A Generic Concept of Marketing

Kotler, Philip, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36, No. 2. (Apr., 1972), pp. 46-54

The aim of this article is to identify the concept of marketing and discuss the debates whether marketing is business oriented or customer focused.

According to Kotler, marketing has gone through different phases with different focus in each phase. Commodity focus is seen as farm products, minerals, manufactured goods, services; an institutional focus has dealt with producers, wholesalers, retailers and agents; a functional focus with emphasis on buying, selling, promoting, transporting, storing, pricing activities, a managerial focus with emphasis on analysis, planning, organization, control aspects and social focus with emphasis on market efficiency, product quality and social impact.

The scope of marketing can be examined in three parts; First part is identified as “consciousness one” by Kotler. “Consciousness one” sees the concept of marketing as a business subject and emphasized on trade; buying and selling activity. However in “consciousness two”, the main element of trade, payment, is not necessary. The aim is targeting consumers, market analysis and planning. With “consciousness two”, marketing evolved from market transactions to organization – client transaction. With “consciousness there”, the transaction is not only limited to customers but organization’s supporters, suppliers, employees, government, general public are all became the target of marketing. This concept introduced with “consciousness three” could be called generic marketing according to Kotler.

 To define the criteria for generic marketing, four axioms are identified;

1. Marketing involves two or more social units.
2. At least one of the social units is seeking a specific response from one or more other units concerning some social object.
3. The market's response probability is not fixed.
4. Marketing is the attempt to produce the desired response by creating and offering values to the market.

 With this new marketing process, marketing activities are reclassified as target market classification; product classification and marketer classification.

Target market classification differentiates the market activity according to the different “publics”. Public is defined as a “group with potential interest and impact on an organization”. Every organization has up to nine publics. There are three input publics (supporters, employees, suppliers), two output publics (agents, consumers), and four sanctioning publics (government, competitors, special publics, and general public). Marketing activities are directed by these groups since these groups are targets.

A product classification of marketing consists of goods marketing, service marketing, organization marketing, person marketing, place marketing, and idea marketing. The expertise is specified on the product.

Marketer classification focuses on the organization itself. Organizations are classified according to their character; Business organization marketing, political organization marketing, social organization marketing, religious organization marketing, cultural organization marketing, and knowledge organization marketing. Marketers should make market and product analysis and the major planning tasks are identified as product development, pricing, distribution and promotion. In addition to planning tasks, since nature of the organization is critical in this approach organizational task are also identified such as organization design, strategic staffing and motivation.

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