The concept of production came into being under the seller's market conditions. In the early stage of capitalist industrialization, the end of World War II and a period after the war, due to the shortage of materials and products in the market, the concept of production was quite popular in enterprise management. Under the old planned economy system in China, due to the shortage of products in the market, enterprises are worried that their products have no market, and industrial and commercial enterprises also pursue the concept of production in their operations, which is embodied in the following aspects: industrial enterprises concentrate on developing production, despise marketing, and implement fixed sales by production; Commercial enterprises concentrate on the supply of goods, buy whatever they produce in industry, and buy as much as they produce in industry, without paying attention to marketing.
In addition to the shortage of materials and products, the marketing management of some enterprises is also dominated by product concepts in the case of high product costs. For example, at the beginning of this century, Henry Ford devoted himself to mass production of automobiles, striving to reduce costs and make them affordable for consumers, so as to increase Ford's market share. It is also an early enterprise management concept. According to the product concept, consumers like products with high quality, multi-function and certain characteristics best, and enterprises should devote themselves to producing high-value products and constantly improve them. It comes from the situation of "seller's market" in which the market products are in short supply. The easiest place to breed product creativity is when enterprises invent new products. At this time, enterprises are most likely to lead to "marketing myopia", that is, improperly focusing on products rather than market demand, lacking foresight in marketing management, only seeing the good quality of their own products, but not the changes in market demand, which leads to the dilemma of enterprise management.
For example, the American ××× Watch Company was founded in 1869, and was recognized as one of the best watch manufacturers in the United States until the 1950s. The company emphasizes the production of high-quality products in marketing management, and distributes products through the marketing network composed of famous jewelry stores and department stores. Before 1958, the company's sales have been on the rise. But since then, its sales volume and market share began to decline. The main reason for this situation is that the market situation has changed: many consumers in this period are no longer interested in expensive watches, but tend to buy those economical, convenient and novel watches; Moreover, many manufacturers began to produce low-grade products to meet the needs of consumers, and actively promoted them through mass distribution channels such as cheap shops and supermarkets, thus winning most of the market share of XX Watch Company. Xxx Watch Company did not notice the change of the market situation, but still insisted on producing exquisite traditional style watches and still sold them through traditional channels, thinking that its products were of good quality and customers would come to you. As a result, the operation of the enterprise suffered a major setback. The concept of promotion (or sales concept) came into being from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. It is another concept adopted by many enterprises, which embodies "what customers buy and what I sell". In its view, consumers usually show a purchasing inertia or rebellious psychology. If left alone, consumers generally will not buy enough enterprise products. Therefore, enterprises must actively promote sales and vigorously promote sales to stimulate consumers to buy their products in large quantities. The concept of promotion came into being under the condition of modern market economy.
Promotion is used to promote undesirable goods, that is, buyers generally do not think of the products or services they buy. Many enterprises often pursue the concept of promotion when there is a surplus of products.
The concept of promotion originated from the transitional stage from "seller's market" to "buyer's market" in capitalist countries. During the period of 1920- 1945, due to the promotion of scientific and technological progress, scientific management and mass production, the output of products increased rapidly, and a new situation of oversupply of products and fierce competition among vendors gradually appeared in the market. Especially during the economic crisis of 1929- 1933, a large number of products could not be sold, forcing enterprises to pay attention to promoting products by means of advertising and promotion. Many entrepreneurs feel that even if there are good and cheap products, they may not be able to sell them; In order to survive and develop in the increasingly fierce market competition, enterprises must attach importance to promotion. For example, under the guidance of this business philosophy, the Fort Pierce Flour Company of the United States proposed at that time that "our company aims at promoting flour". The concept of promotion still exists in today's enterprise marketing activities. For example, for products that customers don't want to buy, forced sales promotion is often adopted.
Although this concept is one step ahead of the first two concepts and has begun to attach importance to advertising and promotion, its essence is still production-oriented. Marketing concept is a challenge to the above concept and a new enterprise management concept. This concept is based on meeting the needs of customers, that is, "what customers need, they produce." Although this idea has a long history, its core principles were not basically finalized until the mid-1950s. At that time, social productive forces developed rapidly, and the market trend was a buyer's market with oversupply. At the same time, residents' personal income has increased rapidly, and it is possible to choose products. In order to realize the intensification of competition among enterprises, many enterprises begin to realize that in order to survive and develop, they must change their management concepts. According to the marketing concept, the key for an enterprise to achieve its goal is to correctly determine the demand and desire of the target market, and deliver the goods or services expected by the target market more effectively than competitors, so as to meet the demand and desire of the target market more effectively than competitors.
The appearance of marketing concept has brought about a fundamental change in the business philosophy of enterprises, which is a revolution in marketing. The concept of marketing is quite different from that of promotion.
Theodore levitt once made a profound comparison between the concepts of sales promotion and marketing, pointing out that the concept of sales promotion focuses on the needs of sellers. Marketing concept focuses on buyers' needs. The idea of promotion is to take the seller's demand as the starting point and consider how to turn the product into cash; The marketing concept considers how to meet the needs of customers by manufacturing and delivering products and everything related to the final consumer products. It can be seen that the four pillars of marketing concept are: market center, customer orientation, collaborative marketing and profit. The four pillars of the promotion concept are: factory, product positioning, promotion and profit. In essence, the concept of marketing is a philosophy oriented to customers' needs and desires, and it is the embodiment of consumer sovereignty theory in enterprise marketing management.
Many excellent enterprises are pursuing the concept of marketing. For example, Honda Motor Company of Japan will launch a new Accord brand car in the United States. Before designing the new car, they sent engineers and technicians to Los Angeles to inspect the expressway, measure the length and width of the expressway on the spot, collect the asphalt of the expressway and photograph the design of the entrance and exit roads. After returning to Japan, they specially built a 9-mile-long highway, and even the road signs and signs were exactly the same as those on American highways. When designing the luggage, the designers had different opinions, so they went to the parking lot for an afternoon to see how everyone put their luggage. In this way, opinions were immediately unified. As a result, Honda's Accord became very popular as soon as it arrived in the United States, and it was called a good car acceptable all over the world.
Another example is Disneyland in America, where joy is as ubiquitous as air. It makes every child's dream come true from all over the world, and makes adults of all colors have the love of forgetting friends. Because when Disneyland was founded, its goal was clear: its products were not Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but happiness. People come here to have fun. Parks provide all the fun. Everyone in the company should be a happy soul. No matter who the tourists ask, they must answer with "Disney etiquette" and never say "I don't know". Therefore, tourists come back here again and again, enjoy the fun and are willing to pay the price. On the other hand, some entertainment cities, folk villages and world scenic cities in China, monotonous programs, expressionless explanations and indifferent faces make people feel cold, but how can they be happy? Thus, it is urgent for China enterprises to establish marketing concepts. The concept of social marketing is a revision and supplement to the concept of marketing. It came into being under the new situation of western capitalist energy shortage, inflation, increasing unemployment, serious environmental pollution and the prevalence of consumer protection movement in the 1970s. Because the concept of marketing avoids the reality of the conflict between consumer demand, consumer interests and long-term social welfare. According to the concept of social marketing, the task of an enterprise is to determine the needs, desires and interests of each target market, and provide the target market with goods or services that can meet their needs, desires and interests more effectively and favorably than competitors by protecting or improving consumers and social welfare. The concept of social marketing requires marketers to consider three interests when formulating marketing policies, namely, corporate profits, meeting consumer needs and social interests.
The emergence and existence of the above five business management concepts have their historical background and inevitability, and they are all interrelated and adapted to certain conditions. At present, foreign enterprises are shifting from production to management or service. In order to survive and develop, enterprises must establish modern marketing concepts and social marketing concepts. However, it must be pointed out that due to many factors, not all American enterprises have established marketing concepts and social marketing concepts. In fact, there are still many enterprises that are oriented by product concept and marketing concept.
At present, China is still in the primary stage of socialist market economy. Restricted by the development degree of social productive forces, the market development trend, the situation of economic system reform and the income of ordinary residents, China's business concept is still in the stage of sales promotion and coexistence of various concepts.