Contemporary Issues in Marketing

Contemporary Issues in Marketing
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Section 2
Literature ReviewConcept of MarketingThe primary aim of marketing strategy in any organisation is to have sustenance of competitive advantage. Such strategies include both long-term and short-term activities that commonly include the analysis of the present situation of the company followed by choosing appropriate market-oriented techniques. These techniques would be effective in contributing to the achievement of the respective objectives. The strategies encompass activities that can provide direction or purpose give an appropriate solution to deal with the situation and ensure that the organisation can attain competitive advantage CITATION For10 l 1033 (Fornell et al., 2010).
Organisations usually construct unique products with full benefits to the consumers so as to give them a feeling of superiority compared to the services offered by their competitors. The seller market has enabled organisations to consider the behaviour of individual customers around the world.
There are up to five different concepts of marketing which include production, product, and selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts. Every concept has been developed in line with the market needs. The changes in the market has brought in the changes in the marketing field.
Production concept this involves the case of consumers preferring products that are usually widely present and inexpensive. This concept attracts more operations than any of the other concept. The management team tasked with this concept must concentrate on attaining high levels of production efficiency, reduced costs and mass distribution. This team would assume that consumers are interested specifically in the availability of the product and reduced prices. Such an orientation would bring in a sense of developing nations where most of the consumers focus solely on attaining products rather than in the features of these products.
Product concept most consumers would opt for products that bring in quality, performance and other innovative elements. This concept believes that consumers are most likely to become loyal enough in getting additional options in terms of products. In essence, the concept assumes that people tend to get additional benefits from consuming specific products of a company. The managing team tasked with this concept tend to make superior products and further improve them with time. These individuals would assume that the buyers admire properly made products and may further appraise the elements of quality and performance. Managers in most cases may be caught up in love affairs with the existing products where they may fail to realize the needs of the market. The managing team has the responsibility of committing the fallacy of the better mousetrap that leads people to beat a path towards its door (Hill and Brierley, 2017).
Selling concept this option depicts the fact that consumers would purchase products in the event that company aggressively promote and sell them. Selling has been seen as not the only tactic employed in selling products. Focussing on the marketing even comes first before selling. This orientation holds that in the event of leaving consumers and also businesses by themselves, they would ordinarily fail to purchase sufficient products of the company. The role of the firm then is to undertake aggressive selling and promotional efforts. Such concept believes that consumers would typically bring in the buying inertia or equally a resistance so they must be tricked into buying. Several firms practice this selling concept in the event of overcapacity with the objective of selling what they produce but not what the market desires.
Marketing concept this is the concept that relies on the needs and wants of the target markets. The objective of this element is in delivering value ahead of the competitors. This concept of marketing tend to believe that the pull strategy is necessary in making a brand stronger than the customers would prefer to brand the competitor. Marketing is the best way of attaining this feature. This concept represents the biggest change in the current orientation of companies to offer foundations for attaining competitive advantages. It relies on the philosophy of consultative selling. The marketing concept differs with the sales concept in two areas
The sales concept lays more focus on the sellers needs while the marketing concept focuses more on the buyers needs
The sales concept is usually preoccupied with the needs of the seller to convert his products into cash while the marketing concept majorly is preoccupied with the idea of satisfying the objectives of the customer mainly by offering the product as a solution to the needs and problems of the customer.
Any company that follows the selling concept would undertake very high risks while the companies that follow the marketing concept tend to require lesser risks and uncertainties.
It is evident that the selling concept tend to make poor assumptions while the marketing concept tend to work strictly on facts that have been gathered by the market and consumers first approaches.
The focus of selling concept usually begin at the production level while the focus of the marketing concept usually begin at the comprehension of the market.
Societal marketing concept this is the concept that tend to focus on target markets and in delivering value that exceed that of competitors. This concept is an evolution of the marketing concept which is a yet another refined orientation of the company. It is quite theoretical in the sense that it offers undoubted kind of influence in the future forms of both marketing and selling. The concept propagates that the firm is tasked with determining the needs, wants and even interests of potential market. The delivery of such factors relies heavily on the efficient and effective form of competitors. The concept further offers a way of preserving and further enhancing the consumers and their well-being in the society. This concept covers what the marketing concept had side-stepped which was the prospective conflict existing amongst the wants of the consumers, their interests and the longer run welfare of the society.
Marketing strategyIt is observed in the research of Ganguli amp Roy (2011), the aim of any organisation to utilise marketing strategies is to ensure a competitive advantage that helps the organisation to sustain in the market for a longer duration. The primary explorative strategy that is usually utilised by private firms includes product strategy. Several companies utilise eight strategies to ensure product development and outreach to the customers effectively. The primary strategy involves the generation of a particular idea about service or product innovations. After having a list of ideas involved, the firms have a selection of the particular ones that are found to be practical enough for implementation.
In the third stage, the organisations test these concepts in real time, followed by the development of the marketing strategy to address how the product or service can be brought into the particular market. According to Freng Svendsen et alCITATION Fre11 n t l 1033 . (2011), the marketing strategy involved generally uses sales forecasting, positioning strategy, segmentation and targeting. Since cash flow is critical for the private firms, the fifth stage focuses explicitly toward it to ensure the particular product or the service maintains the organisational progress in all directions.
After utilising all the above stages, the sixth stage involves product or service development or updating based on the information obtained in the above stages. The development of the observed prototypes enables the organisations to ensure development and test if the product works in real time. The prototype is shared with few customers, which is often followed by market testing in the seventh level. The final stage involves the official launch of the new version of the present product or new strategies of the services used. Such aspects provide real-time phenomenon to consumer satisfaction as comprehended by Ganguli amp Roy CITATION Gan111 n t l 1033 (2011).
Sheth CITATION She11 n t l 1033 (2011) stated other strategies utilised by the organisations include pricing and promotion. Several organisations, primarily the private, use specific pricing strategies to ensure a constant flow of revenue within the firm. Certain firms price their products at affordable or even cheaper rates to attract more of them toward the product or service. Kumar et al. CITATION Kum10 n t l 1033 (2010), determine some organisations offer discount packages to attract customers. Such aspects are considered and implemented based on specific products. However, organisations such as utility companies offering water and power services can still ensure development by utilising similar pricing strategies.
Customer retention and satisfactionCustomer retention can be described as the practice of working with a view of satisfying customers and also with the intent of developing longer term relationships with them. It involves that commitment to carry on business or to further exchange with a certain company on a continual basis. Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty. Loyalty results from the organization coming up with a benefit for the customer for maintaining and increasing purchases from the firm. Loyalty can be seen as the undying commitment to re-buy and even re-patronize the products and services in a constant manner to a level that would cause a switch in behaviour. The truest sense of customer loyalty emanates from the call to advocate for firm even without any form of incentives (Hill and Brierley, 2017).
The ability to build a customer loyalty base pertains to coming up with a choice that remains within the businesses of company as the potential way of attaining sustainable competitive advantage. To attain this standard of loyalty, customers must seek to get the right marketing objective involving the main players across all sectors. Some of the strategic imperatives set for building loyal customer bases include focusing on the major customers, generating high customer satisfaction levels proactively, anticipating customer needs and also responding prior to presence of competition. It is further recommended to build closer kind of ties with customers and also come up with value perception elements. The modern world has attracted an increased recognition which is an ultimate aim necessary for customer satisfaction measuring in the event of boosting customer loyalty. The increase in customer satisfaction levels is as a result of customers becoming less prone to overtures arising from competitions.
According to Sheth CITATION She11 n t l 1033 (2011), key factors such as retention and satisfaction include the attitude and behaviour of customers. It is clear that to ensure the intervention of the marketing efforts on the consumers the organisations should be involved in the exploration of the factors concerning the particular service. Balmer amp Chen CITATION Bal172 n t l 1033 (2017) have outlined the factors that relate to customer satisfaction involve response, client contracts, complaints, transactional data and efforts of marketing which also correspond to the behaviour of the individual.
Furthermore, Williams amp Naumann CITATION Wil11 n t l 1033 (2011), has outlined the philosophy and context of a particular company can place an impact that is more significant over the retention and satisfaction of the customers. Once these organisations recognise their customers, they can employ several tactics to have higher satisfaction. However, the commitment level of the organisations and the consumers would further determine the retention within the firm. When the customers are found to be committed to the firm, the organisation spends much lesser time on the customer satisfaction and retention. On the other hand, Melis (2015) stated that when consumers have not been committed to the organisation, the latter are forced to utilise several tactics to enable retention.
Impact of marketing strategies over Customer satisfaction factorCustomer satisfaction has featured greatly as a key input in the latest definitions of marketing. Researchers have factored in the element of customer satisfaction and several other aspects that focus on satisfying the customer and the strategy of marketing. There is a need to put customer satisfaction at the heart of marketing with the aspect of profit coming in as the reward for customer satisfaction attainment. In essence, the only objective of marketing is identifying and comprehending the client so highly to an extent that the firm comes up with a product or service to satisfy the client thereby selling itself.
The definition of marketing is highly significant to each party who participates in commercial transactions since they seek to bring in the operations of the firm with the delivery of customer satisfaction. It further attempts to fulfil the needs and wants of the client. This kind of satisfaction is key in this context purely since it relates to customer value. Marketing has key activities which include identifying the markets, identifying the needs of the customers in such a market and categorizing their needs (Buckley, Mulholland and OReilly, 2018). It further relates to shortlisting the specific needs that can be fulfilled by the firm, making decisions on products, prices, places and promotions and availing products to the market. Finally, marketing touches on upgrading products to attain the changing situations and wants of the customers. It is also important to consider the cooperation with different departments with a view of getting resources.
Several organisations utilise strategy to focus more on new customers than the older ones. It is because new customers have a higher potential for growth as compared to the older ones. Such factors also affect the position of the company altogether. Furthermore, Slater et alCITATION Sla101 n t l 1033 . (2010), emphasised that the retention factor can lead the organisation towards potential growth and higher positions in the competitive market. For this, key drivers of satisfaction should be recognised so that the organisations can attain benefit. The measurement of customer satisfaction is critically important because it provides an overview of the fundamental aspects that can help in achieving competitive advantage with loyalty being the first and key aspect.
At present, the factors of customer satisfaction have been used to maintain a long-term customer-management relationship. A satisfied consumer can enable word-of-mouth aspect to communicate the organisational benefits with other consumers. Furthermore, Malshe and Agarwal CITATION Mal153 n t l 1033 (2015), show that the financial performances of many private firms have been enhanced due to the increment in customer satisfaction rates. Such aspects provide ultimate evidence of the fact that customer retention is highly responsible for the outcomes of the efforts used by the organisation.
Furthermore, Kang and Park CITATION Kan14 n t l 1033 (2014), determined that the marketing strategies place significant influence over the business strategies to ensure development. When the marketing efforts are performed adequately, the organisation can get an enrichment of sales and expansions of service or products, finally attaining competitive advantage. Thus, as stated by Best CITATION Bes12 n t l 1033 (2012), the marketing strategies can readily enhance the organisational performance increasing profitability.
Santouridis and TrivellasCITATION San10 n t l 1033 (2010), have discussed the factors associated with the marketing mix included product, promotion, and place. These are established based on an appropriate impact on the aspects of organisational performance and innovation. Among them, strategic marketing aspects drive the organisations in the environment that aims at making the firms progress toward the achievement of objectives.
As stated by Oliver CITATION Oli141 n t l 1033 (2014), that the organisational strategies used by the managers led to the growth of the particular product resulting in heightened revenue. The strategies mostly utilised by Middle East organisations had been concerning auditory marketing, place, content localisation, animation, product creation, and pricing. It can be said that the customer satisfaction level had been higher in that organisation that led to the advancement of the organisation as observed by Zablah et alCITATION Zab16 n t l 1033 . (2016).In essence, the company has a lot of products that it can offer to the clientele. This is because such customers would demand quicker and better services from the company. For instance, if the company is to survive from stiff competition, they ought to upgrade the quality of service it offers, there must be more transparency and integrity necessary for acquiring and also retaining the customers to a longer term. There is a further need for setting up offers and even value proposition set to be delivered to prospective customers. This then calls for thorough market research with the objective of comprehending the needs of the clients and launching products that match with their expectations. Firms should seek to continuously improve the services and also products they offer in terms of raising their creativity.
It can be quite easy for the firm to gain a competitive advantage in the event that competition is stiff by fostering change, recapitalization and consolidation. This study focuses on finding out if the company has undertaken any form of marketing innovation with a view of attaining competitive advantage in the industry. Marketing creativity is key in determining the success of the firm. Marketing innovation would satisfy the customers by improving the business further to attain competitive advantage.
Gap AnalysisIn line with this case study, there are a wide range of studies that have been carried out in relation to this particular field. Most previous researchers have then managed to formulate perspectives. However, when it comes to underpinning actual perception of customers and employees on the same scale to formulate direction of strategy is something different.
The focus of this study outlines customer satisfaction and engagement of customers in utility firms of the U.A.E and especially private ones which has not been discussed previously. The U.A.E market is continuously developing and taking new dimensions within it to improve their customer service criteria. This study will help such measures to formulate perspective about customer satisfaction and its association with marketing approach in this particular industry to achieve their targets (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown and Armstrong, 2015). Conducting gap analysis will assist in improving the business efficiency, products and profitability through the ability to pin out the prevailing gaps in the firm. The complete gap analysis assist in focusing the company resources and also the energy which identifies the areas seeking more improvement. This section attempts to look into the template of conducting gap analysis that can be utilized by the company. There are four steps that would be outlined to ensure that the current issues are faced and fixed promptly.
Identification of the present state of affairs
As seen in Section 1, the company needs to develop a balanced scorecard. According to previous research work, the priority areas must come first. For instance, in the event of a banking organization that needs to grow by 30 in a year yet has been growing by 8 ought to change its way of operations. This places the present state of affairs at only 8 growth. It should be noted that the present state of affairs does not only refer to the financial performance. There is a lot that is considered in the analysis of the state of affairs.
Identification of where the company should be
Research shows that what guides the future are the objectives of the company. This is a desired state is a target in itself that the company will want to attain someday. The gap analysis in terms of gap analysis remains within the context of strategic plan and looks more into the strategic plan of the firm. A chart can be set up to clearly represent the current state against that of the future state.

Explanation
From the graph, we can identify the gap to be the area lying below the potential line curve but above the performance line curve. In essence, the performance line shows where the company is and where it is headed especially if it does nothing in line with reducing the gap existing. On the other hand, the potential line represent exactly where the firm desires to be or could be in the event of administering the recommendations of existing gaps.
Identification of the prevailing gaps
Zablah (2016) argues that several gaps have been identified correctly, and it is now the duty of the organization to recognize where it wants to be in the future. This is the point of bridging the gap existing between the current and future state of affairs. The difference existing between where the company is and where it seeks to be in future remains as the key goal both immediate and in the longer term.
At the identification of gaps in the department, the firm must ensure that the set objective and the prevailing state of affairs do exist within the same period. In the event that the objective of the firm is within a span of half a decade, the company should extrapolate the state for the same period to come. It is very significant to figure out the reasons why gaps exist for the firm.
Identification starts by the firm being very particular about the gap. For instance, in the event that the revenue per worker is less than expected or planned, one must question the variance. The company must find out if there are issues in the manner of their work, with customers or even with places. The other element involves digging deeper to determine the causes of the gap Zablah et alCITATION Zab16 n t l 1033 . (2016). This is best done by making inquiries and further questioning the root causes of the gap for them to be clear enough. The major questions here include
Why are the clients proving very difficult to work with This may be because they require a customized approach on some sectors.
Why did the company not imagine the potential problem currently affecting the clients This could be because the firm began in different industry yet they are now pursuing another sector.
Why has the company not built a reasonable product in the present industry This is best answered by the fact that product development people have not been thinking of any newer offerings in terms of the products.
Why is the company not considering any need for newer product offerings This is because it could be the personnel are too busy for custom products.
Devising the improvements towards closing the gaps
Finally, after finding out the presence of gaps in the industry, the company must figure out the real course of action that are closer to it (Tynan and McKechnie, 2009). There are particular guidelines that must be followed in ensuring that a solid factor comes to being.
Improvements must be based on the information found out during identification
In the event that the team is extremely busy undertaking custom work, it will be quite difficult to step back and come up with a newer product offering. In the event that the company stops considering custom works for some weeks, this will fully free up the workers and come up with a scalable product required by the target customers.
The cost implementation element must be considered for every solution
It is a possibility that firm lacks the ability of working with the existing clientele. The solution to this can be outsourcing developments for newer product offerings for instance through partnering with other organizations.
Find out the period when the gaps would be resolved
If there is no set end to the need for customer experience improvements, it may look as though the company is overlooking or ignoring its mandate. It is very critical to have a completion date since it will allow the setting up of milestones to ensure success is felt.
Summary
In summary, the gap analysis conducted in the literature review section is meant to push forward the agenda of the company. This follows the fact that there is a huge prospective for growth for the company. There are proper solutions that have been cautiously crafted in the event of cracks prevailing through. Companies should not bother to close up several gaps that are facing them since they could be instances of inviting stressful acts to the firm and for further bringing in the existing gaps. Just like a business plan, the marketing strategies may become fluid and change in line with the need to alter the results. As soon as the business is operational, you ought to assess and further adjust the marketing strategy from time to time. This helps in accounting for the changes prevailing in the market conditions, the shifting in demand and several other factors which may impact on the sales from various market research actions and performances of the business. The company selling and marketing efforts are guided by the foregoing philosophies. They define the aspects of relative weights that is given for the interests of the companies, the clients and the society at large. Such interests may clash but the organizational marketing and selling actions must be undertaken under a well-designed pedestal of efficiency, effectiveness and also social responsibility (Baker,2016). All organizational actions have been guided successfully by the concepts of the marketplace. Such design of strategies would build very profitable relationships with the target consumers.
References
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing In The Marketing Book (pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Balmer, J.M. and Chen, W., 2017. Chinas brands, Chinas brand development strategies and corporate brand communications in China. In Advances in Chinese Brand Management (pp. 19-47). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Best, R., 2012. Market-based management. Pearson Higher Ed.Buckley, C., Mulholland, D. and OReilly, O., 2018. A gap analysis between the outline document for the integrated care programme and draft models of care for four chronic diseases in Ireland. International Journal of Integrated Care, 18(s2).
Freng Svendsen, M., Haugland, S.A., Grnhaug, K. and Hammervoll, T., 2011. Marketing strategy and customer involvement in product development. European Journal of Marketing, 45(4), pp.513-530.
Ganguli, S. and Roy, S.K., 2011. Generic technology-based service quality dimensions in banking Impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 29(2), pp.168-189.
Hill, N. and Brierley, J., 2017. How to measure customer satisfaction. Routledge.
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015. Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Kumar, V., Aksoy, L., Donkers, B., Venkatesan, R., Wiesel, T. and Tillmanns, S., 2010. Undervalued or overvalued customers capturing total customer engagement value. Journal of service research, 13(3), pp.297-310.
Malshe, A. and Agarwal, M.K., 2015. From finance to marketing the impact of financial leverage on customer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing, 79(5), pp.21-38.
Melis, K., Campo, K., Breugelmans, E. and Lamey, L., 2015. The impact of the multi-channel retail mix on online store choice does online experience matter. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), pp.272-288.
Oliver, R.L., 2014. Satisfaction A behavioral perspective on the consumer A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Routledge.
Santouridis, I. and Trivellas, P., 2010. Investigating the impact of service quality and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in mobile telephony in Greece. The TQM Journal, 22(3), pp.330-343.
Sheth, J.N., 2011. Impact of emerging markets on marketing Rethinking existing perspectives and practices. Journal of marketing, 75(4), pp.166-182.
Slater, D., 2010. Ordering power Contentious politics and authoritarian leviathans in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press.
Williams, P. and Naumann, E., 2011. Customer satisfaction and business performance a firm-level analysis. Journal of services marketing, 25(1), pp.20-32.
Zablah, A.R., Carlson, B.D., Donavan, D.T., Maxham III, J.G. and Brown, T.J., 2016. A cross-lagged test of the association between customer satisfaction and employee job satisfaction in a relational context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), p.743.