the content is narrow and limited in goods distribution and advertisement promotion, etc. So the principles, concepts and discipline systems of the modern marketing are still to be built. From the 30s of the 20th century, marketing has been emphasized and different points and views and research approaches of various schools have been put forward successively. Then, the serious economic crisis broke out in the western world. The goods of the manufacturer couldn’t be sold out, firms broke down one after another, and the unemployed increased greatly. All this led to grave problems in selling the products. So, some theoretic researchers in economy were engaged in solving these social economic problems. However, the scholars were still limited in studying the circulation field. Namely, they laid emphasis on the question how to promote the products produced in a larger scale and on the know-how of promotion, advertisements, and promoting tactics.
In this period, marketing organizations with various forms were set up one after another in the United States. In 1937, American Marketing Association
(AMA) was founded, in which not only the learners who were engaged in the economic theory research but also the managers of all walks of life joined to make a conjoint study of the marketing theories and their application. At the same time, the special research class was established to teach the managers of enterprises the marketing course in order to train the promoter. In this way, the marketing was determined as a discipline. The theoretical systems of the marketing were initially constructed, too.
1.2
Development of Marketing In forming and developing the marketing theories, classical schools, management schools and behavior schools, etc. were born gradually. Different schools have established their own views, features and specialties because of the research method, interests, importance, and the individual background. They have been accelerating the development and progress of the marketing theory jointly, promoting the set-up and improvement of the marketing system as a discipline. They have contributed much in establishing and upgrading the marketing.
1.2.1
Classical Schools Inthe period of the founding of marketing theories the classical schools formed,namely the commodity school, the functional school，the regional school，the institutional school and so on. The classical schools played a historical role in establishing and developing the marketing. Although lots of new schools are coming up, the classical schools still remain well known in the academic field. 1. Commodity School Among these schools, the commodity school enjoys a long history. It started at the entrance of the 20th century. Its basic principle is that since the marketing concerns the flow of the relative goods from producers to consumers, the marketing discipline should focus on the object (product) transaction. As the scholars of the early commodity school said, that if the products in the marketing exchange could be classified in a reasonable way, the marketing discipline would make more progress in science. So they pointed out that in a perfect classified system of merchandizes, each product was not isolated and sophisticated links existed among goods. Therefore, these goods can be arranged into the category with the relative homogeneity in which all the products can be marketed in the same methods and know-how. As for the commodity school, it is an important task to classify the merchandizes. In the early stage of the commodity school, Charles Parlin first put forward the merchandize classification framework in 1912. According to his theory, women merchandizes can be divided into three categories: convenient goods, urgent goods and option goods. The convenient goods are those daily bought as food, groceries, etc. The urgent goods include medicines and those needed unexpectedly. The option goods refer to those that need to make a selection and that allow to be postponed buying. In 1923, another famous classification of the merchandize was proposed by M. Cope. He classified the merchandize into convenience, option and peculiarity. The convenience can be found in the convenient shop and familiar to the customer; the option is the goods that the consumer always makes a careful comparison of price, quality and patterns of the product before buying decisions. After the birth of demands, the real buying behavior is often delayed and their satisfaction is less important than that of the convenience; the peculiarity is more attractive in distinctiveness than in price to consumers. The consumer pays more attention to the producer’s and the retailer’s brand or credit and service quality than the other elements in buying. In 1958, L.V. Aspinwall, a famous scholar of the commodity school proposed a method of classifying the goods. He divided the goods into the red, the orange and the yellow and also ordered them in the light of the total relative value of the product features. These features were introduced as follows: (1)
turnover rate. The proportion that the customers choose and use a certain product is made to satisfy their needs. (2)
aggregate profits. The final difference is realized between the price and the cost. (3)
flexibility. The services are added to the product for the sake of better satisfying the consumer’s needs. (4)
consuming time. It refers to the period needed in using the product. (5)
selection time. It means the average distance measured to the retailing shop. In the end, L.V. Aspinwall listed a system of classifying the product called “The Characteristics of Goods Theory” by him. The early
commodity school believed that the classification approach can overcome the difficulties faced by most marketing practices and in operation the following steps as classifying various products into the set system and then deploying the correspondent activities in light of their marketing standards of the kind could solve the problem.
In the late 50s to early 60s of the 20th century, considering the deficiencies of classifying the goods of the early commodity school, some scholars put forward that the method that the goods were defined as convenience, option and particulars should be modified and increased the preference on the existing classification.
These scholars thought that the differentiation between the convenience and the option should emphasize the role of consumers, for some products are the option for certain consumers but the convenience for other consumers. Only in the angle of the individual consumer can we precisely define the convenience and the option. With the ongoing development of the marketing and the introduction of the new concepts of other subjects, the marketing scholars kept on presenting the disputes and challenges to the existing classification framework. The commodity school redefined the convenience, the option and the peculiarity.
The convenience refers to the product that the consumer little intervenes because of low prices, being easily damaged or the buying activities of no importance to him. Besides, the consumer often accepts the substituent for the functionality. The option means those that the consumer concerns much before buying and is afraid that the goods bought are unsuitable for him. These concerns can be eased by way of information collection and buying decisions afterwards. The peculiarities are those that can be sorted out into the option both in the economic importance and in the distinction of the product features, but their physical features have few relations with the performance nature sought by the consumer. In the 70s of the 20th century, three principles were put forward as independent theoretic bases by the commodity school to make the classification system perfect. First, products should be regarded as a combination of the physical elements and the psychological reaction. Second, products should be defined through the consumer’s behavior and the channel reaction and the correspondent measurements could be made between the delivery and the retailing time. Third, there exist links between the product communication structure and the buying behavior. On the basis of the principles, the commodity school added the 4th category of products to the existent categories: the preference goods. In 1986, in order to apply their classification systems to the transaction, product selling, service, and ideas, the scholars of the commodity school further expounded the convenience, the option, the peculiarity, and the preference with the help of the buying efforts and risk norms related to the price. The detailed definition was presented as follows: (1)
The convenience is the lowest both in the buying efforts and in the risks. That’s to say, the consumer is unwilling to spend too much time and money on these goods and no higher risks are felt in the decision-making. (2)
The preference has more buying efforts and risks than the convenience. In fact, the difference between the convenience and the preference lies in the perceptible risks. The reason that makes the consumer feel high risks usually comes from the marketing activities, especially from the brand and the ads.
(3)
The option is the goods that the consumer is willing to spend more time and money in seeking for and evaluating. This high participation also makes the consumer perceive higher and higher risks.
(4)
The peculiarity is very high in risks and efforts. The difference between the option and the peculiarity lies in the buying efforts, not in risks. The peculiarity is often priced high and needs much time to be bought. However, the buyer is not willing to accept any substituent for the peculiarity.
The scholars of the commodity school emphasized that the classification system of any products has the same target: to guide the decision of the managers. Although the commodity school has made a detailed study of various kinds of products and their classification and played an important role in the marketing advancement and practices, it lacks a further exploration of the marketing environment, the motivation of the consumer behavior and the specific needs of the different goods to the marketing. 2. Functional School This school regards the marketing behavior as its focus. Being different from the commodity school, the functional school focuses on the “how to do” in the marketing while the commodity school on the “what the marketing is”.
Arch
Shaw was considered as the founder of the functional school. He first proposed the classification method in accordance with the marketing functions: (1) risk-taken; (2) goods delivery; (3) financing; (4) sales efforts; (5) making a centralization, arrangement and trans- shipping of the product. In 1950, Edmund Mercalli
improved his own classification framework based on the former categories, which consists of the following six functions: (1)
Communication functions. Seek for the latent consumer or supplier and making a connection with him.
(2)
Merchandising functions. Take all kinds of activities relative to the production and to the satisfaction of the customer’s needs. (3)
Pricing functions. Deal with the price issues as product supplying or acceptability. (4)
Publicity functions. Persuade the latent customer into buying some product and try to retain him. (5)
Logistic functions. Transport and stock the product. (6)
Terminal functions. Respond to the change of the management and responsibility of the product. In 1960, McCarthy advanced the 4Ps theory, i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which was originated from the classification system of the early functional school as Weld, Leyen, especially Mercalli. The functional school has assimilated the classification approach of the commodity school and mainly studied the marketing activities in the angle of the marketing functions, of which the classification outcomes of Mercalli are well established. They include such functions as communication, exchange, pricing, publicity, logistics and terminal, on the base of which Mercalli initially proposed the typical theory of 4Ps. 3. Regional School The scholars of the regional school concern more the space role between the transaction parties on the base of accepting the research outcomes of the commodity and the functional schools. It was produced in the 1930s.
The commodity school and the functional school came into being in the 1920s. Until the 1930s, the regional school was born and its development was due to William
J. Reilly, who tried to explain the relative attractiveness of the commercial areas in two different cities to the citizens living there in his book entitled “The Law of Retail Gravitation” in 1931 with the mathematical formula. Enlightened by him, P. D. Converse put forward the “New Laws of Retail Gravitation” in 1949 that was used to judge the limitation between the trade center and the trade area. As soon as the trade area was determined in the town, the merchants could decide where they should make their transaction activities and their advertisement. On the basis of the existent study, Hoover advanced a forecasting sales model, which showed more rationality in the analysis of the retail transaction. Soon afterwards, some scholars of the regional school diverted their attention from the retail to the wholesale and made an analysis of the regional variable about the effects of the space distance on the sales organization. The regional structure was much connected with the wholesale system. The regional variable affecting the structure was first the space distance between the supplying place of the basic materials and the firm using them, in which the transportation system emphasized the initial influence. Then the next variable was the space distribution pattern of the intermediary wholesaler. The distribution of the retailer and the final consumers played a revised role in the above effects. To further establish the theory of the regional wholesales structure, they raised eight factors influencing the wholesales market scale: (1) product weights relative to the value; (2) easily corrosive; (3) technique of the product differentiation; (4) elements affecting the factory location; (5) price and its strategy; (6) efficiency and services of transport; (7) marketing means of the individual firm; (8) additional services. Besides, the regional school made an analysis of the geographical variable on the ratio between the wholesales and the retails by using the statistical research data of the United States. The scholars of the regional school thought that the business’ behaviors such as the geographical location, the space expansion in selling and buying, and the relations among the supply and the demand in the marketing channel, should be considered not only from the price and sales, but also from the natural and social conditions. Recently, the regional school is focusing on the study of the mathematical model in the field of trade, for example, the models in assessing the coincidence of the boundaries between the two markets and the location selection of the retailing shops, etc. The status, quantity and positions of the competitors among regions are often different, and the demands either of the final consumer, of intermediaries or of governments are various, too. In this way, the regional school bases its study on regional markets to explore the marketing issues such as regional competition and demands and the related strategies. 4. Institutional School The institutional school was born at the beginning of the 20th century and dominated the same position as the commodity school and the functional school. However, the institutional school laid its more emphasis on the research of the marketing organization. L. D. H. Weld was regarded as the founder of the institutional school and he raised an issue on the marketing channel efficiency in the book “The Marketing of Farm Products” published in 1916. In 1923, Ralph Starr Butter, manager of the Publicity Development in the U. S. Rubber Company published a book called “Marketing and Merchandising” which contributed much to the early development of the structure school. He laid emphasis on the effectiveness of the intermediary to the producer and the consumer. He thought that an important role of the intermediary was to create effectiveness, namely, the basic effectiveness, the form effectiveness, the place effectiveness and the time effectiveness. The market organization could do nothing to the basic and the form effectiveness, but played an important role in the place and the time effectiveness. That’s to say, the intermediary could create them and bring the goods from the production place to the consuming area and sell the product to the consumer when it was needed. In this period, many scholars joined in the Institutional School and aired their own opinions. Ralph Frederick Breyer in the University of Pennsylvania explained the process forming the marketing structure in his book “The Marketing Institutions”. He proposed that it was necessary to construct huge and complicated commercial mechanisms so as to achieve the marketing activities. We had found that
the marketing function had something to do with the overcoming the difficulties of merchandize exchange, which needed us to spend much time and work in combining such elements as land, labor forces, capitals and other sources and in reasonably allocating and coordinating them in the light of quality and quantity in order to set up a work organ, of which all the parts should be considered commercially and linked to the marketing. Some scholars of this school also made a study of the vertical integration. They thought that the firm could play more roles in production and distribution, which both reduced the marketing cost and insured the output of the finished products and the supplying of the raw materials. The
reduction of the marketing cost could be realized through cutting down the process of continuous buying and selling due to the vertical integration in the firm’s operation. The integration is an effective approach to reduce the marketing cost, but causes grave problems in management and coordination. From 1954 to 1973, the institutional school began to analyze the production of the marketing channel, the evolution of the channel structure and the design of the framework with high efficiency by way of the principles of economics. During this period, F. C. Bauldston attempted to explain how to design marketing channels that could make the marketer obtain more profitability. He had explored an approach how an individual firm designed its channel. He believed that the individual firm faced channel-designing problems in some aspects and not in the whole marketing systems. Besides, the Institutional School had done some research in the integration theory that said the central channel coordinating system included three categories, i.e. the firm’s marketing system, the management strategy and contracts. The firm’s marketing system was a successive stage of production and distribution under the single property while the management strategy was able to co-operate the flow of goods and services so as to get the systematic thriftiness. The contracts could influence the channel, too.
In 1965 and 1973, some theories explained and foresaw the channel structure, and pointed out the deficiencies of the institutional school said. Besides, they made a deep study of the connotation about the deferring and speculation.
If the distribution channel was regarded as postponement, it was a tool for an independent organization to transfer the risks of all goods to another independent one. For manufacturers, he would refuse production unless he received no orders and then the correspondent risks were passed to the buyer; as for the intermediary, two kinds of postponement existed: one was called backward postponement, i.e. refusing to buy and the other was forward postponement, i.e. buying when he was sure to be able to sell out; the consumer realized the postponement by buying in the retailer. The speculation theory meant that all the changes of the physical forms of goods or the move of the product in the inventory should be done in the marketing process as early as possible in order to reduce the cost of the marketing system. In light of the deferring and speculation theories, the production of the inventory stage can be explained as follows: as for buyers and sellers, only if the net revenue surpasses the additional cost in the period of retardation, the inventory will be sure to happen. 1.2.2
Management Schools Management schools came out from the 1940s to 1950s, and included the management school, the systematic school, the social exchange school, etc. They were lying in the transition period when the western countries were transformed from the seller market to the buyer market. In the new situation of the buyer market, the decision-makers of firms must think it over how to cater to the buyer’s needs in the marketing. That’s to say, they must learn how to face the market, adapt to the market and expand the market.
1. Management School Since the end of the 1950s, as the buyer market was becoming bigger and bigger, the marketing research has been further extended so as to meet the needs of the marketing practice. Such concepts as “marketing myopia”, “marketing mix”, and “market segmentation”, etc. were fabricated. These concepts laid their emphasis on consumers in the marketing research, which played an important role in the marketing theory and practice. From then on, the marketing management thoughts have begun to be grown up.
Initially, the management school advanced the marketing concept, which explained that seeking for the production efficiency alone was possibly myopic. The marketer should pay more attention to the consumer’s wants and demands before making the production decision. If it wants to win in the changing competitive market, the firm must take the competitive role and efficiency into consideration correctly before the use of the marketing activities and understand all sorts of knowledge about consumers. Managerially, the primary task of the marketing would rather make the commercial behavior suitable for the consumer’s benefits than master the know-how to let the consumer behave as the commercial benefits. Besides, the management school has proposed many theories and views that are still being used substantially in the nowadays marketing textbooks. Considering the different aims of the consumer buying behavior, the management school insisted for the first time in 1956 that marketers should segment the market and strive to establish various marketing combinations so as to satisfy the different demands of the consumer. In light of the market segmentation theory, to better satisfy the consumer’s demands, the market should be divided into some small homogeneous niches among which the differentiation exists. The main contribution of this school lies in: telling the market segmentation from the product differentiation; the application of the market segmentation in the industrial market; the quantitative analysis of the market segmentation. Besides, the scholars of this school had put forward the principles of how the marketing manager should deal with various elements as products, price, place and promotion in the marketing combination. In the product decision, the most important achievement is the introduction of the product life cycle. Its application is embodied in the following: in one hand, its systematic framework like production, development, maturation and decline can be used to explain the market impetus; on the other hand, it can be applied as a forecasting model to interpret when changes happen and when the take-over from one stage to another comes.
In pricing, the school strives to change the economic theory into the normalized rules so that the marketing management can easily make practices. The management school advocates that marketers can adopt the multi-stage analyzing method as pricing tools. This method divides the main factors to be considered in the pricing decision into six successive steps: (1) choose the target market; (2) select the brand image; (3) determine the marketing combination; (4) formulate the pricing policies; (5) establish the pricing strategy; (6) decide the price. The calculation in each step should simplify the work of the next step and reduce the possibility of the error in the pricing decision according to the above-said steps. In other words, this method translates the pricing decision into several parts of the management and logically, each part comes before the next part of which the decision can make the following less complicated.
In the field of promotion, the scholars of the management school advanced some suggestions on the personnel promotion and the advertisement decision. They insisted that the ads should aim at making the consumer buy the product through a series of marketing activities and that the seller should abandon the deceitful tactics and change the view that explores the market in the compelling personal promoting approach. Recently, they have laid more emphasis on the management of the personal promotion and of the selling field. The issues studied by them include the communication between promoters and consumers, the selling effects, the supervision to the selling forces, and the motive of the promoter, etc.
2. Systematic School In the 1960s, the systematic school came into being. As the other schools of the marketing, the systematic school appeared with the market environment changing. In the meanwhile, its birth was due to the development of the other disciplines in studying technology, which advanced the scholars to explore the marketing and its activities in the angle of the systematic theory. Particularly, the extensive use of computers makes the word “systematic” more popular in the management literature.
The systematic school holds that a firm should be considered as an integrated system of different functions. In the system,
the strength produced in the information, raw materials, human resources, capital, equipments and the flow of funds decides the basic trend of the growth, fluctuations and decline of the firm. The school also points out that production, marketing and consumption should be combined together and analyzed by way of the systematic framework. The marketing issue belongs to the systematic scope that is featured of communication and adaptation in the social organization. The decision maker can spot a series of problems when inspecting the market in the systematic theory and the correspondent feasible solutions are available, which are the reference when he encounters handicaps in solving the relative problems. The systematic school has explored the systematic theory on the marketing and raised three types of systems: the atomic system, the mechanic system and the biological system. In the atomic system, no single element can influence the whole system and all the elements inter-move and inter-act. Some aspects of the marketing function as the mechanic system acts, such as inventories and distributions. Biology concerns the study of the organic body related to the natural environment and the organized behavior system is the reflection of the biology in the marketing. The systematic school has made a classification and organization of the marketing thoughts in the micro-analysis method. This method emphasizes some tiny structure as ads and distribution of the sub-system while the macro-analysis method focuses on the systematic behavior of the overall system. Different from the micro-analysis method, the macro-analysis method pays more attention to the behavior patterns under the different conditions though it doesn’t ignore completely the particular marketing phenomenon. 1.2.3
Behavior Schools Behavior schools composed of the organizational power school, the consumerism school and the buyer behavior school. They paid more attention to the effects of the organizational activities, the individual behavior and the social actions on the marketing and tended to study the issues in a way of multi-disciplines combining the psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior science. The views put forward by them have contributed much in raising the consumer’s satisfaction, safeguarding the consumer’s rights and valuing the marketing in the social economical development. 1. Organizational Power School The organizational power school is relatively new in the marketing and starts in the 1950s and has grown up in the 1970s and 1980s. In some degree, the organizational power school is the successor of the structural school. The main difference between these two schools is that of the different angle to study the issue. The structural school analyzes the effectiveness of the distribution channel in the angle of economy so as to increase the welfare for the consumer while the organizational power school diverts its concerns from the consumer’s welfare to the target and demands of the distribution member as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. In the article “Management of the Manufacturer-Distributor System”, the organizational power school pointed out that manufacturers and distributors form a competitive system that needs management like a single system. The book “Distribution Channels: Behavior Perspective” published in 1969 makes it come to the front stage in the marketing. Its primary topics being discussed include the following:
(1)
What is the source of the rights? These rights include coercion and non-coercion. (2)
How should the members of the distribution channel use the obtained rights? Correspondently, how should the marketing manager use his rights? (3)
Measurement methods of the rights. Some scholars are engaged in developing correct and reliable methods to measure the rights and consider that the rights have direct relations with the roles. (4)
What are relations between rights and conflicts? (5)
How should the conflicts be measured? They have analyzed the efficacy of the method measuring the conflicts. (6)
What is the cooperation in the inner organization system? They think that the cooperation refers to a joint action of two or more conductors in the hope that they exchange the resources with equilibrium to realize the targets inside and among the organization.
(7)
How does the right influence the bargaining process? 2. Consumerism School The consumerism school focused its importance on studying the consumer welfare and satisfaction in experience and concepts. For example, it mainly probed the problems as imbalance between buyers and sellers, malpractices of private enterprises in the marketing. Another issue it concerned is the morality in the marketing.
The consumerism school has made a study of the following topics: the product security and the consumer information; the discriminatory issue of the consumer; the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the consumer. Some scholars attempted to form the concept of the consumerism school, of which the consumer protectionism was included. Therefore, Peter Druke thought that the consumer regarded the manufacturer as the entity that was interested in the consumer and didn’t really understand him. It is impossible to differentiate the consumers if the manufacturer has not made a deep research of them. In this school, the most persuasive idea is proposed by Philip Kotler. He considered that the marketing concept on the customer-oriented idea could better cater to the commercial activities to realize the profit of the customer and that the marketing responsibility was to innovate new products that could both satisfy the recent demand of the consumer and upheld the long-term interests of him. So Kotler presented a case on the basis of the recent satisfaction and the long-term interests to differentiate the existent products (see Table 1.1). Table 1.1
Product Classifications by Kotler
Short-term satisfactionLong-term interests | High | Low | | High | Ideal products | Profitable products | | Low | Pleasant products | Flaw products |
Besides, the scholars of this school had expounded the nature and role of the marketing ethics, especially the ethical issues in advertisement, personal promotion, pricing, marketing research and international marketing. Overall, the school has turned to the tenet how the marketing encourages the ethical behavior by way of ethical training, orientation, management principles and encouragement in the marketing organization instead of pure criticism to the abnormal marketing activities. 3. Buyer Behavior School The buyer behavior school is mainly engaged in the research of target customers, customer sizes, customer’s buying incentives, and so on. In their study, the scholars inquires into the buyer’s buying behavior with the aid of methodology of the behavior science, of experimental methods of the applied science, those related to physiology and psychology, and of mathematics, operational research and managerial technology as stochastic process, control on line and optimization, etc. The buyer behavior school has opened up research methodology of modern marketing and made it more matured, more serious and more scientific. The buyer behavior school emphasizes the customer in the market and has made a study of such issues as who the customer is, how many exist and why the customer buys, etc. This school has the following characteristics: (1)
The consumer behavior is considered as part of the human behavior, and not as the unnatural and abnormal behavior phenomenon. This school tends to understanding and explaining the consumer behavior based on the human behavior and then many theories about the consumer behavior are born. Every theory is built on certain views of psychology, sociology and anthropology, and has raised various explanations to the consumer behavior patterns. (2)
The buyer behavior school has been focusing the package product and the durable consumption goods and is becoming more and more interested in the study of the buying behavior of the industrial and service industries. (3)
This school defines its research field as the choice of brands and not as the others, and thinks that its study aims at the buying behavior and not at the consuming or distributing behavior.
1.3
Connotation and Nature of Marketing1.3.1
Connotation of Marketing Marketing is a science to study the marketing activities and their rules of the firm. It absorbs both the principles and techniques of western economy, economical management and econometrics and the theories and methods of sociology, philosophy, politics, behavior psychology and mathematics, etc. In some aspects, it is an integrated and comprehensive applied economy. 1.3.2
Nature of Marketing Marketing, as a discipline, has its own development tracks and regularity. Its primary features are defined as following: 1. Applicability Marketing studies not only the basic theory of the market, but also the marketing activities and their rules of the firm. Its purpose is to guide the market operation effectively. Therefore, as a product of the development of the commodity economy to cater to the demands of modern enterprises, the marketing has been highly emphasized and widely used for the decision and practices of the firm’s operation. 2. Comprehensiveness Modern marketing was initially set up on the theory of economy and further developed into a brand-new science with the absorption and use of the theories and approaches of modern management, behavior science, mathematics, psychology, sociology, biology, package, trademark, and advertisement, etc. As Philip
Kotler pointed out that marketing was an applied science based on economy, behavior science, and modern management theory. He also said that economy was the father of marketing; its mother was behavior science; mathematics was the grandfather of it; philosophy, grandmother of it.
3. Practicality The theory and the contents of the marketing are originated in the marketing experience of the firm and the correspondent study is for the purpose of instructing the marketing practices. With the marketing practices deepened, modern marketing as a science will see a continuous advancement, too. 4. Artistry The theoretic systems and approaches of modern marketing are easy to be understood and practicable. However, this doesn’t mean that learning some theories and approaches can easily solve the marketing problems, for the linkage between theory and practice is the key to the solution. So we should learn the marketing theory as an art and flexibly use it in the marketing practice. 1.4
Research Approaches of Marketing Marketing aims at probing the external environments of firms, the consumer behavior and the influence of them on the marketing activities, and the regularity of the whole marketing process in firms. Moreover, the research approaches keep on changing with the reform of the research object and the richness of the research content in the development of the marketing.
1.4.1
Commodity Research Approach The commodity research approach is also called the product research approach. Its objects are usually some kinds of products and it mainly analyzes the marketing issues. The scholars are always interested in the study of the marketing of certain products, especially that of the non-farming product and the industrial finished outcome. For example, W. E. Krueusi wrote a book “The Marketing of Products” by using the product research approach (in 1905) , in which he had demonstrated the marketing theory with the aid of many cases. Considering that people paid less attention to the marketing of non-farming products, he designed an analysis pattern applied for the marketing of oil, minerals, steel rolling, voyage car and telephone services and so on, and made a deep study of their supply and demand conditions, product features, places, agencies, pricing, distribution costs and trade management, etc.
1.4.2
Functional Research Approach In 1940, R. Alexander, Sarfare, Ilder and W. Alderson
expounded in the book “Marketing” that marketing was a management function. Being Different from the product research approach, they more concern marketing plans, investigation and budget controls and generalize some management functions included in the traditional marketing as merchandized functions, namely, all sorts of activities that regulate commodity production or selling so as to satisfy the consumer demands. They thought that three categories of the marketing function exist: exchange function like buying and selling; supply function like transport and stock; service function like financing, risk taking, and market information, etc.
1.4.3
Institutional Research Approach The institutional research approach highlights the marketing activities of the various organizations and of all levels like producers, agents, wholesalers, and retailers, etc. in the marketing channel. Its drawbacks mainly lie in the fact that it neglects the consumer demands and still centers around the goods. 1.4.4
Managerial Research Approach The managerial research approach takes the firm as its main body and synthesizes the elementary demands of the commodity research approach, the institutional research approach and the functional research approach in the angle of marketing management decisions, analyzes the market environment in the light of the target market, and formulates the concerned marketing strategy in accordance with the firm’s resources and aims in order to satisfy the needs of the target market and to reach the firm’s aim. 1.4.5
Systematic Research Approach The systematic research approach was first proposed in the book entitled “Basic Marketing: Systematic Approach” (1971) written by George S. Downing. Marketing is a total framework of such activities as pricing, promotion, distribution, which can provide the current and latent customers with products and services through all kinds of channels. In the process of marketing, the firm keeps on observing the market, spotting and evaluating various change agents, then, makes a feedback to the managerial level for the sake of elaborating the new strategy and plans of the firm, does away with the handicaps that hinder the realization of the aim by means of the revised action and assesses the response of the customer and of the competitor to the revision, and further formulates the revised strategic plans. So marketing is one function no more, but a process going through the firm’s operation and management. 1.5
Summary 现代的市场营销学不是简单的产品推销和广告，而是为了实现组织和个人的目标所进行的关于构思、货物和劳务的观念、定价、促销分销的策划与实施等一系列与市场有关的活动。现代营销学研究内容主要包括6个方面：市场、顾客、产品、价格、商品流通过程以及促销。 在市场营销学的发展过程中产生了很多学派，但归纳起来看，有古典学派、管理学派和行为学派等，各个学派从不同角度展开了对市场营销相关方面的研究，对市场营销理论的发展与市场营销实践发挥了不可磨灭的作用。 市场营销研究方法从商品研究法、功能研究法、机构研究法、管理研究法到系统研究法，由浅入深、由对营销某一方面进行研究到整个营销系统研究，充分显示了市场营销这一科学领域发展的复杂性与广泛性，学者们对市场营销方法的研究为进一步研究市场营销活动提供了基本的研究框架。 Key Terms Marketing
Buyer Behavior School
Consumerism School
Organizational Power School
Systematic School
Management School
Institutional School
Regional School
Functional School
Commodity School 【案例】 日本企业的成功 许多获得成功的日本企业，都花费许多时间、精力和资金去分析市场机遇，并对目标市场作深入的了解，研究消费者心理，摸清组织市场营销的活动规律。 例如，索尼公司在进入美国市场之前，就先派出设计人员、工程师以及其他人员组成专家组去美国考察，研究如何设计产品以适应美国消费者的爱好。然后招聘美国工业专家、顾问和经理等人员，帮助索尼分析如何进入市场。 在仔细地研究分析市场机遇，确定目标市场后，日本企业会着手制定以产品、价格、分销、促销、公共关系和政治权力运用等内容的市场营销战略规划。 一、产品策略 日本企业最初进入国际市场时，遇到了许多困难，首当其冲的是来自美国和欧洲国家的强大竞争者的对抗，因为那时世界市场主要由美国和欧洲国家霸占。其次，就当时的日本产品而论，无论是技术上，还是全球性销售网络上，都比不上美国和欧洲的产品。此外，日本还要努力消除人们在二战前所形成的日本产品质量低劣的印象。但是，日本企业寄希望于利用其劳动力便宜的优势，在产品的价格上可以与欧美抗衡。为此，在20世纪50年代后期和60年代期间，为了打入世界市场，日本各企业特别强调产品设计的低成本、高质量和创新性。从目前日本进入国际市场的情况看，也可以证明他们仍然着重突出这三点。 日本企业以产品开发战略和市场开发战略为重点，进行目标市场渗透，一旦在某国市场取得了立足点，就努力扩大其产品的生产线，以便增加产量，扩大销售额，逐步增加对整个市场的控制范围。以丰田公司向美国市场渗透为例，即表现为产品推出的连续性和不断扩大生产线。 日本的许多企业，一向以增加产品的花色品种的方式进行市场开发。他们根据消费者的不同口味、爱好和收入水平，不断地变换产品型号、花色和品种。例如，坝农公司以AE-135单镜反光照相机为基础机型，生产出种类繁多、特点功能不同的相机，使其销售额猛增。坝农公司这种向市场纵深不断猛烈推进的策略，是日本许多企业的共同特点。每当一种新产品投入市场，就会有另一种新产品进入研发。此外，日本各企业的产品更新换代非常快，其速度几乎是德国(德国是产品更新换代比较快的国家之一)的两倍。如20世纪70年代期间，丰田汽车公司可以同时向美国汽车市场提供82种产品，而其他国家则只能提供48种或31种型号的汽车。 不断地改进产品质量，是日本企业获得成功的又一大特征。日本企业对不断改进产品的质量倾注了大量的心血，他们经常与消费者保持联系，甚至不惜花费大量的钱财和许多宝贵的时间，通过各种渠道，不断地了解和虚心听取顾客关于改进产品质量的意见。把质量当作企业的生命，已成为日本企业全体员工的群体意识。一项研究表明，日本产品质量已胜过美国产品。20世纪70年代中期，美国执世界计算机工业之牛耳时，日本尚属无名之辈。但近几年，日本却成为美国在计算机工业发展上的主要威胁者。 二、价格策略 日本企业在进入国际市场时，一直采用一种所谓的“市场份额”价格策略。这种策略就是采用较低的进入市场价格，以便取得一部分市场并进一步达到长期控制该市场。为此，日本总是将价格定得比竞争者低。他们乐于在最初几年里受点损失，把这种损失视为对长远市场发展的一种投资。这样做使日本在过去几年中被指责为进行“产品倾销”，此情形在美国的小汽车等产品市场上表现得尤为明显。日本的小汽车以省油、低价等优点大量涌进美国市场，1990年已占美国小汽车市场约30%，使美国的汽车工业招架不住。最后，美日双方都以官方身份进入“对抗阶段”，对簿公堂，美国做出了对小汽车限量进口的决定。 三、分销策略 日本企业想打进美国市场，但当初日本的产品质量形象低劣，声誉不佳。而且，许多企业没有产品销售渠道。何况，即使了解美国的销售渠道，也不能公开地加以利用。为此，日本企业采取了以下几种措施。 (1)
集中全力选好进入市场的突破口。他们不是采取全线出击，一下子占领全部市场，而是选中该市场的某一地区、某个批发商或某种类型的消费者，先打进去，站稳脚跟后再逐步扩大。如丰田汽车公司首先选择了加州，通过该地区了解美国市场的特点、消费者爱好以及与美国批发商和经销商打交道的经验。在突破口取得成功，尔后全面进入美国市场。日本电视机进入中国市场的步骤则是先找经销商销售12寸、16寸黑白电视机，尔后销售彩色电视机，最后在中国合资建厂。 (2)
精心挑选有效的销售渠道和能干的批发商。 (3)
对某种特殊产品，直接与用户联系，建立独立的销售机构。 (4)
利用竞争者的销售网络进行销售，即在打入某国市场后，利用该国中间商或生产者的牌号或商标销售日本产品。当其产品打入市场并占有一定地位时，就逐步建立自己的产品品牌形象，形成自己的销售渠道，最后取而代之。 四、销售策略 日本企业在进入某个市场时，十分注意与批发商的友好合作，向他们提供各种帮助，付给较优厚的酬金，激发中间商经营日本产品的积极性。日本企业坚持“经销商利益第一，本企业利益第二”的原则，始终与中间商保持友好商务关系。日本企业还大量投入金钱和精力，开展广告宣传，推进和提高产品的市场声誉，扩大销售额。 五、公共关系策略 日本企业的公共关系开展得颇具风格，有力地扩大了企业的知名度。例如，日本汽车公司在进入美国市场后，所有的公司都积极地致力于美国的社会服务，抽出人力、物力和资金，从事那些看起来和本职工作毫不相干的社会服务工作，并与当地社区建立了亲密关系。日本汽车公司在田纳西州自建立工厂的那一天起，便成立了义务活动小组和研究西方问题的捐款委员会，经常向当地的慈善机构捐赠钱物，还组织当地的居民到工厂参观和组织当地中学生每学期到工厂体验一天的工厂生活等。这许许多多的活动和亲善态度颇得当地社区居民的好感。这也是日本企业打入美国市场的竞争策略的重要因素。美惊呼日汽车商竞争有方，而美国的汽车公司却对此无能为力！ 六、政治权力策略 历史记录表明，日本的企业在打进美国市场初期，很少与美国的公司进行正面冲突，而是寻找薄弱环节，甚至从美国公司尚未到达的市场先行突破，求得一席之地。然后，他们就像“滚雪球”一样，进行战略推进，建立他们的产品基地和巩固市场阵地，以便在将来某时与美国竞争者进行正面对抗或直接竞争。随着正面进攻“猛烈战斗”的日益加剧，必然遭到美国公司的强烈反击，于是就产生了“贸易摩擦”。日本企业或是周旋于当地社团、政府，或是吸引大量本来属于美国企业的零售网及小企业，或是改善工厂中美国员工的待遇等。采用各种方式和途径，以减弱美国竞争者的反击力量，减少乃至消除摩擦。有时也通过种种骚扰，使对手士气低落，以便最后迫使对手做出让步。当“贸易摩擦”激烈到企业无法运用自己的力量来消除时，最后只有通过政府的外交手段来解决。近两年来，日美进行的“东京回合”谈判就是一个有力的佐证。 (资料来源：宋小敏等. 市场营销案例实例与评析. 武汉：武汉工业大学出版社，1992.)
【案例分析】 许多日本企业之所以能获得成功，主要得益于他们花费大量时间、精力和资金去分析市场机遇，并对目标市场进行深入了解，研究消费者心理，掌握了组织市场营销活动的规律。在仔细研究分析市场机遇并确定目标市场后，日本的企业会根据目标市场特点制定能适应目标市场需求的以产品、价格、分销、促销、公共关系和政治权力运用等为内容的市场营销战略规划。 【思考题】 1. 日本企业产品策略的主要特点是什么？
2. 日本企业公共关系策略的特点是什么？ 3. 结合该案例及本章所学内容，谈谈中国企业进入世界市场应注意的问题及其对策。 | 
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发表于 2011-9-18 16:34:04
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