Marketing and Customer Satisfaction: What Relationship Is There - Assignment Example

The paper "Marketing and Customer Satisfaction: What Relationship Is There" is a perfect example of a marketing assignment. Traditionally, marketing has been perceived as involving the pricing, packaging, promoting and distribution activities that an organisation engages in for purposes of endearing customers to its product. On its part, customer satisfaction refers to the customer’s state of approval after the consumption experience. Ideally, customer satisfaction leads to the customer agreeing that the product’s value is worth the price and the effort that he (the customer) made in purchasing it. Arguably, when marketing is perceived as a combination of all 4 P’s as indicated above, it is clear that there is a link between it (marketing) and customer satisfaction. For example, the customer may like the product but might disagree with the pricing. In such a case, the customer would be dissatisfied. At the very basic, one would argue that to enhance customer satisfaction, all aspects of marketing need to be aligned in a manner that meets customer’s expectations. That means that a product or service needs to be priced, promoted, packaged, and distributed in a manner that meets customer’s expectations.

Discussion

By definition, marketing is a process adopted by an organisation, in order to plan and execute ideas that have been conceptualised in relation to packaging, pricing, promoting and distributing a product or services (Grönroos, 1999, p. 54). The marketing process seeks to create an exchange between the product manufacturer or retailer and the customer in a manner that satisfies the consumers’ and the sellers’ objectives (Grönroos, 1999, p. 54). From the foregoing definition of marketing, it is apparent that marketing recognises the importance of satisfying consumers, hence the link between marketing and customer satisfaction.

Another link between marketing and customer satisfaction is evident from numerous publications, which underscore the importance of customer satisfaction in retaining customers. Kotler (1994, p. 20) notes that satisfying customers is the only sure way that marketers can retain the same customers. LaBarbera and Mazursky (1983, p. 400) observe that there is an overriding assumption in the marketing profession that the presence or absence of customer satisfaction influences a customer’s repurchase behaviour. The link between marketing and customer satisfaction has notably led to the relationship marketing concept, where marketing activities are monitored and controlled in a manner that enhances customer satisfaction (Hennig-Thurau & Klee, 1997, p. 737).

A study conducted by Matzler, Bailom, Hinterhuber, Renzl and Pichler (2004, p. 276) implies that an organisation should not embark on marketing its products or services if it has not fulfilled basic factors that including producing an appropriate product, pricing it well, distributing it to the right markets, and promoting it using the appropriate promotion methods. In addition to meeting the 4Ps of marketing, Matzler et al. (2004, p. 277) indicate that there are performance factors that a product or service must meet in order to reach the threshold of customer satisfaction. Such performance factors can be highlighted during product promotion activities, but marketers should be careful to create realistic expectations about product or service performance in the customer’s minds. Finally, Matzler et al. (2004, p. 277) argue that marketing should embrace excitement factors in order to stand out from any existing providers that have similar product offers. Excitement factors are communicated to the customers during marketing activities such as promotion, but in this case, too, marketers should be careful to create realistic expectations in the customer’s mind. Customer satisfaction depends on whether expectations created in the minds of customers during marketing are met during the consumption experience (Wirtz, 2003, p. 97).