Understanding the market place and customer needs and want is the very first step of a marketing process. Similarly, Kotler and Armstrong29 listed five main steps for marketers to follow in their marketing processes as below: • Understanding the market place and customer needs and wants, • Designing a customer-driven marketing strategy, • Developing an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value, • Building profitable relationships and creating customer satisfaction, • Capturing value from customers to create profits and customer equity. The correct option is D.

Differences in customers’ buying habits, differences in their responses to the marketing mix of the companies direct companies to segment their markets according to the criteria specific for consumer and business markets. Hence, market segmentation is a process of dividing the market into smaller groups that the members of each group are similar to each other as well as their reactions to the marketing mix of the company, so the correct answer is A. The information about the other answer choices as follows: Following the segmentation process, companies need to select one or more market segments to serve as their target markets. Otherwise, it would be ineffective for companies to try reaching every market. For each target market, the company develops a market offering through positioning the product or service in the minds of the customers.

Market offering is defined as a mixture of products, services, information, ideas or experiences offered to a market in order to satisfy a need or want. Market offerings can be both products and services. From a broader perspective, persons, places, information, ideas and experiences can also be considered as market offerings.

Brand is defined as “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these”. Brand is perceived as an important component of a product or a service since it reflects the characteristics of the company and the product.

Costs: Cost is the lower limit of price (or price floor). There are different kinds of costs including fixed costs, variable costs, and total costs.While fixing the prices of a product, the firm should consider the cost involved in producing the product. This cost includes both the variable and fixed costs. Thus, while fixing the prices, the firm must be able to recover both the variable and fixed costs and also total costs.

In the production concept, companies sell what they are good at producing. 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. Business is mainly concerned with producing as much as possible without emphasizing on quality and features.

The logistic channel is related to the sorting function, which bridges the discrepancy between the assortment of goods and services generated by the producer and the assortment demanded by the consumer.

The promotions channel is involved in promoting a new or an existing good or service, and it can be related to the financial channel since monetary allowances are generally part of the promotion effort. Intermediaries in this channel aid promotions. For example, advertising agencies can handle the preparation and media placement of advertising materials. The correct answer is E. 

In holistic marketing approach, all the marketing efforts should be considered as a ‘single entity’. Relationship marketing considers customers, partners, employees, and financial community. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

Marketing theorist Theodore Levitt concentrated on the difference between the selling and the marketing concepts and stated that selling focuses on the needs of the seller; but marketing on the needs of the buyer.

Price is the amount of money paid by consumers to possess a product or get a service.

A grade label on the other hand, denotes the quality of a product based on standards established by the concerned authority.

Companies can use competitors’ prices to determine a price level. Competitor-based pricing includes customary pricing, above-, at-, or below-market pricing, and loss- leader pricing. In customary pricing, price is dictated by the market. In above-, at-, or below-market pricing, competitors’ prices charged for similar products are used to set prices.

Companies start to set prices by considering the whole marketing mix rather than just the product itself. In this way, profits can be maximized. There are six different product mix pricing strategies including product line pricing, by-product pricing, optional-product pricing, captive-product pricing, two-part pricing, and product bundle pricing.

In the production concept the basic principle is to increase the production level and decrease the cost of production to offer consumers a chance to purchase a product much cheaper. Therefore, the correct answer is D.

Price can be set between two limits. The upper limit is customer value while the lower one is cost. The gap between these limits is called “Strategic Pricing Gap”.

If the management or the owner of a hotel examines and determines the needs and wants of its guests and realises that there is a high demand between its guests to visit the local attractions and organises tours to make more profit, in terms of Marketing Process this is 'Understanding Needs and Want', therefore the correct answer is E.

Selling concept favors that consumers will not purchase enough products of companies unless they can be supported by aggressive selling and promotional tools. Companies typically want to sell what they produce rather than what the consumers want and try to convince the customers to want what they produce. The correct option is C.

A company building factories in foreign countries, employing local labor and complying to that country’s cultural environment is in the global market. For example; Toyota Motors which started its business as a domestic marketer, exported its cars to regional markets, then shifted to multinational markets and now company is a true global marketer. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

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.