Fundamental Marketing Concepts, Trends, and Tasks
To understand the marketing function, we need to understand certain fundamental concepts and tasks, along with current trends.

Core Concepts
A core set of concepts creates a foundation for marketing management and a holistic marketing orientation.

NEEDS, WANTS, AND DEMANDS
The marketer must try to understand the target market's needs, wants, and demands. Needs are the basic human requirements. People need food, air, water, clothing, and shelter to survive. People also have strong needs for recreation, education, and entertainment. These needs become wants when they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy the need. An American needs food but may want a hamburger, French fries, and a soft drink. A person in Mauritius needs food but may want a mango, rice, lentils, and beans.

Wants are shaped by one's society. Demands are wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. Many people want a Mercedes; only a few are willing and able to buy one. Companies must measure not only how many people want their product but also how many would actually be willing and able to buy it.
These distinctions shed light on the frequent criticism that "marketers create needs" or "marketers get people to buy things they don't want." Marketers do not create needs: Needs pre-exist marketers. Marketers along with other societal factors, influence wants. Marketers might promote the idea that a Mercedes would satisfy a person's need for social status. They do not, however, create the need for social status.
Understanding customer needs and wants is not always simple. Some customers have needs of which they are not fully conscious, or they cannot articulate these needs, or they use words that require some interpretation. What does it mean when the customer asks for a "powerful" lawnmower, a "fast" lathe, an "attractive" bathing suit, or a "restful" hotel'?

Consider the customer who says he wants an "inexpensive car." The marketer must probe further. We can distinguish among five types of needs:
I. Stated needs (the customer wants an inexpensive car).
2. Real needs (the customer wants a car whose operating cost, not its initial price, is low).
3. Unstated needs (the customer expects good service from the dealer).
4. Delight needs (the customer would like the dealer to include an onboard navigation" system). '
5. Secret needs (the customer wants to be seen by friends as a savvy consumer).
Responding only to the stated need may shortchange the customer. Many consumers do I not know what they want in a product. Consumers did not know much about cellular phones when they were first introduced. Nokia and Ericsson fought to shape consumer perceptions of cellular phones. Consumers were in a learning mode and companies forged strategies to shape their wants. As stated by Carpenter, "Simply giving customers what they want isn't enough any more-to gain an edge companies must help customers learn what they want."
33 In the past, "responding to customer needs" meant studying customer needs and making a product that fit these needs on the average, but some of to day's companies instead respond to each customer's individual needs. Dell Computer does not prepare a perfect computer for its target market. Rather, it provides product platforms on which each person customizes the features he or she desires in the computer. This is a change from a "make-and-sell" philosophy to a philosophy of "sense and respond."

TARGET MARKETS, POSITIONING, AND SEGMENTATION
A marketer can rarely satisfy everyone in a market. Not everyone likes the same cereal, hotel room, restaurant, automobile, college, or movie. Therefore, marketers start by dividing up the market into segments.
They identify and profile distinct groups of buyers who might prefer or require varying product and services mixes by examining demographic, psychographic, and behavioral differences among buyers. The marketer then decides which segments present the greatest opportunity-which are its target markets. For each chosen target market, the firm develops a market offering. The offering is positioned in the minds of the target buyers as delivering some central benefit(s). For example, Volvo develops its cars for buyers to whom automobile Safety is a major concern. Volvo, therefore, positions its car as the safest a customer can buy. Companies do best when they choose their target market(s) carefully and prepare tailored marketing programs.

OFFERINGS AND BRANDS
Companies address needs by putting forth a value proposition, a set of benefits they offer to customers to satisfy their needs. The intangible value proposition is made physical by an offering, which can be a combination of products, services in formation, and experiences.
A brand is an offering from a known source. A brand name such as McDonald's carries many associations in the minds of people: hamburgers, fun, children, fast food, convenience, and golden arches. These associations make up the brand image. All companies strive to build brand strength-that is, a strong, favorable, and unique brand image.
VALUE AND SATISFACTION
The offering will be successful if it delivers value and satisfaction to the target buyer. The buyer chooses between different offerings on the basis of which is perceived to deliver the most value. Value reflects the perceived tangible and intangible benefits and costs to customers. Value can be seen as primarily a combination of quality, service and price (qsp), called the "customer value triad" value increases with quality and service and decreases with price, although other factors can also play an important role.
Value is a central marketing concept. Marketing can be seen as the identification, creation, communication, delivery, and monitoring of customer value. Satisfaction reflects a person's comparative judgments resulting from a product's perceived performance (or out- come) in relation to his or her expectations. If the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is dissatisfied and disappointed. If the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted.