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21St Century Marketing

Whilst marketing can be defined as a complex social and managerial process through which firms and individuals can obtain what they require through the creation and exchanging of products and values with others, the process can be considered an vital attribute of the modern day organisation, increasingly required to determine and fulfil the demands of the market within which they compete and strive to succeed. Success is largely attributed to the adequate identification of what “human demands” entail and providing a “combination of products, services, information or experiences” that will satisfy these needs and wants, in a manner perceived by the consumer to be “valuable”. Marketing management is the “art and science” through which firms choose a target market through which to establish and sustain a profitable relationship, and involves obtaining, retaining and developing customers by delivering and communicating a superior customer value. Current markets have become fiercely competitive largely due to technological and communicative developments aiding globalisation and altering the business context and through marketing management, firms must determine the adequate exchange of goods and information as a means of reaching the consumer in an ethical and efficient way whilst affecting the level, timing and nature of demand for the good or service they commercialize. Finely tuned demand management therefore can be said to be primordial to the achievement of corporate objectives. Low-cost airlines such as ´Easyjet´ and ´Ryanair´ are suited examples of successful demand management, whereby implementing pricing strategies, such as “children fly free”, “fly for free, pay only taxes for your flight” and other such promotions as a means of controlling demand for their no-frills, but highly reliable services. They identify seasonal demand fluctuations and invest greater amounts of capital in advertising at times when it may not be as convenient for the consumer to fly but...