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PART B: BUSINESS ORGANISATION STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS AND GOVERNANCE 
 
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Determine customer needs
Invest resources
Make product/service
Market the product/service
(Profit via customer satisfaction)
Market feedback
Determine whether product
can be made
Invest resources
Make product
Sell the product (profit via
increased turnover)
Market orientation
Sales/production orientation
1.5.4 Satisfying customer needs: the marketing mix 
Before you continue, recall the Chartered Institute of Marketing's definition at the beginning of this section. 
The last word is 
profitably
.
After all, customers would be absolutely delighted if you were to satisfy 
all
 
their 
needs for exotic holidays, caviar, champagne, private jets and so forth, for nothing. The marketing 
orientation is a way of doing business that seeks to provide satisfaction of customer wants at a 
profit
. 
The
 marketing mix 
is the set of controllable variables and their levels that an organisation uses to influence 
the target market. According to McCathy (1964), these variables are product, price, place and promotion and 
are known as the 4Ps. 
There is thus a balance to be achieved between organisational capacity and customer requirements. This 
balance is expressed in the 
marketing mix
, which is the framework in which the customer and the 
business deal with each other. 
Customer
buys
satisfaction
Organisation
sells
product
Product
Place
Price
Promotion
 
Product
The 
product 
element of the marketing mix is what is being sold, whether this be widgets, power 
stations, haircuts, holidays or financial advice. (A product could be a 
service
.) Product issues include: 

Design 
(size, 
shape) 

Safety 

Features 

Ecological 
friendliness 

Quality and reliability 

What it does 

Packaging 

Image 
The