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The marketing concept emerged in mid-1950s and challenged the preceding concepts (i.e the

production, product and selling concept). Instead of make and sell philosophy, the business

shifted to a customer centered, sense and respond philosophy. The job is not to find the right

customers for your products, but to find the right product for your customers.

The marketing concept holds the key to achieving organizational goals is being more effective

than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value to your

chosen target markets. For example, Dell computers do not prepare a perfect computers for its

target market. Rather, it provides product platform on which each person customizes the

features he/she desires in the computer.

The marketing concept is about matching a companies capabilities with customer wants. This

matching process takes place in what is called marketing environment.

Under this concept,1) starting point is target market 2) focus is on customers need 3) means is

integrated marketing 4) end is profits through customer satisfaction.

Ques 1) The company was originally rather unfocussed, working on a wide range of electronic

products for industry. Till 1984 H-P followed a product oriented philosophy and its prime focus

was on the technology. After 1984, H-P launched products like compact computers and two

printers (named laserjet and thinjet) for mass markets and utilized strategies similar to FMCG

companies and tried to relate with customers and create a brand family by giving names to its

products rather than numbers.

Ques 2) H-P over the years has undergone various changes which indicate that it has altered its

marketing mix in order to become more market oriented. Some of the alterations were-

a) PRODUCT H-P shifted its focus from from handheld calculators to personal computersas they believed that PCs are the way of future.

Moreover , when PCs first came on the scene, early business users needed a fast way to

get quality hard copy of texts, spreadsheets and graphs pumped out by their

softwares. H-P quickely recognized this need and came out with its laserjet brand

printers.

And when it saw fast growth in home computing, in order to reach the general

consumers, it came up with inkjet technique(i.e. a new way for customers to do low cost

color printing).

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PRICE H-P used competitive and wide range of pricing based on differentiated

products. It attracted wholesalers and retailers by offering greater margins.

when it saw fast growth in home computing, in order to reach the general consumers, it

came up with inkjet technique(i.e. a new way for customers to do low cost color

printing).

b) PLACE In order to cover this aspect, H-P began offering better payment terms and largequantity discounts to its dealers. As a result of improved dealer relations the company

increased the number of full-line retailers from 350 to 750 and it stocked another 1050

dealers with a portion of line.

c) PROMOTION Over the years as the company grew we can see that the focus of H-P hasbeen to create brand equity of the company and its products. It changed its strategy

from push based to pull based.