MARKETING TASKS

Marketing has not remaind only a process of moving the goods and services from renders to consumers or reunners. Three major changes have taken place as compared to t] and the current 21st century or new millennium. These are globalization, technological and dregulation. It is certain that global forces will increasingly continue to affect every one‟s personal life. As a result, manufacturing will move to more economically" favourable locations all over the world or protectionist measures will stop these moves but raise the cost for every one secondly the technology continues to advance as much faster pase and is bound to amaze all of us of late we stared with cloning of sheep jolly only a beginning of the bionenetic revolution The Human  promises to usher in new medical cures. The Digital Revolution is releasing smart chips life smarter in all walks - new types of non conventional homes, cars, clothes and what not. us we are to fly in space ships instead of airbuses thirdly there is continuous push toward de regularization of the economic sector that is more people in more countries are convinced that markets will work under relatively free conditions where consumers can decode what to make? When to make? How much to make and what to sell? It implies that competitive economies are sure to produce more wealth than highly tegulated or planned economies to unlash the benefits of competition many countries are privatizing public sector companies and corporations. s  at  the dawn of a time when intelligent robots will do more and better of our work for all of us. We are the. Of  fly in space-ships instead of airbuses. Thirdly, there is continuous push toward deregularizations the economic sector. That is more people in more countries, are 

convinced that 'markets w~ relatively free conditions where consumers can decide what where and when to buy and the  companies  producing these goods and services arc free to decide what to make? How much make and what to sell? It implies that competitive economies are sure to produce more wealth than   highly regulated or planned economies. To unlash the benefits of competition many countries are  privatising public sector companies and corporations. These three basic changes or developments namely, globalisation, technological superiority  deregularisation  are bringing in their trail countless golden opportunities for all of us. As rig] by Professor Philip Kotler - Mr. John Garner "Behind every problem there is a brilliantly opportunity."  

Then what is the task or tasks of marketing under this dynamic wonderful world. As noted earlier marketing deals with identifying and meeting the human and social needs. Perhaps the shortest and sweetest definition of marketing can be "meeting needs profitably." People want pollution smokeless cigarettes, sugar without sugar, diet beer, vegetarian meat anti-aging medicines and tonics to defy the sings of oldage, condenced yet balanced food, sleek and unbreakable folding Moon permanently, having houses on the deep sea bed and so. All these expectations are drive to turn a private or social needs into business opportunities. They are to be more customer Many of the daring and progressive companies have gone non-conventional in their approach, spending lot on expensive marketing research, spending huge sums on mass advertising and 01 operating large marketing departments, these companies stretched their limited resources, ] to their customers, and created more satisfying solutions to their needs. They formed buyers ( creative public relation and focussed on delivering high product quality and winning long-term loyalty. This is what is quoted by Professors Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin in their latest book F MARKETING published by Harper Business in 1999. 

SCOPE OF MARKETING 

   Marketing itself is the greatest task of creating, promoting and delivering goods and services to final consumers and business buyers. In fact marketing people are involved in marketing of ten types of entities namely, goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organisations, information and ideas. Let us note these in brief, which will help us in knowing the real gamut of tasks of marketing.

1. Goods:

    Goods- tangible - constitute the bulk of a country's production and marketing effort. Advanced country namely America produces and markets 80 million eggs, 03 billion chickens, 5 million hair-dryers, 200 million tons of steel, 4 billion tons of cotton 2 billion tons of ground nuts, 1.5 billion maize. As against this country like India - a developing one, produces 25 billion eggs, 0.25 billion chicken, 90 million tons of steel, 1 billion tons of cotton 0.75 billion tons of ground nuts 0.25 billion maize-to take a few cases. The major items of goods in case of developing nations are those relate to basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing and other basic commodities while the luxury items of high-class society needs are the needs of developed countries. 

2. Services: 

       With the advancement of the economies the growing proportions of their economic activities are, More based towards services. The ratio of service to good ranges between 65 to 35 to 70 to 30 percentages to the total. In growing economies it is growing at lower pace. and the ratio ranges between 25:75 and 35:65 percentage. These services can be broadly classed as economic and' non-economic, personal and group financial and non- financial. They in a variety of services of unskilled to highly professional‟s services. A market offering consists of service and product mix in wider and varying range. 

3. Experiences: 

       One can create, stage and market experiences by orchestrating. U.S.A's Wall' Disney World's Magic Kingdom is a unique experience climbing of Mount Everest, visiting a fairy kingdom, a pirate ship or a haunted house, hiking, trekking ESSELL world, Water Kingdom, Spending a week at base ball camp or spending a fortnight in meditation centres and so on. 

4, Events: 

          Creative marketers promote time based events such as olympics, trade shows, sport events, company anniverseries, artistic performances; holding fashion shows; all these need good planning by professionals to see that events are a grand success. Musical concerts, congregation of member and non-member on international scale such as Japan Life. 

5. Persons: 

       Celebrity marketing has become a major growing business. In the past a person seeking name and fame or image used to hire a press to write and publish stories in newspapers and magzines. Today each professional  has an agent or a personal secretary be it a lawyer, doctor, actor or actress, financiel's, CEOS, mucisian, magicians, In world of American art world, Andy Warhol has applied entrepreneurial marketing principles to build his own fame, Indian case, Amitab Bachchan made a cam back in a big, way through K.B.C-his classes on every Sunday at 10.00 A.M.through KBCJ. Mr. Tom Peter a great management consultant is the master of selfbranding and asked each person to build a brand of his own. 

6. Places: 

         Places-may be cities, states, regions and even the whole country are competing in attracting tourists, industrialists, employees, professionals, investors, factories, head officers, new residents. The world-class examples. can be Stratford in Canada was barely run down city with only one asset namely its name and a river called Avon. This was transformed into a place of annual Shakespeare, Festival tab made Stratford a tourist spot of Canada. Ireland is a place marketer has attracted more than 500 companies to locate their plants, operating Irish Development ~oared, the Irish tourist Board, the Irish Export Board, attracting foreign investment, tourists, professionals and importers. Place marketers include economic development specialists, real-estate agents, commercial banks, local business associations and public relations agencies. 

7. Properties: 

                 Properties represent intangible rights of ownership of either real property-real estate or financial property-stocks and bonds. These properties are bought and sold which warrant a marketing effort. It is our common experience that real estate agents work for sellers and buyers linking them, stockers bring to get her buyers and sellers of stocks and bonds. These intermediaries may be individuals institutions. or institutions' 

8. Organisations:  

                  Organisations like individuals work hard to build their image or personality in the minds  publics - through public relations techniques. Institutional ads by companies speak of this Philips company - the Dutch electronic company - uses the words "Let's Make Things Better" Coca Cola Co~, has a slogan" Things go Better with Coca Cola "BPL says "Believe in Best." Pepsi Cola company says "Want More." Sony corporation says only "It is a sony"., Even universities Even durational lnstitum Museums, Performing Art Units have their plans to boost their, image to compete for more slack b participants audiences visitors on one side and funds on the other .

9. Information: 

             Information is a valuable product which can be produced and sold. Schools, colleges and universities and other institutions of learning produce and distribute at a price the product to students, parents the communities. 'Encyclopedias and non- fiction publications are rich source of information. Petiole and journals provide highly specialised and updated information Travel guides with condenced and dhal road, rail routes are of considerable help to tourists. We buy CDs and engage in internet surfingto,i: most sought information. Practically on each subject, aspect we have detailed information. 

10. Ideas: 

          " Each market offering has a basic idea that forms its core or heart. The president of Japan~ ~ says, "We manufacture beds ranging Rs. 80,000 to 1,25,000 but sell health." Mr. CharIey Reveson famous Revelon-Cosmetics Company observed." In the factory, we make cosmetics~ in the. sequel !.e" "open:" \n ~sly sense "dyer to a drum "IS 'buying a h01ej purchaser of a spectacles an eye sight. To is, products and services are the flatworms for delivering the ideas or benefits. Marketers search Cl and hard for the core need they are trying to satisfy. In that sense, a temple priest or seminary church is to decide whether' temple or church is sold as a worshipping place or a community center, Therefore, the design of a temple or church will differ as warranted by the goal. 

MARKETING TASKS RESTATED 

All the marketing tasks can be brought in one focus for better understanding. To understand I marketing tasks one should answer the question what marketing really does? The answers to this question  are the tasks of marketing. These are: 

1. Understanding Customer Needs: . Understanding customer needs and wants is not always simple. Many a times a company succeeds , in defining company's target market but fails to understand the customers' needs correctly. There fore, the marketer should try to understand the target markets needs, wants and demands 'Needs' describe: basic human requirements. Say, people need food, air, water, clothing and shelter to survive. People do have strong needs for recreation, education and entertainment. The 'needs' become 'wants' 1 they are directed to specific objects that satisfy the needs. An American needs food but wants a hamburger or hot dog, French fries and a soft drink. An Indian needs food but wants riot or chapati, rice, rece beans, garlic and onions. Americans, French, Indians need fruits, but American wants bananas, ad French sweet lemon and apple, Indian, bananas mangoes and apples. Wants are shaped by ones so On the other 'demands' are wants for specific products backed by an ability to pay. That way who ~ not want Mercedes Car? However, only a few will be able to pay and buy. The marketing companies must measure not only how many people want but how many are able and hi1ling to buy. In this cotext this distinction throws light on the criticism that marketers create needs or marketers get.. People to' things they do not want. It should be made dear teat marketers do not create needs because null preexist. What they do is they influence the wants along with other societal influences going back to case of buying an automobile - particularly Mercedes, marketers promote the idea that owning of Mere satisfies the need for social status. . That is, the marketers can not create the needs or need for Mercedes   Defining Customer Value and Satisfaction: Management consultant and Management 'Guru' rightly said during 1960's the company's task "to create the customers." It is true. However, customers of2001 are at sea to choose what they want exactly because he has a vast variety of products, brand choices prices and suppliers t09. Rationality of a customer guides him in estimating that market offer that will deliver the highest value customers with the hard earned money are the value- maxi misers within the frame-work of search costs and limited knowledge, mobility and income. They want to get real value for their money. That is, they form an expectation of value and act upon it. Whether or not the offer lives up t6 the value expectations influences both satisfaction and repurchases probability.  A given product or offering will be successful if it delivers value and satisfaction to the target buyer. Naturally, a buyer chooses between different offerings on the basis of which is perceived to deliver the most value. Value is the ratio between what the customer gets and what he gives. The customer gets benefits and, therefore, assumes costs. The costs comprise of monetary, time, energy and psychic costs. The equation value can be.                                                    

                                Benefits    Functional benefits + 

 =         value  = Costs       Monetary Costs + Time Costs + 

   Emotional benefits  

Energy Costs + Psychic Costs '

 A wise marketer can increase the value to the customer by increasing the benefits, reducing costs, increasing benefits and reducing costs, increasing the benefits by less than reduction in costs. As customer ~ to buy from the firm that he perceives the highest customer delivered value. "Customer delivered value" is the difference between total customer value and total customer cost." Total customer value" is the 

bundle of benefits that customers expect from given  product or service." Total customer cost" is the bundle of costs that customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining and disposing of the product or service. The concept of customer Delivered value can be presented as follows in the figure: 

                                      Customer delivered value 

 Total customer value                                       total customer cost  Product value                                                   monetary cost  Services value                                                  time cost  Petsonneal vaule                                              energy cost Image value                                                                                psychic cost 

 Some academicians an marketing experts do not believe in this frame-work of consumer delivered value. According to them this frame- work is too rational. Practically, buyers operate under various constraints and occasionally make choices that give         more weight age to their personal benefit than company's benefit. However, delivered-value maximisation is a useful frame-work that applies to good many situations and paves the way for very rich insights. The implications of DVM are:  (1) The seller must assess the total customer value and total' customer cost associated with each of his competitor's offer to know whether his own offer rates the buyer's mind. (2) The seller who is at a delivered value disadvantage has two alternatives. The seller can try to increase the total customer value or to decrease total customer cost. The alternative calls for strengthening or augmenting the offer's product, services, personnel and image benefits. The second alternative calls for reducing buyers costs by reducing the delivery process, or absorbing some buyer risks by offering a warranty. 

                        Let as now turn to customer satisfaction - the other face. Whether the buyer is satisfied after purchase depends on the offer's performance in relation to the buyer's expectations, in general. "Satisfaction" is a person's feelings of pleasure or displeasure resulting from comparing a products perceived performance or the outcome in relation to his or her expectations. . Stated alternatively, satisfaction is the function of perceived performance and expectations. In case, the performance falls short of expectations, the consumer is dis-satisfied. Conversely, if the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. However, if the performance exceeds expectations, the consumerism highly satisfied or delighted.  

    Many companies, therefore, aiming at high level satisfaction because customers who  are still go in search of better offer to get delightment than mere satisfaction. This search leads to switching off from one seller to another. However, those who are delighted are less prone to switch over to others. That is high satisfaction or delight creates an emotional bond with the brand and not just a rational preference which results in high customer loyalty. The question is : how do buyers form their expectations? Experience of the past, friends and associates advice and the marketer's and competitors information and promises. The marketers should neither raise nor lower their consumer expectation because in both the cases they lose customers. There is nothing wrong in raising consumer expectations backed up by matching performance. These are the companies aiming at TCS - Total Customer Satisfaction. The Xerox company guarantees "total satisfaction" and replaces at its expense any dis-satisfied customer's equipment within a period of three years after purchase. Another famous company namely, Cigna advertises as "We'll never be 100% satisfied until you are too" Honda of Japan advertises "One reason our customers are so satisfied is that we aren't." Another Japanese automobile Company Nissan invites potential in finite buyers to drop in for a "guest drive" and not "test-drive" because the Japane-se word for customer is "honoured guest." The key to generating a high customer loyalty is to deliver a high customer value. In addition to tracking customer value expectation and satisfaction, the companies are expected to monitor their competitors performance in these areas. X company was really pleased to learn that 80 percent of its customers are satisfied. The CEO traced his competitor position and found it to be 90 percent and he was dismayed when the same competitor is aiming at 95 percent consumers' satisfaction. Those companies which are customer centered, customer satisfaction is both a goal and tool. The major tools for tracking and measuring customer satisfaction are : (1) Complaint and suggestion systems (2) Customer satisfaction surveys (3) Ghost shopping or Hiring Mystery shoppers and (4) Lost customer analysis. 

3. To Achieve High-performance Business: 

   

        Each company performance to mach the consumer satisfaction level or consumer expectations. However, what is important is each customer centered company should achieve zenith point of high performance business. The renowned consulting firm of Mr. Arther D. Little concieved a model of the characteristics of a high performance business. This model is presented here as under: 

                       The model clearly demonstrates the keys to success of high performance business namely, stake holders, processes, resources and organisation. It will not be out of place if a brief reference is made to each characteristic. 

                                Coming to STAKE HOLDERS, the business house has to clearly define its stake-holders and their needs. these stake holders are-customers, Fig. 1.6. MODEL OF HIGH PERFORMANCE BUSINESS CHARACTERISTICS shareholders. Each business must work hard to' satisfy the bare minimum or threshold expectations of each stake- holder group. At the same time, the company must aim at delivering satisfaction levels above the minimum for different stake holders. For instance, a company might aim at delighting its customers, perform well for its employees and deliver a threshold level of satisfaction to the suppliers. In setting these levels, the company must be careful not to violate the various stakeholder groups sense of fairness about the relative treatment that they are getting. Wonderfully enough, there is dynamic relationship connecting the stake-holder groups. A hardworking and smart company creates a high level of employee satisfaction that leads to higher and better effort, which leads to higher _ quality products and services which is bound to create higher customer satisfaction which leads to more repeat business leading in turn to higher growth and profits further, leading to high stock-holders satisfaction. It does not stop at that; it leads to more investment and so on. This is the "virtuous circle" that spells profits and growth where all the stake holders are not only satisfied but more than satisfied. 

                            Turning our attention to PROCESSES, a company can attain its satisfaction goals by managing and linking work processes. High performance companies, instead of carrying on the work by departmebtalisation increasingly focussing on the need to manage core business processes such as new-product developments, customer attraction and retention and other fulfillments. They are reengineering the work flows and building cross-functional teams accountable for each process. For instance, at X company a customer operations group links sales, shipping, installation, service and billing so that these activities flow frictionless into one another. Therefore, winning companies will be those that achieve excellent capabilities in managing the core business processes through cross-functioning teams. In their article "Commercializing Technology: What the Best companies Do" by T. Michael Neveus, G.L. Summe and Bra Utah in Harvard Business Review-May-June1990-P 162 pointed out" High performing companies emphasize a set of skills notably different from their less successful counter parts. They value cross-functional skills, while other companies pride themselves on their functional strength. High-performers boast, "We have got the best project managers in the world" Low performers say, "We have got the best circuit designers." Not only companies like AT & T, Polaroid and Motorola but non profit and government organizations have reorganized their workers into cross- functional teams. 

          Focussing on RESOURCES, each company needs resources-labour force, materials, machines, information energy and the like to carryon the processes. Resources can be owned or rented. In the past, the companies owned the resources and controlled them that are imperative for their line of activity or activities. This past practice of owning is fast changing. It is experienced that companies are finding that some resources under their control are not performing as well as those that they could obtain from outside the company. That is why, many companies have now decided to outsource less critical resources if they can be got of better quality and at lower cost from outside the organisation. These outsourced resources comprise of cleaning services, lawn-care, auto-fleet management and the like. For instance, world leader Kodak company handed over the task of management of its data-processing department to IBM another giant in computers. The point lies in owning and nurturing core resources and competences that make up the very essence of business. For instance, Nike company does not manufacture its own shoes because there are certain Asian manufacturers who are more competent in this task. Even in case of India Bata company encourages others to produce specifying the standards and sells those under various brands of Bata. It is Nike, Adidas, Bata, Puma, where name matters. However, these companies nurture their superiority in shoe-designing and shoe merchandising the two core competencies. In such cases competitive advantages comes to the companies that possess capabilities. Whereas core competences tend to refer to areas of special technical and production expertise, capabilities tend to describe excellence in broader business purposes. Professor George Pay says aptly that market-driven forms are excelling in three distinctive capabilities namely, market sensing, customer linking and channel bonding in his article 'The capabilities of Market-driven Organisations" _ Journal of Marketing, October, 1994 page 38. Last but not the least, one is to turn to organisation and its cnlture. A company's organisation is madeup of its structure policies and corporate culture which are likely to be badly affected in a rapidly changing business environment. Though the company's structure and policies can be changed with certain amount of opposition and difficulty, it is very difficult to change the organisational culture. Though it is a hard task, bringing change in corporate culture holds key to implement new strategies with great success. Then what is "corporate culture" ? This phrase is really difficult to express in concrete terms,' as it is an dosed_ concept. Some persons have defined it as "the' shared experiences, stories, beliefs and norms that characterize organisations. Whenever, we enter any company the rust thing strike to our minds of. 

corporate culture-the way people are dressed, how they talk to one another, the way they greet the people checking in and checking out. Corporate culture develops organically and it is transmitted directly from CEO's personality and habits to the last employee at floor level. There can not be better example dtan that of Billionaires Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft company. To-day a 14 billion US dollar \\Jnipany has not lost its hard driving culture perpetuated by him - to start with - as a small entrepreneur. Microsoft's ultra-competitive culture is the biggest key to its thundering success an to its much criticized dommance in the computer industry. ,very often question arises as to what factors account for the astonishing success of long lasting high performance companies? The research study could answer this. The researchers grouped such companies into two categories as "Visionary" and "Comparison". According to them "Visionary" :"companies  are those that are most admired industry leaders, they set their ambitious goals, communicate them to their employees and embrace a high purpose beyond making money. They out-performed comparison  companies. In American industrial world, such visionary companies have been General Electrical, Hewlett Packard and Boing aginst the Comparision companies such as Westing .houses Texas Instruments and Mc Donnell Douglas. The distinctive features of these visionary companies are: (1) Each holds a distinctive set of values from which they do not deviate (2) Each company expresses purpose in enlightened terms and (3) Each company developed a vision of its own for future and acts to implement it    It is evident from the above that successful companies are to adopt a new view of crafting their strategies. The traditional view is that it‟s the senior management hammer out the strategy and hands it down the levels of organization However, modern view says that senior management should identify and   encourage fresh ideas from three groups who tend to be under-represented in strategy making employee.  With youthful perspectives employees who are far removed from company head Company the youthful perspectives employees who are far removed from company head-quarters and employees who are new to the industry because each group is capable of challenging company orthodoxy and stimulating new ideas.  

Delivering Customer Value and Satisfaction: 

         The next thing is that what factors are involved in delivering the customer value. and satisfaction .these two phrases have been understood both in meaning and importance. These instruments or arrangements are "value chain" and "value delivery system." Value chain according Professor Michael porter of Harvard University is the tool for identifying the ways to create more customer value. In a sense every organisation is a collection of activities that are performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its product. That is, the value chain identifies nine strategically relevant activities that create value and cost in a specific business. These nine valuecreating activities consist of five primary and four support  activities The following figure as given by Philip Kotler clears the concept of value' chain. The PRIMARY ACTIVITIES .signify the sequence of bringing materials into the business-in bound logistics - converting them into final products - operations - shipping out final products.,- out bound ,logistics - marketing them-marketing and sales - and servicing them-service. The SUPPORT: CTIVITIES are - procurement, technology development, human resource management and the firms infrastructure - handled in certain specialised departments, but not only there. For instance, other :parchments may do some procurement and hiring of people. The firm's infrastructure   covers the costs of general management, planning, finance, accounting, legal and government affairs that are borne by all primary and support activities.  Source: Original from M.E. Porter's book "Competitive Advantage- Creating and Stimulating. Superior performance" -1985s 

 Here, the firm's task is evaluate its costs and performance in each value-creating activity and to seek the ways to improve it the firm is expected to estimate its competitors costs and performances as bench-marks and compare its own costs and performances to the extent the firm excels its competitors, it has competitive.  

In fact, the firm's success depends not only how well each department performs its share of work but also on how well the various departmental activities are coordinated. It is commonly found that each department thinks of its achievements and interests side-tracking company's and customers, interest. It should not happen. This problem of ordination can be  better solved by the smooth management of CORE BUSINESS OCESSES. The core business processes include (a) New product realization management (c) Customer acquisition and retention (d) Order to  remittance  (e) Customer service. It has led to re-engineering of businesses, creating cross-disciplinary s to manage core processes. Another part is that of value-Delivery Network. Success comes to those firms which look for competitive advantages beyond their own operations of the value chains of their suppliers, distributors and customers. For thundering success many firms have entered into partnership or joint ventures with .specific suppliers and distributors to create a superior delivery network which is also called as supply chain. This concept of supply chain can be presented as under.. This supply chain or delivery network demonstrates that there is competition between networks and not companies. Here, the company wins with better network It is evident from the above figure that production and sale of ready-made clothes say jean pants and blazers, either one company under takes all which call as vertical integration or join the hands of other who together make a quality product at least cost and in adequate quantity where everyone is happy from producer to customer. To make a jean pant and blazer, the company needs, fabric, the fabric needs standard yearn; to market jean pants and blazers there is need for a retailer to meet the needs of a consumer. Here the, companies are not completing but there is competition between networks. FIG…. 

5. Attracting and Retaining Customers: 

Good many companies are not stopping at the value chain and  supply chain management, they are keen on developing stronger bonds of relationships and loyalty 

with their final customers. In the past, the manufacturers and marketers took consumers for granted. The reasons for this might have been the customers might not have had many alternative sources of supply or all suppliers were more or less equally deficient in service or the market was so fast growing that the companies did not worry about satisfying their customers. Now the things have changed. Today's customers have many alternative suppliers, they are smatter, more price conscious, more demanding less forgiving, approached by more competitors with equal or better offers. It is really harder to please them. As put very rightly by Mr. Jeffrey Gatemen, the challenge is not to produce satisfied customers, several competitors can do it. The challenge is to produce loyal customers. 

How to Attract the Customers? 

The companies expecting growing profits and sales have' spent and are spending good deal of their treasure, time and talents in searching new customers. Customer acquisition demands substantial skill in lead generation, lead qualification and account conversion. To generate leads, the companies develop advertisements and places them on suitable and viable media that will reach new prospects; they might send direct mail and have phone can~ to the possible new prospects, their sales- persons participate in trade-shows where they might find a few leads. All these activities help in producing a good list of suspects. The next task is to qualify which of the suspects are really, good prospects which done by interviewing them, checking their financial standing. Then, these prospects may be graded as hot, warm and cool. The sales people contact first the hot prospects and work on account conversion that involves making presentations, answering objections and negotiating final terms. 

HOW TO RETAIN CUSTOMERS ? 

 The point lies in not only getting new customers but to keep the turnover of customers at lowest point. That is the existing customers should be kept. Unfortunately most of companies gain new customers to lose old customers. It is called as "high customer 

churn." It is an abortive attempt of filling leaking tank with water continuously. -That is companies of today must pay their attention to defection rate of customers. The rate of defection depends on nature of business, among other things. The defection rate can be reduced to the minimum by (1) defining and measuring its retention rate (2) distinguishing the causes of customer attention and identify those that can be managed better (3) estimating the loss of profit caused by loss of customer (4) estimating as to how it costs to retain the customer. The need for retaining the customers can not be over estimated. Right from the beginning most of fut. companies have been working on one side namely, getting the new customers increasingly, bothering little about those who are already there and are likely to move out. Of late companies have realised the importance and giving more weightage on customer loyalty' and retention. It is because they know exactly how much the improved retention of customers is really worth to them in rupees value. Companies have developed modem to calculate the amount repurchase can retain the profit share existing and increases it. The companies of tea day who care for customer retention say seriously "Our company's aim goes beyond satisfying the customer. Our aim is to delight the customers." Therefore, the key to customer retention is 

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. 

           A highly satisfied or delighted customer: (a) stays loyal longer (b) ,buys more as the company introduces new products and up-grades the existing products (c) talks favorably about company an~ its products (d) pays less attention to competing brands and ads and is less sensitive to price (e) offers' product or service ideas to the company as an experienced expert if) costs less to serve than new customers because transactions are routinised. In view of its importance, the marketing companies should constantly measure their level satisfaction. A company can phone individual customers as to whether they are satisfied or dis-satisfied if satisfied to what extent. It is estimated that a company may lose 80 percent of the "very dis-satisfied' customers, about 40 percent of the "dissatisfied" customers, about 30 percent of "indifferent" customer and say 10 

percent of the "~satisfied" customers and 1 or 2 percent of very satisfied customer-s. It imply~ that the companies should try to exceed the consumer expectation than only attempting to meet them. As loyal customers account for a substantial amount of company's profits, companies should not run the risk of losing a customer by ignoring a grievance or quarrelling over small amount. Agile and customer minded customers ask their salesmen to give full report on each lost customer and all the steps to be taken to restore satisfaction. Intelligence lies in winning back a lost customer as it costs less than attracting a new customer. Consumer satisfaction or delight is the key to consumer retention, hence every thing is to be done to maximize his or her satisfaction and keep him or her delighted by (1) offering zero defect products. (2) accepting the goods purchased and replacing (3) repayment in case he 'demands (4) giving guarantees and warrantees and act according to the terms and conditions of warrantees and guarantees, (5) having greetings and gifts on the accessions of valued customers' birth days, marriage anniversaries, company events and so on.  Last but not the least, the companies must motivate the employees to serve the customers well by displaying the placards or painted boards in prominent places around company offices The placard or a painted board or, a poster might be drafted as under: 

 WHAT IS A CUSTOMER?  

. A Customer is the most important person ever in the office ... in person or by mail. . A Customer is not dependent on us ... we are dependent on him.   . A Customer is not an interruption in our work ... he is the purpose of its. We are not doing a favour by serving him ... he is doing us a-favour by giving the opportunity to do so. 

. A Customer is not someone to argue or match wits with. Nobody ever won an argument with a customer. 

. A Customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them professionally to him and to ourselves. Finally, winning companies are those who care for perfect matching of four P's from sellers to four Cs of buyers as rightly pointed out by Professor Robert Lauterborn. The following picture gives a clear picture of it 

PICTURE DEPICTING MATCH OF P'S AND C'S 

In a nutshell, the whole circus of marketing depends on the CUSTOMER - the LOYAL CUSTOMER- Who is to be understood in deep in all aspects he or she needs size up needs, counent them wants, match the 'P' and 'C' so that consumer is created. One satisfied consumer created is the multiplier of customers for the company who are attracted, met with their needs, satisfied and delighted and retained longer. All this is possible only when companies understand and implement "Consumer Value" or "Value Chain". '