Abstract
Since its introduction in 1950's the marketing concept has been criticized, broadened, and blamed for the current decline in the competitive world. Have critics failed to recognize what marketing concept really is?
The Marketing Concept was created in the 1950's just after the World War II, more precisely in the 1952 annual report of General Electric. This concept appeared when the variety of products increased and the sales of the products were not based just on the way to sell it or the price to sell it, but based on the questions: what do customers want? And how can we keep our customers satisfied?
Since its creation the Marketing Concept has been applied in most of companies, this concept is based on the philosophy of Adam Smith who wrote in 1776 in "The Wealth of Nations" that "the needs of producers should be considered only with regard to meeting the needs of consumers." It means that it is the demand which induces the supply, so the supply has to listen to the demand's needs.
For the US marketer Philip Kotler, "the Marketing Concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals lies in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more efficiently and effectively than the competitors". It means that a company has to create some products based on what the customers want. The aims of Marketing Concept are to satisfy customers and to keep them, because according to the Customer Service Institute, it costs as much as five times as much to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one. To reach these objectives companies had to create tools.
Keywords - modern concept of marketing, production concept marketing, right concept marketing,
the marketing concept.
