Page 141 - Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies
P. 141
10 Marketing, competition
and the customer
Introduction
Objectives
Think about something that you’ve bought recently. What persuaded you to buy
In this chapter you will
it? An advert? A salesperson? Perhaps a friend? In this chapter you are going to
learn about:
begin your study of marketing. The first thing to learn about marketing is that
■ the role of marketing it is much more than just advertising and selling the goods and services of a
business.
■ why markets change and how
businesses respond You will learn what is meant by the term ‘market’ and the role of marketing in
■ niche marketing and mass identifying and satisfying consumer needs. You will also look at how consumers
marketing and competitors influence markets and the way businesses respond. Finally, you
■ market segmentation. will consider how and why businesses divide the whole market into smaller parts,
or segments.
The role of marketing
Business activity involves more than just coming up with an idea for a product
or service, making it and then selling it. First, the managers of a business need to
understand what customers want. This may include identifying or even predicting
139
what they require. Then the business has to produce exactly what customers want.
Finally, managers need to make
sure that they have satisfi ed
customer requirements. So, from
this you can see that marketing
is an essential part of a business’s
activities.
Identifying and satisfying
TOP TIP customer needs
You must learn and understand You have already learned the
the key terms of marketing, difference between consumers’
market segmentation, niche and
needs and wants. Th e basic
mass marketing.
needs of individuals are goods
and services that are necessary
for survival – water, food,
clothing and shelter. However, in
addition to these essential needs,
individuals will also have things
they would like, but which are not
necessary for their survival. Th ese
Consumer needs and wants: are known as ‘wants’.
see Chapter 1, page 9.
The main role of marketing
is to convert the wants of an
individual into a need.
A billboard advertisement
