Many producers follow the selling model. The selling model holds that consumers will not buy enough of the company’s products unless the company undertakes a substantial selling and promotion effort.
The selling concept is practiced most aggressively with “unsought goods,” those goods that buyers normally do not think of buying, such as insurance, encyclopedias, and funeral plots. These industries have perfected various sales techniques to track down prospects and hard-sell them on the benefits of their product. Hard selling also occurs with sought goods, such as automobiles.
From the moment the customer walks onto the showroom floor, the auto salesman “psychs him out.” If the customer likes the floor model, he may be told that there is another customer about to buy it and that he should decide on the spot. If the customer balks at the price, the salesman offers to talk to the manager to get a special concession. The customer waits ten minutes and the salesman returns with “the boss doesn’t like it but I got him to agree.” The aim is to “work up the customer” to buy on the spot.
The selling philosophy is also practiced in the nonprofit area. A political party will vigorously sell its candidate to the voters as being a fantastic person for the job. The candidate stumps through voting precincts from early morning to late evening shaking hands, kissing babies, meeting donors, making breezy speeches. Countless dollars are spent on radio and television advertising, posters, and mailings. Any flaws in the candidate are concealed from the public because the aim is to get the sale, not worry about post purchase satisfaction.
The marketing concept is a more recent business philosophy. The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors.
The marketing concept has been expressed in colorful ways, such as: Find wants and fill them”; “make what you can sell instead of trying to sell what you can make: “Love the customer and not the product: Have it your way”; and “You’re the boss”. J.C. Penny’s motto summarizes this attitude” “To do all in our power to pack the customer’s dollar full of value, quality and satisfaction.”
The selling model and the marketing model are frequently confused. Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it.
The selling concept starts with the company’s existing products and calls for heavy selling and promoting to achieve profitable sales. The marketing concept starts with the needs and wants of the company’s target customers. The company integrates and coordinates all the activity that will affect customer satisfaction and achieves its profits through creating and maintaining customer satisfaction. In essence, the marketing concept is a customer needs and wants orientation backed by integrated marketing effort aimed at generating customer satisfaction and earns its profits.