Marketing Notes for Competitive Exams

Dear readers, since Marketing is a major portion of SBI Exams, so here we are presenting you
some quick notes on Marketing . Hope they prove to be useful in the upcoming exam.

Market : It is a physical place or an environment where sellers and buyers meet

together to exchange goods and services.
Marketing : It is the sum total of all activities that are related to the free flow of goods
from the producer to the customer. Getting the right goods & services, to the right people,
at the right place, at the right time and at the right price.
Marketing Management: It is the art and science of choosing target markets and
getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating
superior customer value.
Market Research: It is a process of collection and analyzing information regarding
customer needs and buying habits, the nature of competition in the market, prevailing
prices, distribution network, effectiveness of advertising media etc for arriving at a
decision.
Relationship Marketing: It is basically building mutually satisfying long term
relationships with key parties like customers, suppliers, distributors and other marketing
partners in order to earn and retain their business.
Direct Marketing: It consists of a manufacturer selling directly to the final customer. It
is also called zero level channel. The major examples are door-to-door sales,
telemarketing, Internet selling etc.
Packaging: It involves putting the goods in attractive packets according to the
convenience of consumers. Well designed packages can build brand equity and drive
sales. The package is the buyer's first encounter with the product and is capable of
turning the buyer on or off.
Personal Selling: It is a part of promotional activity. It involves communicating directly
with the target audience through paid personnel of the company or its agents for making
sales.
SWOT Analysis:

PEST Analysis:

Marketing Mix (4P's):

Product, Price, Place, Promotion

Viral Marketing: Marketing by the word of mouth having a high pass route from person
to person is called viral marketing. It can create a splash in the market place to showcase
a brand and its noteworthy features.
Product Policy: It is concerned with defining the type, volume and timing of the
products a company offer for sale.
Rights of consumers: Right to safety, Right to be informed, Right to choose, Right to be
heard Right to seek redressal, Right to consumer education.
Cross Selling: An exposure to various other unutilized services of the bank to a customer
is called cross selling. It also includes identifying customer needs, matching the products
to customer needs, convincing the customers of product benefits & responding to
questions and objections of customers.
SME's: It stands for Small & Medium Enterprises.
Market Expansion: It is growth in sales through existing and new products by adopting
competitive strategies. It includes expanding the total market, defending market share,
expanding market share etc.
Product Diversification: It refers to manufacturing or distributing more than one
product by the producer or dealer.
Marketing Plan: It is a written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned
about the market place and indicates how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives.
It is the one of the most important outputs of the marketing process.
Green Marketing: It is a new environment friendly marketing technique.
Product Elimination: It is a process of removing product from the product line (it is a
group of products that are closely related to each other).
Drip Marketing: The method of sending promotional items to clients is called drip
marketing.
Selling: It is confined to persuasion of consumers to buy firm's goods and services. It
involves the transfer of ownership of goods to create possession utility.
Bench Marketing: A comparison of the business processes with competitors and
improving prevailing ones is called bench marketing.
Qualities of a good seller: Devotion to the work, Submissive, Sympathy, Active mind
set, Communication skill, Creativity, Motivation.
Prospect: A 'likely' interested customer of the bank is termed as a prospect.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): It allows the company to discover whom
its customers are, how they behave and what they need or want. It also enables the
company to respond appropriately, coherently and quickly to different customer
opportunities.
Call: In marketing, calling the prospective customer is known as a call.

Sales Forecasting: It is the expected level of company's sales based on a chosen

marketing plan an assumed marketing environment. It involves sales planning, sales
pricing, distribution channels, consumer tastes etc.
Motivation: It refers to inspiring one self and others to perform better.
Branding: The essence of a product, its quality and competitiveness displayed in the
form of letters, symbols and colours is known as branding.
Sales Forecasting: The method of estimating volume of sales that a company can expect
to attain within a planned period is called sales forecasting.
Marketing for Growth:

Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods
or services by an identified sponsor.
Segmentation: The process of dividing a market into a number of sub markets is known
as market segmentation.
Positioning: The development of marketing mix to influence a customer's perception of a
brand is called positioning.
Consumer Behaviour: A consumer's buying behaviour is influenced by cultural, social,
personal and psychological factors.
Promotion: When a marketer persuades a person or group of prospective buyers, the
communication is termed as promotion.
Product Life Cycle (PLC): It is the life period of product in the market. The different
stages includes Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline.
Bancassurance: Bancassurance simply means selling of insurance products by banks. In
this arrangement, insurance companies and banks undergo a tie-up, thereby allowing
banks to sell the insurance products to its customers.
Consumer Goods: Goods meant for personal consumption by the households or ultimate
consumers are called consumer goods. It includes items like groceries, cloths etc.
Industrial Goods: Goods meant for consumption as use as inputs in production of other
products orprovision of some service are termed as industrial goods.

Demarketing: Marketing aimed at limiting market growth; for example, some

governments practice demarketing to conserve natural resources, and organizations use a
demarketing approach when there is so much demand that that are unable to serve the
needs of all potential customers adequately.

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What is the market?
Any structure which may be a place or may not be can be defined as the market that allows
buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. It can also be called
as an arrangement constructed by buyers and sellers. It facilitates trade and enables the
distribution of resources in a society.
Thus a market:
1. It establishes the prices of goods and services.
2. It consists of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructure.
3. It brings a sense of competition.
4. It works on a basic force of demand and supply.
Types of market:
On the basis of place
1. Local market
2.National market
3.International market

On the basis of time

1.Very short period market
2.Short period market
3.Long period market
4. Very long period market
On the basis of competition
1. Perfectly competitive It consists many sellers. E.g. Mobile market, internet providers etc.
2. Imperfectly competitive
(a) Monopoly one seller. E.g. Indian Railway
(b) Duopoly two sellers.
(c) Oligopoly few sellers. E.g. petroleum product market
(d) Monopolistic many sellers
On the basis of product
1. Consumer market - These are the markets where products and services bought by
consumers for their own and family use.
Types:
(a) Fast moving consumers goods (FMCG)

High volume
Low unit cost
Fast and frequent purchase

E.g. Biscuits, soaps, detergents, newspapers etc.

(b) Consumer durables

Low volume
High unit cost

E.g. Freeze, TV, computers, motorbikes, laptops etc.

(c) Soft goods - It is like consumer durable.

Low/high volume
High/low unit cost
Frequently purchased

E.g. Clothes, shoes, specs etc.

(d) Services

Targeted consumers
Brand name more important
Intangible

E.g. Health insurance, beauty parlours, insurance etc.

2. Industrial market- These markets are not intended directly to consumers but among
businessmen.

Finished goods market

Raw material market
Services

E.g. Accountancy, legal advice, security services, waste disposal services etc.
What is a market economy?
It is an economy system in which economic decisions regarding monetary control, products and
their production and methods and control over distribution are based on supply and demand.
These are decided solely by the aggregate interaction of a countrys citizens as consumers and
businesses and there is very little government intervention or central planning.
Since in market economy, markets are governed by the law of supply and demand, the market
itself will determine the price if goods and services.
Businesses can decide which goods to produce and in what quantity and consumers can decide
what they want to purchase and at what price. The prices of goods and services are determined in
a free price system. In such economy, the government allows and protects ownership of property
and exchange. Government plays an important role as the protector of property rights and
individual liberty.
In theory, market economy is completely different from practical market economy. However
most developed nations today can be classified as mixed economies, they are often said as
market economies because they allow market forces to drive most of their activities, typically
engaging in government intervention only to the extent that it is needed to provide stability. It
can be contrasted with planned economy or centrally planned economy, in which government
decisions drive most aspects of a country's economic activity.
What do you understand by Market Penetration?
Market Penetration is basically a strategy to increase the base or market share of the existing
product. It is one of the four growth strategies of the product market growth matrix defined by
Ansoff. It occurs when a company penetrates a market in which current or similar products
already exist.
Market Penetration can be done by the following means:

(a) Attracting nonusers of the product

(b) Encouraging existing users to use more quantity of products.
(c) Advertisement
(d) Mega sales
(e) Lowering prices
(f) Bundling
Market Penetration can also be mathematically calculated using following formula
Market Penetration = (sales volume of the product 100) total sales volume of all
competing products.
What is a product?
A product can be defined as anything which can be offered to a market to satisfy a need or want.
Here want or need can be different from different angles. For example if a product biscuit is
sold in a market, it is satisfying the need of stomach of a person and same time maximizing
profit of the company selling the biscuit. In retail product are called as merchandise.
Product can be classified as:
1. Tangible Vehicle, cloth, gadget etc.
2. Intangible Cannot be perceived by touch. E.g. sad songs, action movies etc.
3. Branded It carries a brand name.
4. Unbranded It does not carry any brand name.
Note Goods, idea, method, information, object or service that is the end result of a process and
serves as a need or want satisfier. It is a bundle of tangible and intangible attributes like
benefits, features, functions, uses etc. that a seller offers to buyers for purchase.

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On the basis of tangibility

(a) Tangible goods However in economics, all goods are considered tangible but in reality
certain classes are not tangible like information. All tangible goods occupy physical space.
(b) Intangible goods - Cannot be perceived by touch. E.g. information (it is different from
services because final in goods can be transferrable and traded but not services)On the basis of
relative elasticity
(a) Elastic goods It is one for which there is a relatively large change in quantity due to a
relatively small change in the price.

(b) Inelastic goods It is one for which there is very little change in quantity due to relative
change in the price.
Note
1. Normal goods Elasticity is greater than zero.
2. Inferior goods Elasticity is smaller than zero.
3. Luxury goods Elasticity is greater than one.
4. Necessary goods Elasticity is less than one.
Other types:
(a) Convenience goods These are easily available to consumers without any extra efforts. It
mostly comprises non-durable goods. E.g. fast foods, sweets, cigarettes, etc.
(b) Staple convenience goods This type comprises basic demands like breed, sugar, milk etc.
(c) Impulse convenience goods These are goods which are bought without any prior planning
with impulse. E.g. Candies, chocolates, wafers.
(d) Consumer goods These are final goods that are brought from retail stores to meet the
needs and wants.
(e) Emergency goods These are goods that are bought quickly when they are urgently needed
in the time of the crisis. These are typically distributed at the stores.
E.g. Tents, flashlights, lighters, shovels, umbrellas etc.
(f) Specialty goods These goods are unique or special enough to persuade the consumer to
exert unusual effort to obtain them. It means that they are bought after extensive research. E.g.
Designer clothes, painting, perfumes, limited edition cars, stunning design, typically expensive,
antiques, diamonds, wedding gowns etc.
What is a customer?
Customer can be defined as the recipient of a good, service, product or idea obtained from a
seller, vendor or supplier for a monetary or their valuable consideration.
Types:
(a) Intermediate customer These are who purchases goods for resale.
(b)Ultimate customer These are consumers.
What is a Captive Market ?
Captive markets are markets where the potential consumers face a severely limited amount of
competitive suppliers Their only choices are to purchase what is available or to make no
purchase at all. Captive markets result in higher prices and less diversity for consumers. The
term therefore applies to any market where there is a monopoly or oligopoly.
Examples of captive market environments include the food markets in cinemas, airports, and
sports arenas and food in jails prisons.
What is Marketing ?
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and process for creating, communicating, delivering
and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. It
is a function that links consumers, public to the marketer of a product through information. Here

the information addresses the issues regarding all aspects of the products. Products can be
tangible or intangible. It differs from selling because in selling, the main motive remains the
maximization of profit by way of selling a product but with absence of value but in marketing
value is also considered at the par with profit. So marketing is a integrated effort to discover,
create, raise and satisfy customer needs with values. It is one of the competing concepts which
can be looked as an organizational umbrella function to benefit the organization with superior
customer value.
What is niche marketing?
Niche marketing is a type of marketing in which a narrowly defined customer group is targeted.
It focuses on small segment of consumers who have unique and similar needs.
The market in which this marketing technique is applied is called niche market. E.g. Blackberry
application or Android application, sports car, luxury cars, internet based marketing etc.
This technique of marketing can be contrasted with mass marketing.
What is Relationship Marketing?
Relationship Marketing is a technique of marketing which involves creating and maintaining
strong ties with customers and other parties like dealers, suppliers, contractors, shareholders,
stakeholders, employees etc.
This technique revolves around a concentric chain of long term relationship. It also includes
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) apart from Customer Relationship Management
(CRM). Its main objective is to find, maintain and enhance the customer base and mutually long
term satisfying relationship.In Relationship Management buyer and seller continuously improves
their understanding and thus they build up more loyalty towards each other. The final product of
this system is a
unique asset that is marketing network.
This marketing technique includes following steps:

Creating a customer database

Identifying key customers
Creating details
Getting closer through different channels
Maintaining relationship
Advantages of Relationship Management
Consistency of business within the marketing network
Long term brand recognition
Easy redressal of customer grievances

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What is marketing process?

This is the process, which is performed by marketing managers using all marketing mixes as and
when required. The marketing process involves the following variables:
(a) The product itself
(b) Place for selling
(c) Marketing channel
(d) Price
These variables combine in a market offering which the consumers may decide to buy if it
provides satisfaction as per their needs. The marketing process seems to be very easy in theory
However it is very complex one to perform. If any small change occurs in the marketing
environment, the whole concept of marketing offering and strategy changes drastically.
What is cross selling?
Cross selling is the practice of selling an additional product or service to an existing customer.
The objectives of cross selling can be either to increase the income derived from the client or
clients or to protect the relationship with the client or clients. The approach to the process of
cross selling can be varied. Unlike the acquiring of new business, cross selling involves an
element of risk that existing relationships with the client could be disrupted. For that reason, it is
important to ensure that the additional product or service being sold to the client or clients
enhances the value the client or clients get from the organization. In practice, large businesses
usually combine cross selling and upselling techniques to enhance the value that the client or
clients gets from the organization (and vice versa).
For the cross selling there can be substantial barriers.
Let us see some of them:
1. Presence of multiple vendors.
2. Different purchasing points within an account, which reduce the ability to treat the customer
like a single account.
3. The fear of the incumbent business unit that its colleagues would spoil their work at the client,
resulting with the loss of the account for all units of the firm.
Let us see some forms of cross selling:
Selling addon services--- is another form of cross selling. That happens when a supplier shows a
customer that it can enhance the value of its service by buying another from a different part of
the supplier's company. When one buys an appliance, the salesperson will offer to sell insurance
beyond the terms of the warranty. Though common, that kind of cross selling can leave a
customer feeling poorly used. The customer might ask the appliance salesperson why he needs
insurance on a brand new refrigerator, "Is it really likely to break in just nine months?"
The kind of cross selling can be called selling a solution. In this case, the customer purchasing a
TV is provided with Direct to home inbuilt set top box. In this case customer can be relived from
purchasing a set top box to watch different channels.

Examples of cross selling

1. A CDMA mobile
2.A Life Insurance company suggesting its customer sign up for car or health insurance.
3. A television brand suggesting its customers go for a set top box of its or another's brand.
4. A laptop seller offering a customer a mouse, pen drive, and or accessories.
5. A shampoo seller suggesting conditioner of its own company for better result.
What is SWOT analysis?
It is a structured planning method proposed by Albert Humphrey. It is used to analyse the
following factors of an organization:
(a) Strengths It includes all the characteristics of a company which is not with other companies.
It needs to be exploited.
(b) Weakness It gives a inside look of the areas where there is scope for improvement
(c) Opportunities It includes external chances that can be used to improve performance of the
company.
(d) Threats It includes external as well as internal elements that could cause trouble for a
project. It can be looming or sleeping.What is USP in marketing?
USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. The unique selling proposition (USP) is a marketing
concept that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising
campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the
customer and that this convinced them to switch brands.
The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in
other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar
objects.
So, USP basically provides uniqueness to a particular product. It impresses a viewer/audience so
much that the voice or view of the Ads buzzes into their ears. For example for this site that you
are using now, I can propose USP tuition till your service.
So, through USP, a seller tries to present his product as a unique one and better than all other
competitive products. It provides an instant theme for the buyer to purchase the product.
What is Upselling?
Upselling is a sales technique whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive
items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale.
Upselling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products but can also be simply
exposing the customer to other options that were perhaps not considered previously.
Upselling implies selling something that is more profitable or otherwise preferable for the
seller instead of, or in addition to, the original sale.
In a restaurant and other similar settings, upselling is commonplace and an accepted form of
business. In other businesses, such as car sales, the customers perception of the attempted upsell

can be viewed negatively and thereby affect the desired result.

Some examples of upsales include:
(a) Suggesting a premium brand of alcohol when a brand is not specified by a customer
(b) Selling an extended service contract for an appliance
(c) Suggesting a customer purchase more RAM or a larger hard drive when servicing his or her
computer
(d) Selling luxury finishing on a vehicle
(e) Suggesting a brand of watch that the customer hasn't previously heard of as an alternative to
the one being considered.
(f) Suggesting a customer purchase a more extensive car wash package.
(g) Asking the customer to super-size a meal or add cheese at a fast food restaurant.
Techniques
A common technique for successful upsellers is becoming aware of a customer's background and
budget, allowing the upsellers to understand better what that particular purchaser might
need.Another way of upselling is creating fear over the durability of the purchase, particularly
effective on expensive items such as electronics, where an extended warranty can offer peace of
mind. The vendor can tell that you are only investing not so much money so, this particular thing
cannot be so durable. Upselling also works with items like cars, where the seller suggests doing
rubber paint inside the chassis to make the car more durable
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What is product life cycle management?
This management is a process of managing a product throughout its lifecycle. It starts from its
introduction, growth, maturity and disposal.
This management integrates people, data, processes and business systems. It works in the
following areas:
(a) Product system engineering
(b) Product and portfolio management
(c) Product design
(d) Manufacturing process management
(e) Product data management

This management process basically involves:

(a) Conceive Imagine, specify, plan, innovate
(b) Design Describe, define, develop, test, validate
(c) Realize Make, procure, produce, deliver, launch
(d) Service Maintain, support, sustain
(e) Dispose Recycle, disposal, retire
What is product life cycle?
In the same fashion of our life cycle i.e. birth, growth, maturity and finally death, a product also

goes through a life cycle which consists of following stages:

(a) Product introduction/market development this is the stage when a new product is first
brought to market. It can be on the basis of demand or innovation of a company. In this stage
sales are low and slow. However, thanks to our communication channels and modern
management techniques that at this stage also sales goes up.
(b) Market growth at this stage the demand begins to accelerate and it takes off.
(c) Maturity
(d) Disposal
What is marketing management?
It is a business discipline which applies different type of marketing techniques, resources, and
trends. The application of this discipline can vary significantly based on businesss size, culture
and environment.
Marketing management employs various tools like SWOT analysis, product positioning, product
differentiation, value chain analysis, strategic group analysis, statistical surveys, ethnographic
observations, competitive intelligence, environment scanning etc.
So, this discipline is very broad one and to create an effective marketing management, it is very
necessary for a company to have its elaborated and objective understanding of its own business
model and markets.
What is marketing environment?
It is an umbrella term used for forces and variables inside as well outside the organization which
influence the decision of marketing managers.
Marketing environment comprises trends that appear and disappear and determine the success of
the organization marketing efforts. For better marketing and formulation of a marketing strategy,
it is necessary to scan internal and external marketing environment variables.
Marketing environment can be classified into three groups:
(a) Micro (internal) Objective of the company Finance Resources like man power, raw material,
capital etc.
(b)Macro (external) Technology Economic Social Physical National/international
(c) Market (just outside) Competitors Intermediaries Suppliers Threats Opportunities
What is marketing mix?
Marketing mix is a tool in the hand of marketer, which is a mixture of several ideas and plans, to
promote a particular product. Different models of marketing mix:
Four P model-This is also known as producer oriented model. It was proposed by EJ McCarthy in 1960.

Elements:
(a) Product The thing which is offered
(b) Price High/low, stable/fluctuating
(c) Promotion Brand recognition and positioning
(d) Place Convenient for consumers
Seven P model
It was proposed by Booms and Bitner in 1981.
Elements:
(a) Physical evidence Interior
(b) People Human resources
(c) Process Quality
Four C model
It is a consumer oriented model. It was proposed by Lauterborn in 1993.
Elements:
(a) Product Consumer
(b) Price Cost
(c) Promotion Communication
(d) Place Convenience/channel for consumers
Seven C model Elements:
(a) Consumers
(b) Cost
(c) Communication
(d) Convenience/channel
(e) Corporation
(f) Commodity
(g) Circumstances
Compass model Elements:
(a) N National and international
(b) W Weather
(c) S Social
(d) E Economic
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