Marketing plays an important role by creating value for the society and by helping companies determine what and how to produce. As markets have changed, companies needed to deal with the marketplace in different ways. According to the theory of company orientation towards the marketplace, businesses orientate themselves into five categories: production concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept, and holistic marketing concept, so the correct answer is E.

As one of the oldest concepts in business, production concept states that consumers will favor those products that are widely available and low in cost. So business is mainly concerned with producing as much as possible without emphasizing on quality and features.

The product concept emphasizes that consumers will always buy those products that are better in quality, performance and other features. The main focus point for the companies is to develop superior products and improve existing product lines over a period of time. This orientation is especially used for electronics and other innovative products.

The selling concept focuses that consumers will not purchase products of companies unless convinced to do so. Therefore, the companies should maintain assertive selling and promotion efforts for gaining customers against their products. This orientation accepts that consumers must be persuaded into buying with supportive motivational and selling tools.

As a customer-centered philosophy, marketing concept originated in the mid 1950’s. Before the 1950’s the main aim of the marketers was to create customers for mass- produced products. Under this concept, the focus point is “customer value’’ in achieving sales and profits. For this reason, marketing concept proposes to companies to find right products for their customers, not to find right customers for the products they produced.88 In this orientation, companies can achieve their sales targets by implementing marketing efforts successfully. Branding and marketing strategies of the companies are also important as well as selling for delivering a proposition to customers.

As a response to the fundamental changes, trends and forces in the current marketing environment (demographic changes, globalization, corporate social responsibility, etc.), the holistic marketing concept is the newest approach in the first years of 21st century.

Holistic marketing approach can be considered as a strategy that allows the businesses to look at their marketing efforts as a “whole’’. So this approach can help them develop an overall or a ‘holistic marketing’ plan. If a business wants to use the holistic approach in its marketing structure, every aspects of the business, such as consumer interactions with the product, advertising materials, websites, etc. must be carefully considered.