Explain the four pillars of Marketing concept

The marketing concept or consumer oriented concept holds that the key to achieving its organizational goals consist of the company being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating customer value to its chosen target market. Marketing concept rests on four pillars. These are discussed below.

Target market:
First company segmented total market according to some effective basis. Then they choose a target market, which market is more profitable and at the same time it is easy to serve. Company do best when they choose their target market carefully and prepare effective marketing programs.

Customer needs:
A company can define its target market but fall to correctly understand the customers’ needs. Understanding customer needs and wants is not always simple. Some customers have needs which they are not fully conscious, or they can not articulate these needs, or they use some words that require some interpretations. So, it is essential to find out the actual needs and wants of the customers.

Integrated marketing:
When all the company’s department’s works together to serve the customer’s interest, the result is integrated marketing. Integrated marketing takes place on two levels. First, the various marketing functions - sales force, advertising, customer service, product management, and marketing research - must together. Second, marketing must be embraced by the other departments; they must also have to think about customer.

Profitability:
The ultimate purpose of the marketing concept is to help organizations to achieve their objectives. In the case of private firms, the major objective is to earn profit. In the case of non - profit or public organizations, it is surviving and attracting enough funds to perform useful work.