ESL 91
SPRING, 2002
FOCUS DISCIPLINE ESSAYS
BUSINESS

Nadia Manuylidi
ESL 91
Spring, 2002

Essay Topic: Explore the area of marketing in business. What is marketing? Using examples of specific products, explain the importance of the four marketing utilities and the law of supply and demand in business. Also speak a bit about how the principles of marketing have changed as a result of the Internet.

Marketing is the most important business function and it also is a thinking part of a business. In marketing you have to plan ahead “to provide satisfaction of needs and wants through ideas, products, and services” (Marketing: An Introduction, http://www.davedolack.com/c-mktg-1.htm). To access the needs and wants of prospective customers, marketing needs to use different statistics, and to do a lot of research to make an exchange possible. There are also four forms of utilities, which every business must meet if they want the business to keep going. These are - form, place, time, and possession utilities.

First of all there is form utility. It means that the product the consumer wants has to be exactly what the consumer will pay the money for. It has to be in the right size, color and material. For example: once I wanted to buy a blazer. I went to the store and found a beautiful blazer, exactly what I wanted. It was my size and my color. But when I looked at the label, I realized that it was not what I needed. The blazer was made with polyester and I wanted it to be 100% cotton. So, I was really disappointed, but I didn’t buy that blazer, because I didn’t need a polyester blazer. After all, the blazer didn’t have form utility for me, and so I didn’t buy the product.

Second is place utility. Place utility means that the product you want to buy has to be in a location where you will be able to go to. The product wouldn’t have place utility, if what you want is far away from you. For example: last summer my mother went to the store to buy a dress. She found one in a catalog, and she asked a sales person if she could buy it. He told her to wait for a couple of minutes while he was checking it out. So, after a while he came by and he said that the dress my mother wanted is located in another store, which is 40 miles away from the city. My mother didn’t want to drive 80 miles a day for a single dress, so she didn’t buy the dress. The item didn’t have place utility for my mother.

The third utility is time utility. This is means that the product you want has to be available at the time you need it. Otherwise there is going to be no time utility for you. For example: my sister decided to go to a hot springs in the middle of November. It was her birthday and she invited some of her friends to go with her. She started to look for a bathing suit for her birthday at the hot springs. The reality was that she couldn’t find one anywhere. So she didn’t buy a bathing suit, and after it she didn’t go to the hot springs. In this example you can see that there was no exchange for my sister, because the item didn’t have time utility for her.

Possession is the fourth and the last utility. This utility must be met after all three previous utilities. The product has to be at the time you want it, at the location you will be able to go to, and in the form you want it to be. If the item meets all of these utilities, then there is possession utility for the consumer. However, if the store doesn’t accept the consumers’ method of payment, then the possession utility wouldn’t take place. For example: we went to McDonald’s one day. It was just a few blocks away from us, so we didn’t have to take a long ride. It was lunch time, exactly what we were going for. And they had a grilled chicken sandwich, which is what I just love. We gave our order and wanted to pay with a credit card. But, unfortunately, McDonald’s doesn’t accept payments by the credit cards. We didn’t have any cash with us, and so we had to leave. Possession utility failed for us because we didn’t get the product we wanted.

Furthermore, supply and demand are also very important factors in business marketing. By knowing the relationship between supply and demand the market knows the price for a product. So, when there is a large competition to buy the product, then the price for the item is high. This happens when demand exceeds supply. However, if there are very few consumers who demand the product and the stock is full, then the price will greatly decrease. In this case supply exceeds demand. For example: at the beginning of the winter everybody runs to the store to buy warm clothes. The store administration knows that the consumers will purchase warm clothes at any given price. And the consumer buys warm clothes at the price the store gave to the product. At the end of a cold season, nobody needs warm clothes anymore. So, the store administration has to reduce the price. And the consumer can buy the product for as low as 75% off the original price.

Today the consumers have more opportunities to purchase what they want. And the Internet plays a major role in it. Now a consumer doesn’t even have to go anywhere to get the product, or to make an exchange. All he has to do is to go on the Internet and to find a product he wants to buy. Because Internet helps to provide the four utilities for most products. And it’s easier to go and do it, it takes much less time, and it’s also keeps pressure off your nervous system. And the consumers can be sure that the price for the product on the Internet will be the same or even less than the store price.

Also, the Internet is a very effective method to make a deal, if the consumer cannot purchase a product by going to the store and buying it. Sometimes consumers can order the product straight from the manufacturer. Thus maximizing their chances of getting exactly what they want at the time they want it. And if the consumers don’t find what they want ‘today’, they have a good chance of finding it within a few days. Or they can preorder what they need and receive it as soon as the company they are purchasing an item from gets it in stock. The consumer can do it if the product he wants to buy can be ordered by mail with a credit card. For example: I was looking for a computer, and I checked every store nearby, but I didn’t find what I wanted. So, I used the Internet to find what I needed. And I found a perfect computer for my use. To order it online I had to give hem my credit card number, my personal information, and my home address (but it didn’t have to be my home address, I could’ve given them any address, where I wanted my PC to be delivered). In couple of days I had my computer. At this point the possession utility worked for me ideally. From my example you can see how good it was for me to use Internet. There is always a possible solution for a product you want, and couldn’t find, by using the Internet.

The other big factor is that Television + Internet are working together. Sometimes when you see a commercial, you don’t have enough time to get all the information you want to know. In this order some of the companies have the name of their web site in the commercial. If consumers are interested in the product they see on TV, they can go on the Internet and find more information about it. Also television has some channels like: Home Shopping Network, where the consumer gets all the information he needs to know about the product. Every item there has a pin number, and the consumer can order it with the phone. But, HSN also has their own website, where they have all the products the consumers see on TV. So, he can always go there and order it on the Internet as well as on the phone. So, Internet Marketing rapidly grows bigger and shopping on the web becomes common to more and more people.

Understanding all aspects in business and marketing helps producers to research the market and give consumers exactly what they want. Providing form, place, time, and possession utilities makes people want to purchase the product. Running a good advertisement campaign provides people with the product information. Using the Internet to sell a product will possibly generate more consumers for the company selling the product. So, if the business has all the components it takes, then it will be on target for a long time. 

Works Cited:

Kasper Loretta F. (1998) Interdisciplinary English (2^nd edition). New York: McGraw-Hill Inc. 

FOCUS Associates - http://www.focusa.com

Marketing: An Introduction - http://www.davedolak.com/c-mktg1.htm

Definition of Marketing - http://sop.campbell.edu/faculty/Delia/Module%2010/

Return to the Top of this page

Nadia Manuylidi
ESL 91
Spring, 2002

Every company has to pay careful attention to the consumer’s psychological factors to be on target for those consumers. A company must do a lot of research on consumer behavior, needs, attitudes, perceptions, and motives. Companies must use different research information to understand what the consumer needs the most. What do they need for their use? What motives will make them want to buy and use the product? Which marketing attitude should the company use to interest the consumer in the product? Understanding and answering those questions plays a very important role in a company’s decision to make a product.

There are millions of consumers outside of a company. There are millions of different people with different needs and wants. A company must get very familiar with every age, ethnic or intellectual group. Also the company must recognize what strategy it will use to provide the market with the product. Because consumers would like to know about the product before trying it, it’s an excellent idea to run good advertising about it.

Use of proper research information helps a company choose the product it will make. Also it helps to pick the best market strategy for it. There are three types of market-coverage strategies. First: undifferentiated marketing, which according to Philip Kotler, is "a market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one market offer"-(Kotler-Marketing Encyclopedia). For example: right now the whole jeans market is doing these super low jeans. It’s targeting young women and teenagers. It’s popular, so companies don’t spend a lot of money on advertising and don’t lose any money by producing this product. Second: differentiated marketing-"a market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each"- (Kotler-Marketing Encyclopedia). For example: Ford makes many different types of cars for everyone in different groups. It makes low priced cars for not very high income consumers. It makes sports cars for people who like the speed and shape. It makes family minivans for families with children. By producing all these different types of cars, Ford is targeting a lot of people who need a new car. Third: concentrated marketing, which according to Bovee and Thill, is "a marketing approach that focuses on a small part of the market with a single or limited line of similar products; it can be used by firms with limited resources or in markets with specialized customer segments"-(Bovee and Thill-Marketing Encyclopedia). This market strategy can be used for one ethnic group, one intellectual group, or a group with one interest. For example: a lot of Russian speaking people live in the Brighton Beach area, so, Brighton Beach Avenue has stores that target only Russian speaking people by providing them with Russian advertisements, Russian speaking staff, and Russian products such as food, clothing, and newspapers. Even when those stores carry a line of non-Russian products, they still advertise them in Russian. And even some stores which are not Russian, such as "Petland Discount", "Berta", and others hire Russian speaking staff and run Russian ads to target Russian speaking audience.

After all, the company must think about ways of catching the attention of consumers. Companies spend millions of dollars each year to research the consumer’s needs and behavior. Furthermore, companies invest millions of dollars into advertising campaigns. Some companies hire celebrities to advertise the products. Some companies use pets and children to do so. And some ask professionals to talk about the product. All of that is done in order to catch the attention of consumers and convince them that the product being advertised is exactly what they need. And even the smallest companies out there try to advertise in any way possible. Whether or not it’s a huge discount poster, or "Buy One, Get One Free" signs it is still a way to attract customers to purchase more products. But every company must know the limits in advertising the product because if consumers see too much of the same commercials over and over, they start to dislike the promotional product and after a while even hate it.

The research of consumer needs, motives, perceptions, and attitudes plays a very important role in a company’s decision to make a product. For example: the actual research shows that the consumer will more likely buy a product in a bigger package than in a small one. The consumer psychology is: the bigger package has more products in it; the smaller has less. This is not necessarily true, but the consumer takes the bigger package automatically, just because it looks bigger. Or another example: the consumer most likely will buy the product in a package with bright colors on it, than in one with white, grey or black colors. Of course the color of the package depends on the product it has in it, but I’m talking about the everyday use products. Would you buy onion potato chips in a grey package, if right next to it you saw the same potato chips in a bright yellow-green package? I am pretty sure you would take the bright one because bright colors catch the attention of a consumer.

In conclusion, advertisements and marketing play a major role in today’s business world. Without the right research and marketing strategies, companies are less likely to succeed or may even go bankrupt. In order to succeed, companies must research consumer needs prior to advertising a product and then start a big marketing campaign, so that customers will get familiar with that product. Of course, the product itself must be of quality. Otherwise a company will just waste an enormous amount of money.

Marketing Encyclopedia: Communications, Environment, Information, Management & Operations. Online: http://www.nets.kz/ilia.nets.kz/marketing.html