We will illustrate marketing management as the conscious effort to accomplish desired exchange results within target markets. What marketing philosophies will guide these marketing efforts? What weight will be given to the interests of an organization, the customers or the thin market? Very often these concerns conflict.

Marketing functions are implemented under a specific philosophy. These ideas provide direction and focus to make the most of production, deliverability and profits. Failure to identify and modify business strategies causes established companies to lose market share or to fail completely.

Marketing management can be broken down into five competing concepts or philosophies with which a business or organization will conduct marketing activities such as production, product, selling, marketing, and societal awareness concepts. These concepts are reactions to different periods in US economic history. Each period presented distinct challenges for economic survival and prosperity. The evolution of a production or product method to a selling, consumer, and even societal method has been driven by major socio-economic and geo-political changes during the past two and fifty years.

The production concept is a foundational philosophy that guides marketers. The production concept is the primary philosophy in two common situations. First is where demand for a product outpaces supply. Managements reaction should be to concentrate on finding increasing production. The second situation finds the product’s cost is too high and improved productivity is needed to reduce it. Henry Ford’s philosophy was to systematize the production of the model T so that manufacturing costs would be lowered and become accessible to more people. He joked famously about offering people any color car as long as it was black. Today home builders practice this philosophy of pursuing production efficiencies and lower costs in order to sell bigger homes at lower prices. They succeeded in winning a major share of the American housing market with this philosophy. However, when track builders applied the same strategy in the subdivision market, it failed. Although they large homes were priced low, over saturation occurred and customers did not find these prices attractive any more.

Many service organizations also follow the production concept. Many hospitals and outpatient practices are organized on assembly-line principles, as are some government agencies such as unemployment offices and license bureaus. Although efficiencies are realized, this type of management is causes client frustration through the absence of personal attention.

The product concept is another major concept guiding sellers. The product concept holds that consumers will favor those products that offer the most quality, performance, and features, and therefore the organization should devote its energy to making continuous product improvements. Many manufacturers believe that if they can build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to their door. But they are often rudely shocked. The buyers are looking for a solution to a mouse problem, but not necessarily a better mousetrap. The solution that works better than a mousetrap. Furthermore, a better mousetrap will not sell unless the manufacturer takes positive steps to design, package, and price it to the attention of persons who need it, and convince e them that it has superior qualities.

The product concept can lead to marketing myopia. Newspaper management thought that readers wanted printed news rather than electronic news and overlooked the growing challenge of search engines, blogs, email, and instant messaging. Auto manufacturers thought that consumers wanted gasoline powered vehicles rather than cheap transportation and over-looked the challenge of alternative energy powered vehicles.

In the following articles, we will drive deeper into the selling concept, the marketing concept and the societal marketing concept. Each served as a the primary template for its period only to be adjusted as American business changes.

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