Introduction to Marketing and the Product/Service

                 As this blog is about understanding various aspects of marketing from the perspective of a particular product’s or service’s marketing, lets first learn a few things about markets and marketing in brief and then understand marketing from my chose product/service’s marketing perspective.

                A market is essentially nothing but the sum-total of all the potential customers. Although many kinds of markets existed before the industrial revolution began in the 18^th century, it was the advent of mass production in the era of the industrial revolution which started creating new demands and at the same time also kept stoking demands for the staple products. Thus, industrial revolution played a very crucial role in creating new demands and thus creating new markets.

 ‘To the market’ era

                Initially as the supply and productive capabilities were scarce, the primary objective of marketing was just taking things to the market. Hence, in essence it was merely the performance of all business activities that directed the flow of the goods and services from producers to consumers. The markets along with the concepts of marketing continued to evolve and starting from the mid 1940’s and early 1950’s, marketing was much more than just about just taking things to the market.

‘Marketing to’ era

                Instead of making customers do what suited the business, it became more about designing products and services which suited the demands and needs of the consumer. The objective of marketing in this era was not just fulfilling existing demands but also stimulate and create new demands. Thus marketing became defined as a decision making on product, prices, channels, advertising, selling and location, all of which were aimed at marketing to customers to get them to purchase the products and be satisfied consumers.

‘Marketing with’ era

                 Eventually marketing became an adaptive process, in societies and organizations, of collaborating to communicate, create, provide and sustain value for customers and meeting the needs of diverse stakeholders. Consumer became an ‘Endogenous’ part and a partner in the product development process instead of merely being an ‘Exogenous’ part of the same. Competitive advantage was started being strongly linked to co-creating unique value with customers.

Now that we have learned the evolution of marketing in brief, lets focus on a particular product/service and learn all the aspects of contemporary marketing from the perspective of that particular product/service. My product/service is Vodafone India Limited’s SIM cards and voice, messaging and internets services. Vodafone India Limited, formerly Vodafone Essar Limited, is the second largest player in telecom operator in India after Airtel, with a market share of 22.95%.It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has approximately 160 million customers as of December 2013. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.

                In addition to the core voice, messaging and internet(2G & 3G) services, Vodafone India also provides a lot of value added services like Entertainment & Lifestyle(Caller tunes, Music, Astrology, Movies and TV, Dating and Sports related Apps and services), News and Finance, Healthcare, Social Networking and caller management services.

                Vodafone also launched it’s MPesa service in India. M-Pesa is a mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-financing service. M-Pesa allows users with a national ID card or passport to deposit, withdraw, and transfer money easily with a mobile device. It’s one of the many factors which gives Vodafone it’s edge over the competitors in the market and differentiates it from the same.

                In the next entry, we will focus on the concept of customer value and how my chosen product/service benefits the consumers and adds value to their lives.