DR. TARA WEISS'
ESL 91
SPRING, 2002
STUDENT ESSAYS: BUSINESS

Marketing is a large part of our lives. Everyday people are touched by a marketing effort although one may not realize the point. For example, every time someone brings a cup of coffee on the way to school, or orders a slice of pizza for lunch, visit the website of a business, or notice a commercial on television or on the radio, he or she is directly connected to marketing. On the other hand, marketing is also essential to the survival of most successful practitioners and frustrating to the less fortunate. Marketing is important to every aspect of a business and Businesses can benefit or suffer loss from their marketing efforts. We should give marketing a definition before understanding how companies expand markets and develop products.

"Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote, and distribute want-satisfying products to target markets in order to achieve organizational objectives". (Etzel, Walker, and Stanton, 6) There are many types of Marketing, such as Agricultural Marketing, Technology Marketing, Internet Marketing, Stock Marketing, International Marketing, and Tourism Marketing. It has two significant implications:

1. Focus: all business activities should focus on the customer. Businesses can't survive unless if customers' wants are recognized and satisfied.
2. Durations: Marketing efforts should not stop until the customers' wants are completely satisfied. Sometimes, this happens some time after the exchange is made.

We will use McDonald's as an example to illustrate. McDonald's serves 46 million people every day in about 30,000 restaurants in 121 countries.

By geographic area, here's how McDonald's has grown since 1996: (McDonald's Company, 2002)

According to the above information, we know today McDonald's has a large market in the world. But in the late 1990s fast food market was becoming saturated. In order to satisfy customer wants, McDonald's developed new products to keep customers interested. McDonald's used marketing to advertise the products to the customers. For instance, free toys were used to promote happy meal to children. When toys became collectibles for children, they kept coming back to McDonald's for burgers. And their parents came with them to eat at McDonald's. This is one of the reasons why McDonald's is successful.

But some firms engage in price promotion to sell more. Price is determined by supply and demand. When supply exceeds demand, sellers must lower the price so that they sell the item. Conversely, when demand exceeds supply, the price can be increased. McDonald's is not the only fast food company in the world. There are many competitors such as Burger King that offer similar menus. Supply is very large. So McDonald's has regular special sales to sell more.

Another way of increasing demand is to change products to create some variety for regular customers and hopefully also attract new customers. For example, a number of years ago McDonald's introduced a breakfast menu, adding an entirely new day part to its business. The breakfast menu attracted many adult customers.

A third way to get customers is to change internal operation. McDonald's always develops new ways to make food faster so that customers spend less time waiting for their food.

All planning and operations should be customer-oriented because everything about a business has to do with customer satisfaction. If a sales person is rude, customers will leave. If the food is prepared very slowly, customers will not come back. If the delivery person is late, the store will not have food to sell. In other words, all activities in an organization should be coordinated.

McDonald's successful example defined as marketing principle. Every company or enterprise use different ways to obtain his goal for expanding marketing and developing product. Microsoft Inc. adopts bundling sales to corner the market. Thomas' bagel has an advantage in the market as its high quality.

I think marketing is very important. Assuming a company is like a computer, its location and equipment are similar to hardware. Its planning, promoting, price and advertising are like its software. Managers and employers are like its operating system. Every part is very important to a company's success. If we don't know marketing, we will not know what product to develop. If we don't know how to advertise, customers will not know our product. If we don't know how to price a product, other companies will sell more than us. If a company wants to expand its market and develop a product, it must understand market demand. It must know when is the best time to promote its products, how to manage and improve its service, and how to update its product or bring new product to customers. As a company, high-quality products, excellent service, good sales plans, and marketing flexibility are keys of success.

Etzel, Michael J., Walker, Bruce J., and Stanton, William J. Marketing 12^th Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, August 2000

McDonald's Company, McDonald's Worldwide Corporate Sites Retrieved on May 10, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.mcdonalds.com/corporate/index.html

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In today's business world, every kind of business has a huge number of competitors focusing on the same target markets. Competitors use different marketing strategies to challenge each other. Some of them fail while some of them become successful. Services in business strategy are one of the most important points to create and manipulate people's buying behavior.

Business surrounds us everywhere. No one can buy a house, newspaper, or even buy a hot dog from a street vendor without enter a business transaction. Business no matter how small or large is all the same meaning to define " the organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for a profit, the goods and services that satisfy society's need."(Business Concept.16) According to Business Marketing Researcher "some businesses become successful in the United States because they understand what the consumers need and they treat their customers well."(Business Concept. 45) Their good customer services attract customers to come back to buy their goods. Therefore, they become successful business.

McDonald's is a good example of the most successful company in the world. It serves fast food and employees provide good service to customers. They take orders from customers with smiling faces. They also accept customer complaints and change foods that customers are not satisfied with. From my own experience one time, I was waiting on a line at a McDonald's restaurant when I heard a customer complaining to an employee. The customer she said "my hamburger meat is not fresh." The employee apologized politely to her and changed the food for her immediately. When this customer got the new hamburger, she said to the employee "I always feel comfortable and happy to eat McDonald's food."

Furthermore, McDonald's also provides a number of extra services to create good service to both children and parents. For example, McDonald's has built a play-house inside some of McDonald's restaurants for children to play in. It can satisfy both children and parents' needs. The parent can eat a quiet meal without their children' bothering them because they put their children in the play-house. Next, the children enjoy playing in the play-house. McDonald's marketing service gives the customer what they need and satisfies them exactly. Therefore, people enjoy buying food at McDonald's again and again.

Moreover, Lands' End also is the most successful company in the world, which creates clothing products. Lands' End is successful because their marketing strategy uses good services as the key. For example, according to Lands' End one of the principles of doing business is "we accept any return for any reason, at anytime, our products are guaranteed. No fine print. Not arguments. We mean exactly what we say: guaranteed, period."(www.landsend.com) Lands' End provides the best possible customer service to make customers feel comfortable and satisfy them when they buy their products. Therefore, today Lands' End business ships products to 175 nations around the world.

In contrast, some businesses fail when they don't give good service to their loyal and new customers. For example, Sam L. Miller is a marketing researcher, came from Columbia University in 1999. Sam said that he went into a shoe store and he wanted to buy a pair of shoes. When he got into the store, he saw three employees inside the store. Two salesmen were talking together at the back of the store. The other salesman was talking on the phone at the desk with a smile. Sam stood inside for 15 minuses but no one asked him what he wanted. He tried to go in front to the salesman who was talking on the phone and tried to catch the salesman's attention. However, suddenly the salesman turned around and put his back to Sam to avoid him and continued to talk on the phone. Sam left the store without purchasing anything and he told to himself that he would never go in this store again.

The Small Business Administration's people say "Small businesses are easy to fail, because they don't have experience to provide good service for customers."(Business Concept.145) For instance, my friend Zhong went into a fast food restaurant to buy food to go. When she got into the restaurant and saw only a few customers but many workers inside. She asked one of the workers what she should order. The worker pointed to one order and said impatiently "that one is not bad." Zhong was curious about the other one and she asked what it was. The worker told her the food's name. Zhong asked him what were inside the food. Suddenly the worker changed his attitude and said to Zhong "if you don't buy it, then don't waste my time. I am busy and the customer is not only you." Zhong was mad; she did not buy food from the restaurant.

Customer service in business is the one of important points in making a business successful. No business can survive without good services because it is the essential element for business. In my opinion, to realize what customers need and satisfying those needs can make your business successful.

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