The struggle between quality and marketing of tangible goods verses services has been a part of the marketing process. Though both are covered with the general umbrella of marketing, service marketing and product marketing can have a great deal of differences. The mere fact that the particular goods that are tangible verses non tangible services; creates two entirely different way of marketing by reaping the benefits and advantages.

Yet service marketing nor product marketing are any easier nor is either one in disadvantage. The discovery and emphasis of benefits and advantages of a given marketing product is not depended on its physical existence rather than a skillful exacerbation of obvious as well as hidden benefits. Thus, making both modes and methodology equally a challenging

A successful marketing campaigns dependents on many factors that weigh equally on the outcome. Hence it is vital to avoid assigning too much weight on tangibility of a product or service. The main emphasize in determining a marketing approach should be based on research and experience rather than Meta physical concerns.

Equally it is important to emphasize the marketing methodology based on most widely available and confirmed information which in turn allow discarding concerns about the validity of Meta physical issues.

Ultimately, though a non scientific statement, marketing is much more about a balance of science and art of communication. It is naïve to believe that marketing and its subsets such as product marketing or service marketing is anything else than advanced and creative communication and conversation between a sell and buyer. Marketing certainly entails its fair share of science depended information and action; but it also greatly depends on creativity, main stream attitude and thinking, innovative modes of communication, selection of communication channel, as well as artful use of language, sounds and images. Hence, leading to a fair conclusion that the actual product or service at hand is not and should not be seen as the main concern rather than concentrating on determining the most effective, efficient, and viable methodology to communicate the benefits of the product or services at hand.

Brand or branding refers to a conscious or subconscious recognition of a particular product or services which is geared toward one objection; mainly differentiation among product and services. In it is most basic form; a brand is designed to attribute unique set of features that enable end users to relate to the product. The process of achieving this underlying association is branding.

Brand and or branding can occur by many means including audio / visual tools such as commercials and jingles, word of mouth i.e. viral marketing, as well as integration of celebrity personalities into the marketing mix. The key concept in brand and branding efforts is finding a particular memorable way to reinforce the name and the unique benefits of the particular product or services.

There are certainly many benefits to brand or brand recognition; including emotional reaction based on past or current experiences, recognition of particular benefits or drawbacks, association with products in terms of overall integration into personal life, perception of value and importance, as well as potential conscious or subconscious attachment to the brand.

In essence the use of brand and branding procedures is geared toward establishing and maintaining a relationship that lasts over an indefinite time period which may in turn create consumer loyalty, reduce marketing and advertising costs, increase revenue and market shares, as well as enable and ease the introduction of new generations of products.

However, brand memory may also have its negative aspects; including the possibilities of negative public relation and its impact on the brand. Hence, it is important to closely monitor and adjust strategies to avoid unconstructive impact on individual brands. 

Ultimately, brand recognition and branding depend greatly on factors such as individual products and services, the ability to find the proper balance in differentiating from similar products, the avoidance of negative product memory, as well as geographical issues such as cultural, social, economic and public relations issues. Brand or branding alone are not necessarily a prescription to success; the product or services have naturally be able to live up to the message in order to maximize the impact of a brand.

Market Orientation

In order to measure the degree of market orientation of a given commercial institution, one has to consider three factors including customer orientation, competitor orientation, as well as inter functional orientation. All these factors elute to exploration and exploitation of market realities in order to dominate the market. For instance, customer orientation simply requires understanding and accommodation of target consumer ; competitor orientation refers to proper understanding of competitors’ current and potential future standing ; and inter functional orientation refers to optimization of all internal and external institutional resources in order to enhance overall customer experiences.

Essentially all the above factors are simply behavioral whereby it is a logical assumption that such institutional behavior should start with upper management and trickle down to frontline employees. Such assumption that management will have to initiate and maintain an organizational culture of efficiency is the basic of modern business practices.

Our company, World Consulting Group, is certainly a market oriented company. Our employees, associates, and managers are all contributors to overall institutional culture by bringing extensive educational and practical experiences both as professionals as well as consumers. Hence resulting in a neutral feedback from both sites.

However, at World Consulting Group we try many cutting edge and new methodology that may not be always as beneficial to our market orientation efforts, yet those new practices are of essence for our future as well as for the future and success of our clients. The logic behind side stepping total efficiency and market orientation efforts are rather simple; innovation and experimentation are a vital part of development. Innovative approaches are naturally accompanied by experimentation to fine tune and achieve the best possible efficiency and effectiveness. Hence during the developmental stages, the greatest attention and efforts are given to progress rather then market orientation.

Appropriate and strategic marketing as in any other set of action requires proper planning. Devising a proper marketing plan depends on many factors including market research to outline and strategize steps that would achieve the marketing goals. Many times, however, the mere market research may serve as a tool to enhance competitive advantage.

Fundamentally, market research will be a overall picture of the current market in relationship to the product and services at hand as well as the competitors current or potential standing. Hence resulting in market intelligence and or competitive intelligence. The mere formulation of a document that offers a neutral and scientific picture of the overall market standing enables the decision makers to have a clear picture that can be the basis of the decision making.

Ultimately, the gathering of competitive intelligence that occurs through market research is most obvious relationship between market research and competitive advantage. However, competitive intelligence does not necessarily translate into competitive advantage, rather than enabling a more comprehensive overall picture of the market. The competitive advantage is established by translating the available information from market research to devise an action plan to dominate the particular market.

Marketing in general assumes that particular products need to be introduced or re-introduced to end users in order to trump the competitors and their products. Essentially, marketing serves as a public relations tool to enhance the market position as well as reach the ultimate goal of enhancing the profitability of a given commercial entity.

However, there is the question of marketing role in society which begs the query of necessity of standards as well as the respective impact of marketing on the society in its entirety. First and foremost there is the philosophical question of the necessity of marketing. One may argue that in a market oriented society; marketing serves the necessary purpose of offering products and services that will assist individual units of the society to fulfill their needs and desires. To take this argument farther, one may argue that by offering and introducing products and services, marketing enables the achievement of certain degree of satisfaction of individual members of the society which in turn contributes to the overall well being of a nation.

Alternatively, one may argue that exposure to products and services may serve the corporations more by creating artificial wants and needs that would be otherwise not available or possible. One can even take this argument farther by asserting that marketing of products and services only serve the creation of artificial needs and want which in turn creates a culture of consumption that leads to superficial society.

In the case of our company, World Consulting Group has decided to abstain from commercial and paid marketing as well as advertising. This consensus was reached unanimously by all the relevant stakeholders. It was decided that World Consulting Group should be run in a fashion which end user and consumers find our company on their own because of their decision that they will need assistance in areas such as management consulting, online and offline advertising and marketing, informational technology, political and economic consulting.

At first, such decision appears to be superficial and too optimistic. Yet it is not. Imagine a company that does not contribute to creation of needs, rather than addressing and solving those needs. Further, imagine a management consulting company that gets its clients by sheer referrals. The results are astonishing. It results in a management consulting firm with slow growth rate, but in virtually no loss of customer and clients, constant revenue and growth, extremely satisfied cliental as well as a personal relationship with every individual customer.