What is marketing and what role do value and exchange play in this concept Essay

ASSESSMENT 1:  Week 1Context:                You are a marketer entering into negotiations to work for a firm called “Healthy School Lunch!”  This firm has the usual suspicions about marketing; that it is bad for society and that marketing is simply advertising.Company:              Healthy School Lunch! provide pre-packaged healthy lunches for school children as an alternative to unhealthy canteen meals often provided by schools.  The firm are interested in some help, but are cautious.

  Over the next four weeks you need to discuss marketing with them and use your knowledge to convince them that marketing can work for their business.Question:              What is marketing and what role do value and exchange play in this concept?  Discuss in relation to your potential work for Healthy School Lunch!Answer:1.        AbstractMarketing creates communication and delivers an organisation’s offerings.  It presents the value of exchange to potential customers, inform them of your business’ services and your position of Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”), which may lead to an increase in your business’ level of success.

2.       IntroductionMarketing can be a pinnacle point in a business’ level of success.  It is not just advertising.  It is a way of doing business that puts the market at the heart of all business decisions.  It develops mutual benefits of exchange for all parties involved and can improve people’s quality of life through better products and the promotion of consumer and social welfare (Elliott et al, 2010, p. 29-30), which is what the focus of Health School Lunch! is all about.  Marketing ties together your business ethics, product line and customers all into one bundle to benefit all stakeholders involved.3.

       Definition of key termsa.        Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivery and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large (Elliott et al, 2010, p. 3).  Marketing, done well, is an approach to business that influences and informs every activity of the business or organisation (Elliott et al, 2010, p. 3).b.

       Value is a customer’s overall assessment of the utility of an offering based on perceptions of what is received and what is given (Elliott et al, 2010, p. 9).c.        Exchange is the mutually beneficial transfer of offerings of value between the buyer and seller (Elliott et al, 2010, p. 9).

4.       Relationship to Healthy School LunchMarketing is an approach to business that puts the customer, client, partner and society at the heart of all business decisions (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele & Waller, 2010, p. 6).  Healthy School Lunch! is targeting a niche market by offering pre-packaged healthy lunches for school children.  This reflects a CSR that Healthy School Lunch! are taking, whereby, having a positive influence upon society by offering a product of value that is beneficial to society, rather than acting with disregard for its society.  Today, consumers are seeking healthy, alternate nutritional options, as Australians are faced with nearly three in every 10 children are classed as overweight or obese and more than seven million adults tip the scales as overweight (“Marketing failure”, 2009, August 27, para 4).  Healthy School Lunch! are therefore offering a mutually beneficial transfer of offerings of value between the buyer and the seller.

  Marketing helps you get that message out to your current and potential customers.5.       ConclusionUtilising a marketing arm within your business, be it internal or external, it helps you to show future customers how buying the Healthy School Lunch! product will be of value to them and how your product is unique to the market place.

  It assists your business to stand out from the crowd and to be in the public domain.6.       Reference Lista.          Elliott, G., Rundle-Thiele, S., & Waller, D. (2010). Marketing.

Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltdb.          Herbert, B. (2009, August 27). Marketing failure to blame for Australia’s obesity. ABC News. Retrieved August 28, 2008, from www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/27/266883.htm