Arrange the following marketing philosophies according to their evolution:

(A) The Product Concept
(B) The Selling Concept
(C) The Production Concept
(D) The Marketing Concept
(E) The Societal Marketing Concept

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

(C), (A), (B), (D), (E)

The concept or philosophy of marketing has evolved over a period of time, and is discussed as follows.
The Production Concept- During the earlier days of industrial revolution, the demand for industrial goods started picking up but the number of producers were limited. As a result, the demand exceeded the supply. Selling was no problem. Anybody who could produce the goods was able to sell. The focus of business activities was, therefore, on production of goods. It was believed that profits could be maximised by producing at large scale, thereby reducing the average cost of production. It was also assumed that consumers would favour those products which were widely available at an affordable price.

The Product Concept As a result of emphasis on production capacity during the earlier days, the position of supply increased over period of time. Mere availability and low price of the product could not ensure increased sale and as such the survival and growth of the firm. Thus, with the increase in the supply of the products, customers started looking for products which were superior in quality, performance and features. Therefore, the emphasis of the firms shifted from quantity of production to quality of products. The focus of business activity changed to bringing continuous improvement in the quality, incorporating new features, etc.

The Selling Concept- With the passage of time, the marketing environment underwent further change. The increase in the scale of business further improved the position with respect to supply of goods, resulting in increased competition among sellers. The product quality and availability did not ensure the survival and growth of firms because of the large number of sellers selling quality products. This led to greater importance to attracting and persuading customers to buy the product. The business philosophy changed. It was assumed that the customers would not buy, or not buy enough, unless they are adequately convinced and motivated to do so. Therefore, firms must undertake aggressive selling and promotional efforts to make customers buy their products. The use of promotional techniques such as advertising, personal selling and sales promotion were considered essential for selling of products.

The Marketing Concept- Marketing orientation implies that focus on satisfaction of customer’s needs is the key to the success of any organisation in the market. It assumes that in the long run an organisation can achieve its objective of maximisation of profit by identifying the needs of its present and prospective buyers and satisfying them in an effective way. All the decisions in a firm are taken from the point of view of the customers. The basic role of a firm then is to ‘identify a need and fill it’. The concept implies that products ad-services are bought not merely because of their quality, packing or brand name, but because they satisfy a specific need of a customer. A pre-requisite for the success of any organisation, therefore, is to understand and respond to customer needs.

The Societal Marketing Concept- The marketing concept, as described in the preceeding section cannot be considered as adequate if we look at the challenges posed by social problems like environmental pollution, deforestation, shortage of resources, population explosion and inflation. It is so because any activity which satisfies human needs but is detrimental to the interests of the society at large cannot be justified. The business orientation should, therefore, not be short-sighted to serve only consumers’ needs. It should also consider large issues of longterm social welfare, as illustrated above. The societal marketing concept holds that the task of any organisation is to identify the needs and wants of the target market and deliver the desired satisfaction in an effective and efficient manner so that the longterm well-being of the consumers and the society is taken care of.