Marketing Research Paper: Market Management

Marketing Research Paper
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Marketing Research Paper
Initially, the investigation of marketing was dedicated entirely on the exchange of products and other industrial commodities. Commodity exchange was the main focus of a majority of scholars in the early 1900s. The primary focus was on how to make products available to the clients and the most effective ways of arranging for ownership. At this time, marketing research focused entirely on tangible goods. In the selected article, Vargo and Lusch (2004) highlight numerous new perspectives which have emerged over the years which focus not only on tangible goods but also on intangible resources as well as the co-creation of value and associations. Vargo and Lusch (2004) hypothesize that the new viewpoints are joining to create a better approach to marketing. They see the provision of services as opposed to goods as essential to economic exchange.
The authors use a systematic literature review to present four schools of thought that have influenced marketing over the years. The first school of thought is classical and neoclassical economics which was common between 1800 and 1920. Vargo and Lusch (2004) state that this school of thought came to embed value in the matter through the process of marketing. The manufacturing process included value addition, where goods became the standardized output. Wealth in society was as a result of the acquisition of tangible ‘stuff.’ Vargo and Lusch (2004) refer to the second process as formative marketing which was common between 1920 and 1950. The marketing thought was highly descriptive of institutions, commodities and marketing roles. During this time, the primary focus of marketing was on the transaction and the output and how the marketing functions added value to the goods. The major goal of marketing was to offer both time and place utility by ensuring the transfer of title from the manufacturers to the consumers.
The third phase was market management which took place between 1950 and 1980 (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Companies began to utilize analytical techniques to enhance marketing mix for optimal performance. The manufacturers appreciated that clients do not purchase commodities but instead want to fulfill a particular need. As a result, the manufacturers focused on the consumers to satisfy their requirements. At his time, there was a shift towards differentiation to allow the firms to have a competitive advantage. The distinction was towards value of the commodities. The last phase involved viewing marketing as a social and economic process and took place in 1980 and forward. The school of thought looked at marketing as a process that entailed continues social and economic processes (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). In this case, financial results are not the ultimate result but as a means to test the market value. The approach allows marketers to hypothesize about the market, learn about it and device ways of serving the clients better in an attempt to improve the financial performance of the manufacturers.
Market management, unlike the other approaches, emphasizes the need to incorporate customer orientation, relationship marketing, and quality management in the whole marketing proces...