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QUESTION 
Marketing concept
 
'An accounts department is not making goods and selling them and so does not need the marketing 
concept.' Is this a fair comment? 
ANSWER 
No. 
(a) 
The accounts department supplies information to various other parts of the organisation. 
Providing information is its service, and the other parts of the organisation are, effectively, its 
customers. 
(b) 
An accounts department deals with customers all the time, especially credit customers: after all, 
it sends out the bills and collects the money. As its activities are directly involved with customers, 
it must take the marketing philosophy on board, too. 
 
1.5.5 The ideal marketing mix 
The ideal marketing mix is one which holds a 
proper balance 
between each of these elements. 
(a) 
One marketing activity in the mix will not be fully effective unless proper attention is given to all 
the other activities. For example, if a company launches a costly promotion campaign which 
emphasises the superior quality of a product, the outlay on advertising, packaging and personal 
selling will be wasted if the quality does not live up to customer expectations.
(b) 
A company might also place too much emphasis on one aspect of the marketing mix, and much 
of the effort and expenditure might not be justified for the additional returns it obtains. It might, 
for example, place too much importance on price reductions to earn higher profits, when in fact a 
smaller price reduction and greater spending on sales promotion or product design might have a 
more profitable effect. 
1.5.6 Market segmentation 
Market segmentation
occurs when the market can be broken up into different segments whose 
customers have common needs and preferences for products and/or services. Segmentation could be on 
bases such as geography, age, gender or income level. Separate identification of segments means that 
customers may be charged a different amount.