Principles of Marketing (BFT 108/3): Electronic Books

If you examine your daily life style, commencing from getting up from bed in the morning to the time you go to the bed in the evening you observe that you have used a good number of products and services rendered by others. You get up from your bed at six in the morning, may be with the help of an alarm piece to wake you. Then you wash your mouth and brush your teeth with a Colgate tooth brush and paste. After that you wash your face and wipe it with a towel, manufactured by a reputed textile mill. Next, you drink a cup of tea prepared from a well known brand, mixed with sugar and milk. You use a gas stove to prepare tea. Many types of utensils are used to prepare tea. Thus, your activities go on for the whole day, using several types of goods manufactured by different firms . When you think about it, you cannot get very far into a day without bumping into MARKETING - and what the whole marketing ' system does for you. It enters everybody's life even without one's consideration.

Man is a sodal animal. He has many desires, needs and wants. All his actions and activities are directed towards one ultimate purpose or objective i.f!., the satisfaction of his wants. Wants are satisfied by the, use of goods and services. Hence goods and services must be moved from the producers and brought into the hands of the ultimate consumer; otherwi.se, production of goods and services has °no meaning. This movement or journey of goods involves a series of hurdles like lack of advertiseme)1t, finance problems etc. These problems must be solved and it is Marketing which solves problems. In short we can say that All the activities which are involved in the physical transfer and ownership of goods fonn part and parr:el of marketing.

This book provides and introduction to the principles of marketing, beginning from the underlying theoretical bases which are often borrowed from the disciplines of economics, sociology, and psychology. Practical application of theory is provided through case studies and vignettes. This booktries not to present prescriptive solutions to marketing problems, but encourages debate about causes and effects. Underlying much of the discussion in this book is the question of whether marketing should be considered a science or an art. In addition to chapters covering the traditional elements of the marketing mix, the book provides insights into issues of contemporary concern in marketing. A chapter is devoted to discussion of the social responsibility of marketing. The growing importance of direct marketing and the role ofelectronic commerce is reflected in a separate chapter. The role of information management is emphasized throughout the book. There is a separate chapter on the marketing of services, although throughout the text an attempt has been made to provide services examples, which reflect their relativeimportance in western economics. Practical applications of theory highlight shortcomings of established frameworks for the study of marketing, and the reader is encouraged to formulate alternative frameworks. Although the book has necessarily been divided into a number of chapter it recognizes that in the real world marketingcannot be neatly compartmentalized in this way. In an attempt to offer a holistic vision, each chapter closes with a summary of how that chapter relates to other chapters. Vignettes and case studies provide integrative perspectives. To encourage further study each chapter contains suggestions forfurther reading and a selection of useful websites.