Prior to  market analysis , most companies focused on products, hiring sales teams to push products into and out of the market, regardless of real market needs. An organization focused on the needs of the market and customers first determines the desires of its potential customers and then builds the  product  or  service . Marketing theory and practice are justified by the belief that  customers  use a product / service because they have a need, or because the product / service brings a supposed benefit.

Two important aspects of marketing are recruiting new customers (acquisition) and maintaining / boosting relationships with existing customers (managing the customer base).

After a salesperson goes through the acquisition marketing phase by convincing a potential customer to buy, customer base management marketing becomes prevalent. The customer base management process begins to shift the seller toward building a relationship, encouraging relationships, and developing the benefits that led the customer to buy, and improving the product / service to continually protect the business from competitors.

Marketing methods are classified by many as  social sciences , particularly  psychology ,  sociology , and  economics . Anthropology  also has a small but growing influence. Through  advertising , it is related to many creative arts  .

For a marketing plan to be successful, the combination of the four "Ps" must reflect the wishes and needs of consumers in the target market. Trying to persuade a market segment to buy something they don't want is very expensive and not very successful. Traders rely on market research, both formally and informally, to determine what consumers need and what they are willing to pay. Traders hope that this process will give them a solid competitive advantage. The offer is also a very important thing that comes to complete the 4P theory. An effective and less expensive alternative is  cybermarketing .

 

1. The marketing vision

It has been stated more and more frequently in recent decades that the secret of organizations' competitive success is the implementation of the marketing vision that offers the best prospects in achieving the ultimate goal of their business.

The marketing vision combines the organization-wide adoption of the marketing philosophy with the functional skills to meet consumer needs, so that the previously known market is what determines the characteristics of the product and marketing, and the manufacturer creates only the goods and services that the consumer and he wants them.

This is how the goal of the marketing activity that the great American specialist  Peter Druker  says is to make the sale superfluous. The goal is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits his needs ?? and sell yourself ?? (Management: Tasks, Responsibilities Practices, New York Haper & Row 1973 p.64-65).

This vision gradually imposed itself, as it moved from the concept of marketing, which represents only the activities of sales, physical distribution and advertising, to the managerial orientation of marketing, expressed through the marketing mix, ie by moving from the traditional concept of marketing. reflected by the optics of production (production orientation, specific to the period 1900-1930) and sales optics (orientation with predilection towards sales, from 1930-1950), to the modern marketing optics whose specificity is the market orientation, from the postwar period .

In the traditional view, marketing was only an accessory in relation to production, limited in scope, to physical distribution and advertising.

In the modern vision, marketing is an essential activity of the economic agent, its scope being extremely wide, aiming at integrating research results in all phases of a product's life in the circuit that begins and ends with the consumer.

The pillars of the marketing activity are:

- the consumer who must be in the center of attention of the activity of the enterprise, with his needs and desires;

- the net profit which is the final goal that is achieved by satisfying the needs of consumers;

- marketing organization that allows decisions to be made according to market requirements.

They give the economic agent the possibility of a rational adequacy of its production to the consumption of the society. Marketing is a very complex activity, not to be confused ?? how is it happening ?? with the sale of products or the study of consumption, it encompasses them along with other activities that are as a whole, designed to direct, serve and satisfy the needs of the consumer.

In terms of marketing, selling and boosting it is just a means to develop demand, selling is just one of its essential means. Marketing is not only an orientation towards sales, but especially towards beneficiaries and long-term profitability, indicating unsatisfied requirements, creating other requirements, coordinating functions that directly or indirectly concern the consumer, one of its basic principles being that ?? on the market is the end point of manufacturing enterprises, and not the end point of production capacity ?? (G. Morello, ?? Multi-Country Marketing Strategy ??, International Marketing Federation Seminar on New Products and New Markets, June 19-23, 1968).

So the marketing concerns are not limited to the sales activity, but also aim at a series of pre- and post-activities ?? sales.

In logical sequence, the phases that make up the content of marketing are:

• research and identification of consumer needs and their orientations;
• designing future products;
• prototype testing;
• conclusions regarding the product perspective;
• establishing the pricing policy;
• market preparation;
• launching the product on the market;
• rational organization of the sales process;
• studying the degree of satisfaction of needs;
• synthesizing the main elements regarding the product improvement.

They demonstrate that marketing is a comprehensive study of how different segments of society meet their needs through the exchange process, as marketing can be achieved mainly, identifying and delimiting demand and competition, organizing the network of representation , information, marketing, distribution and promotion, elaboration of price and product policy, as well as identification of optimal ways of international cooperation and capital placement.

Very concisely, the acceptance of the marketing vision in coloring expressions can be translated into the following imperatives:

- to discover the consumer's wishes and to fulfill them;

- to produce only what can be sold, instead of trying to sell what is produced;

- to love the consumer, and not the product;

- to satisfy the needs of the consumer in conditions of profitability.

Their fulfillment implies a profound change in the mentality of the leaders, specialists, of the entire staff of the company, it implies a new attitude towards the market, manifested in the care towards the client, which must be in the center of preoccupations, surrounded by the marketing mix. price, placement-distribution and promotion, ie by the 4P).

                          

FIG. 2.1. The essence of the marketing vision

Translating the marketing perspective into reality means transforming general ideas and marketing principles into actions, programs and problem solving, by creating a framework that allows changes in the relationships between activities in the company, between its functions, the implementation of a programming system, directing and controlling the activity, as well as establishing marketing objectives, policies and strategies, including the appropriate structural organization.

World experience shows that in order to adopt the marketing vision, knowledge and application of marketing principles and techniques in market research are necessary but not sufficient. It is crucial that in the enterprise, the marketing function finds its coordinating role in its managerial organization.

In this sense, the specialists (O.Nicolescu, I.Georgescu ?? Management and marketing in autonomous utilities, commercial companies, private companies vol. I and II supplement to the magazine ?? Tribuna Economică ?? 1991 p.176) consider that for the integration of the marketing function must meet three essential conditions:

- the management of the enterprise to appreciate the different nature of the marketing problems compared to the production ones under the aspect of the selection of the marketing personnel, the adoption of the strategy, the organization of the marketing (marketing-management);

- understanding the dynamic character of marketing programs with continuous adjustments to the market evolution, both in terms of forecasts and product offerings;

- the influence of the marketing optics on the other functions of the enterprise.

The emergence of the marketing function is a necessity when the enterprise is facing ?? the consumer market ??, in which the determining role belongs to the buyer, who has wide possibilities to choose due to the abundance of products and services offered by the market, and the company can no longer avoid the risk of failure to produce products, when producing independently of real market requirements. Now the company addresses a market segment, not the market as a whole, a multitude of needs, a carefully studied market, which makes its evolution to be anticipated with the help of a scientific methodology, having the possibility to know the market quantitatively, qualitatively, but also structural.

Accepting the marketing function as a coordinator implies the creation of an organizational framework, which leads to the orientation of both the fundamental strategies of the enterprise and all phases of current or long-term decisions by management, based on a full understanding of the requirements of all market segments.

 Although, since 1952, the president of Général Electric points out that the marketing function must become one of the most important functions of the enterprise, world practice shows that only in the last two decades, in modern enterprises in developed countries, the role of staff of the marketing activity and this was done in a variety of concrete forms.

Of course, intuition, ability, imagination, creative thinking, etc. have an important role in leading and organizing the marketing activity, but all of them must be based on solid theoretical and practical knowledge, on understanding the principles, methods and techniques of marketing, which can be applied with optimal results in the special, specific conditions of the socio-economic practice.

The application of the marketing concept excludes empiricism, routine, the use of artisanal means and therefore the penetration of marketing knowledge in the economy and in the contemporary socio-political life plays an important role, which can contribute to accelerating development on all levels.

The need for marketing differs from one organization to another, depending on the characteristics of the markets in which they operate, but one thing is certain, the longer it takes companies to incorporate marketing, the worse their situation will be. It is estimated that for a medium-sized enterprise, the implementation of marketing takes 2-3 years, even up to 5 years, because specialists must be trained, the organizational structure reorganized and an adequate information system established.

This is a long process because it involves "transforming marketing strategies and plans into marketing actions in order to achieve the proposed objectives." (Ph. Kotler ?? Principles of Marketing, Third Edition, 1989 p. 757).

Although marketing policies and practices are now well known and applied in many fields of activity, one cannot speak of a generalization of the marketing vision even in the country of origin, in the USA. Even there, a large part of enterprises, especially small and medium ones, do not orient their activity based on marketing principles and the use of its specific techniques, and others only partially use the marketing methodology and technique.

Indeed, only relatively large enterprises can afford to adopt marketing, as market investigations involve the availability of resources, primarily financial. Although in the post-war period, marketing penetrated both vertically, by expanding its functionality within the enterprise, and horizontally, penetrating new fields of activity, we are currently witnessing the accentuation of its tendency to expand, diversify and specialize.

 

2. Ways to promote marketing

 

The process of rapid maturation that marketing has experienced simultaneously in theory and in practice, has allowed it to expand both its area of ​​applicability ?? extensive development ?? as well as increasing its role in leading the organization's activity ?? intensive development.

 

2.1. Extensive development

The promotion of marketing in an extensive way aims on the one hand to broaden its sphere of action in other fields, and on the other hand to increase the number of economic agents to carry out their activity based on marketing principles and techniques.

As it is known, marketing appeared in the field of consumer goods: food, detergents, cosmetics; extended to semi-durable products: automobiles, furniture, electronic equipment, then to widely used services: banks, tourism, to industrial products intended for production: machinery, equipment, informatics, (J. Levendrie, D. Lindon ?? Mercator. Théorie et pratique du marketing, Paris, Dalloz 1990 p. 7) and lately we are witnessing the penetration of marketing in areas where the activities carried out are non-profit, non-profit activities.

In terms of increasing the number of companies implementing marketing, this is done gradually, as competition becomes tougher and the risk more and more obvious, which forces the company to understand that its success depends on adapting production to market requirements determined in beforehand.

Among the first companies to apply marketing are General Electric, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Coca ?? Cola. More recently, marketing enters the field of social insurance, the stock market, but specialists appreciate that there is still some time before its effective application.

There is an attraction of marketing among professional service providers: accounting experts, lawyers, architects, etc. who have gained the freedom to compete and who make extensive use of marketing methods and techniques (Ph. Kotler ?? Marketing Management pp. 64-65).

2.2. Intensive development

The promotion of marketing in an intensive way consists in the modification of the optics of the activity of the enterprise, it implies the transition from the limited vision to the preoccupations of selling the products by promoting them on the market, to the integrative vision of marketing; from the use of simple, traditional methods and techniques, to the complex, modern ones, based on computerized technique; from isolated, sporadic actions to promote products, to overall actions coordinated through complex programs subordinated to broad-based strategies.

This leads to essential changes in the organization of the enterprise, the marketing activity reflected in the expansion of marketing functions, which, in the initial phase, were confused with sales (distribution, advertising) and which in the modern marketing phase are constitutes in a set of functions that constitute what today we call strategic marketing (market study, elaboration of communication strategy), and operational marketing, (promotion, distribution, merchandising, after-sales services).

All these changes are reflected in the organization chart of the enterprise, in the place and role that marketing has in the managerial organization of the enterprise.

It should be mentioned that the two directions of marketing promotion take place simultaneously, they are not excluded, but are mutually assumed, they are dynamized by the propagation effect.

Thus, the phenomenon of enlargement is naturally accompanied by intensification, and this ?? become the characteristic of modern marketing through the integrative vision, increasing the complexity and quality of the techniques and methods used ?? does not exclude the further expansion of the marketing area in other non-profit areas, as a result of the transformations that take place in contemporary society.

Of course, the evolution of marketing is not linear, its implementation being a long process, which is carried out gradually, as a result of its penetration both horizontally and vertically, demonstrating its universality.

 

3. Typology of marketing

 

The universality of marketing ?? feature of modern marketing theory and practice ?? it is affirmed especially in the last decades, when the fundamental structural changes that take place in the configuration of the economic, social and political environment create new opportunities, which give new dimensions to the content and functions of marketing, new perspectives and orientations. It attests to the ability of marketing to adapt to the most diverse requirements and to get involved in solving the new problems of humanity.

A retrospective in the evolution of marketing, highlights in recent decades a permanent trend of diversification and specialization by fields, in different rhythms and proportions, determined by the conditions of each field, which led to the shaping of a typology of marketing.

The typology is the result of differentiation depending on: the specific conditions of the fields of economic and social activity, the experience gained, but also certain problems that must be solved for the natural development of each field. This has materialized in the differentiation of the objectives, methods and techniques of investigation and market action, etc.

The delimitation of the types of marketing can be done based on some criteria, which abound in the specialized literature. From their multitude we have synthesized some  criteria  that we consider essential: the object of the activity, the level of organization of the economy, the territorial area, etc.

3.1. Classification by object of activity

The object of the activity allows the classification in:

A  -  marketing in the economic field , which refers to the for-profit sector, in which goods and services are produced through which the consumer's requirements are met, but at the same time it brings a profit to the producer.

B  ?? marketing in the social or non-profit field , in which goods and services are not produced or provided for marketing, but ideas are circulated in order to trigger social behaviors aimed at a legitimate social cause.

 A  ?? Marketing in the lucrative sector  is of the utmost importance, because the field of production of material goods and provision of services is the essential field that ensures the existence of the human community. Production is the starting point in the circuit of goods and services, this is where most problems arise, because here it is decided: what is produced, with what expenses, how what will be produced will be distributed and at what prices.

Due to the profile or nature of economic activity, marketing has differentiated into:

1. Consumer goods (satisfaction) marketing ?? it is the field in which it initially appeared, having today the widest applicability and in which the most diverse and difficult problems are manifested. The consumer goods market has become very complex, it is constantly diversifying under the influence of a multitude of factors, which creates difficulties in knowing its components and evolution, which requires a great mobility of marketing.
2. Marketing of goods for productive use (of means of production or investment goods), intended especially for industrial consumption, which has given it an inappropriate name, that of  industrial marketing,  widely used.

FIG. 2.2.  Marketing specialization depending on the object of activity

The market of material goods for productive consumption (indirect goods with which other goods are obtained), also called organizational or industrial market, differs from that of consumer goods by structure (type of product, type of buyer and end user), by motivating factors of the purchase, by the types of request and especially by the specifics of the manifestation of the demand, supply, competition, as well as by the ways of carrying out the exchange, the distribution and the promotion on the market, etc. (Fr.Nepveu-Nivelle ?? Le marketing industrie ?? les Editions d ?? Organisation, Paris 1972; D. Patriche ?? Marketing industrial ?? Ed. Expert, Buc. 1994; Norman Hart ?? Marketing industrial ?? Ed. CODEX Buc. 1998).

Thus, the demand for goods destined for production is derived and relatively inelastic ?? due to the technological nature ?? it manifests itself in large-scale and high-value purchases over long periods of time, which makes the buyer's risk higher.

Also, the negotiation of the business is usually much longer than for consumer goods, it is done by competent specialists, motivated by technical and economic considerations. Usually decisions are made by complex groups and are based on the best combination of price, quality, service and safety in the operation of the product.

In the adoption of the purchase decision, a special role is played by the reputation of the supplier, who through a system of penalty clauses must ensure the technical conditions, logistical operations and a series of after-sales services.

Also, an important role is played by the personal relations with the seller who delivers the product, because the meticulous reception upon delivery in case of non-compliance with the agreed specifications can lead to the rejection of the whole lot.

Sales promotion aims at creating and strengthening the positive image of the manufacturer, by fully engaging him in the direction of serving the customer as best as possible, the main form being direct contact with the customer and not advertising in the media.

The central element in industrial marketing is usually the product of great technical complexity but also the after-sales services that accompany the product for the warranty period and beyond. Practice has shown that the results will be positive only if we consider and monitor the activity of all units (enterprises) that contribute to the technological flow, starting with research and development, in order to acquire new technological processes. Obviously, there are other differences between industrial and consumer markets, but the maximum difference is found in the ways of implementing the competitive advantage that is reflected in the marketing mix.

3. Agricultural marketing or agromarketingit detached itself from the fields presented above due to the particularities it imprints on this field of activity, nature as the main factor of production, but also the destination that the results of the production activity in agriculture acquire. Thus, some products are directly intended to satisfy some biological needs of the population, strictly necessary within a certain limit, what impresses the demand report ?? offers a relatively rigid character but also zonal features. Another part of agricultural products is a raw material for obtaining other products or means of reproduction on a larger scale, having the same role with some industrial goods (Bernard Yon ?? Marketing agroalimentaire, Dalloz, Paris l976; Matei Beznoska ?? Contributions to the marketing of agro products -food ?? Marketig nr.6 199o pp. 3-4;
4. Service marketing

It has as its field the tertiary sector (JM Rathmell ?? Marketing in the service sector ?? Winthrop Publishers Inc. Cambrige no.1 l974. Lovelock ?? Marketing service (second edition) Prentice Hall, Engewool Cliffs New Jesey 1991; Ad Payne ?? The essence service marketing, Prentice Hall International, 1993; V. Olteanu Marketing services Ed. Uranus, Bucharest 1998) characterized by heterogeneity, intangibility and inseparability of the provider, which required the emergence of specific methods and techniques, and as the development of both the tertiary sector and marketing, led to the delimitation of separate areas, which are in full swing: financial marketing, transport marketing, etc.

The marketing of services is characterized by: interdisciplinarity, unity in diversity, high degree of complexity that imprints specificity especially to the marketing mix (V. Olteanu op. Cit. 42-46).

1. Tourism marketing,(E. Nicolescu ?? Marketing in tourism Ed. Sport ?? Turism Bucharest 1975; V. Balaure ?? coord. ?? Marketing in public alimentation and tourism, ASE Bucharest l984; V.Olteanu, I Cetină- Marketing of services ?? Ed Marketer-Expert, Bucharest, 1994) as a process, in which the structure of tourist demand is anticipated and satisfied by designing productions or services through communication between the tourism organization and its market, in the maximum interest of the entrepreneur and the consumer, has a series of particularities, which refer to the fact that: the tourism offer consists of a combination of material services and services, production, distribution and consumption take place at the same time and even the same place; the tourist service is an abstract, immaterial, invisible consumer good, which leaves behind only one bill; and consumers cannot see in advance the benefit they want to consume. All these are the particular problems of the field, which is reflected in the specifics of tourism marketing, whose role increases in order to correlate the actions of the tourism organization with those of other agents involved in tourism in order to synchronize throughout the process. of the benefit. Also, a particularity of tourism marketing is ?? synchronization of decisions taken at the microeconomic level with those at the macroeconomic level ?? (V. Olteanu ?? op. Cit. P. 22) whose role increases in order to correlate the own actions of the tourism organization with those of other agents involved in the tourism activity in order to synchronize throughout the entire process of achieving the service. Also, a particularity of tourism marketing is ?? synchronization of decisions taken at the microeconomic level with those at the macroeconomic level ?? (V. Olteanu ?? op. Cit. P. 22) whose role increases in order to correlate the own actions of the tourism organization with those of other agents involved in the tourism activity in order to synchronize throughout the entire process of achieving the service. Also, a particularity of tourism marketing is ?? synchronization of decisions taken at the microeconomic level with those at the macroeconomic level ?? (V. Olteanu ?? op. Cit. P. 22)
2. Financial-banking marketing has emerged as an urgent necessity, (M. Badoc ?? Le marketig banking, Les Édition d ?? / Organization, Paris 1975; V. Pescariu ?? Banking marketing ?? a luxury or a necessity ?? ?? Marketing No. 1 / l990 p.4, Kidwell Peterson, Blackwell ?? Financial institution, - market and currency, The Dryden Press 1993, E. Odobescu ?? National and international banking marketing ed SIGMA PRIMEX Bucharest 1999) because in the post-war period increased competition in the field, especially through the continuous creation of new markets. In the sphere of financial services marketing are included: (V. Olteanu op. Cit. P.26).
3. Banking services provided by banks, exchange agents, CEC, loan houses, pawnshops, credit companies.
4. Insurance services
5. Stock exchange services provided by stock exchanges, banks and exchange agents, appearing as intermediaries.

There is a change in the old philosophy of the banker, ?? who needs us knows where to find us ??, and the adaptation of a new strategy, such as the niche strategy, which is pursued ?? to create value for the clientele ??, ie the production of services for a certain clientele, willing to pay more. In general, the provision of competitive services cannot be achieved without the use of optics and marketing tools. This involves a continuous analysis of the banking services market, targeting the needs of actual and potential customers, adopting a creative attitude, generating new services, a flexible distribution with the help of computers and computers, generally an active attitude, responsible for the banking market. oversegmented. .

According to E. Odobescu (E. Odobescu, op. Cit. P. 19), banking marketing is characterized by the fact that: it is first and foremost advertising; sales promotion and advertising requires a tonic, optimistic attitude towards customers; consists in creating new banking products; there is a positioning, ie the delimitation of the bank from the other competitors; represents a complex and complete analysis of the market, a planning, implementation and control activity.

Obviously, there are other aspects that characterize the financial-banking marketing that practitioners must take into account, in developing strategies and using specific tools.

1. c . Transport marketing (A. Vorzsak, M. Vorzsak ?? Transport marketing ?? Marketing bulletin no. 4 l975, C. Alexa ?? International transports and shipments ?? SE Bucharest 199o, V. Olteanu, I Cetină ?? op.cit ; V.Olteanu - op. Cit.). It was imposed as a result of the development of the economic and social activity that dynamized the transport and diversified it. The nature of the transport activity and its complexity led to the emergence of marketing peculiarities in terms of content, market, strategies, marketing mix, organization of activity, etc.

Thus, the product in transport appears as a global product made up of elements that are interconditioned and defined by their own qualitative aspects: comfort, schedule, duration. At the realization ?? product ?? (service) that represents the offer contributes: the state that holds the most important place and the economic agents that provide the service itself.

Marketing is the tool through which problems can be solved with maximum efficiency, such as: orientation of supply in the direction of satisfying demand through the policy of taxes and duties, synchronization of transport supply with global trends, protection of the national means of transport industry. Also, marketing is applied differently, within each form of transport: freight, passenger, car, railway, air, naval, each entering the administration of specialized bodies.

1. Marketing managerial . The new problems that have arisen in front of companies, especially in the last two decades, have widened the scope of marketing concerns in the field related to providing the company with the most important factor of production ?? work, which led to the crystallization of managerial marketing,  (I. Ion ?? Managerial marketing ?? Economic Tribune no.25 199o p. 18 ?? 19) also called  job-marketing .

It is presented as a conception regarding the organization and development of the selection, training and launching in the economic activity of the best specialists, of managers, according to which generations of employees must be permanently adapted to the presented and future requirements of the enterprise, therefore of the market. , which to satisfy them in conditions of maximum efficiency.

This conception imposes a new perspective on the preparation of the workforce. The managerial marketing has as objective the study of the demand of labor force especially qualified, the satisfaction of the demand by hiring the labor force in fields that offer optimal conditions for exercising the profession, which to ensure the maximum economic and social efficiency.

Achieving these objectives involves the development of special programs, taking into account the fact that the producer of the workforce is the university, the coach is the training center, and the beneficiary is the company.

A special place is occupied by the training of the workforce for the management functions, so of the managers, because it is considered that for an enterprise, due to the training effect, it is much more important to choose the manager, than the goods it will produce.

The comparison with the doctor is often used to highlight the special role of the manager, stating that if a doctor can destroy a person, a manager can destroy a business or even an economy. In order to launch specialists on the market, marketing techniques must be combined with management techniques, as they are the ones who will launch and implement the new strategies of the company.

The managerial marketing program will express the specifics of the respective marketing field, and will answer the questions: how to create a manager, how much money does a manager cost, where will it be placed and how will the quota of the respective specialist increase.

1. Marketing-management. In the context of increasing the concerns to lead and organize as well as possible all the compartments and the ensemble as a whole, a new field was affirmed, that of marketing-management, as a result of the application of management to marketing defined by Kotler (Ph. Kotler ?? Principles marketing ?? p.757; O. Nicolescu, I. Georgescu ?? Op. cit. p.185-188; I. Tomescu ?? Contributions to the transformation of the Romanian economy into a market economy ?? Marketing No. 3/1990 p.4) as representing ?? the planning, management and control of all marketing activities of a company for carrying out and maintaining profitable exchanges ??. It is required as a demand management materialized in the formulation of objectives, policies, programs and marketing strategies for all issues aimed at achieving performance in the activity.

Specifically, these functions are the duties of a member of the company's management, usually a vice-chairman of the board of directors, who actively participates in the adoption of all decisions.

A marketing manager is one who must not only find buyers, but also influence the level, structure and character of demand, in order to achieve the goal of maximizing end results.

Therefore, it can be said that marketing-management is outlined as a boundary discipline between marketing and management.

B. Social marketing  characteristic of non-profit fields or "non-commercial" sectors, which do not involve marketing and profit, in other words  non-profit activities , (Ph. Kotler, Alan R. Andreasen ?? Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organization, ed. IV ?? Englewood Cliffs NJ Prentice - Hall 1991; P.Druker, Managing the Non-Profit Organization, NY 1992; Michael Beilmann - Social Marketing and Communication - Birken Verlag Bochum 1995; Ian Bruce - Successful Charity Marketing, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall Edition 1998), appeared in the 8th decade by extending marketing in the extra-economic fields and encompasses everything beyond the economic sphere.

The introduction of this concept in the circuit of ideas belongs to Ph.D. Kotler and G. Zaltman, who had (especially Kotler) an essential contribution to the delimitation of the sphere, highlighting the particularities of this field of marketing and defining it through the elaboration, implementation and control of programs, aiming at increasing the adherence to an idea, to a cause or to a social behavior, within one or more targeted groups ??.

He (social marketing) uses market segmentation, market research, highlighting the concepts of communication, facilities, stimuli, exchange theory, to get maximum reaction from the target groups (Ph. Kotler ?? Attendre des objectives sociaux ŕ through social marketing ?? in Revue française du marketing, cahier no.60 jav-febr. 1976).

As early as 1969 Ph. Kotler and S. Levy (Broadening the Concept of Marketing ??, Journal of Marketing, 50, 2, 81-87) suggested that marketing should be extended to non-profit organizations, and W. Lazer (?? Marketing ?? s Changing Social Relationships ??, Journal of Marketing, 1969, 33, 1, 3-9) advocates for the recognition of the social dimension of marketing, for its application in the activity of museums, social causes, religious and political organizations, etc.

In 1971, Ph.D. Kotler and G. Zaltman introduce the notion of ?? social marketing ?? (Social marketing, an approach to planned social change, in Journal of Marketing, July, 1971), already in 1972 the National Conference on Social Marketing was organized at the University of Illinois, and in Brussels (1975) the first International Congress of Social Marketing, at which also stated the first definition.

For the end of this millennium, faced on the one hand with great problems that lie in the accentuation of the ?? tensions ?? between the limited resources and the constantly growing needs determined by the unprecedented natural increase of the population, and on the other hand with the considerable development of the non-profit sector, which reflects the high degree of civilization and progress, the rational management of social actions appears as a necessity. stringent, whose social marketing is trying to find a solution.

He aims to ensure knowledge of the requirements of a certain nature in the social environment, in order to find the best solutions.

Social marketing has a heterogeneous sphere, because it targets very different fields represented by  public institutions  (government bodies) or private (private organizations) of: education, culture, art, sports, religion, public health, leisure, politics (the most important component being the so-called electoral marketing), ecology, etc., or  charitable organizations  that involve the development of programs designed to support and impose social causes or ideas such as: donations for disadvantaged people (philanthropy), fight against pollution, alcoholism, discrimination, etc., causes generally supported by humanitarian, civic, ecological, human rights, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), etc.

The importance that such fields of human activity have in modern society, has led to the diversification and specialization of marketing depending on the specific conditions of each field, the experience gained and the problems that must be solved for its natural development.

This has resulted in the differentiation of the objectives, methods and techniques of investigation and action on the market. As a result, the following have already been imposed: ecomarketing, educational marketing, public health, electoral, cultural, sports, road, etc.

Any non-profit organization must clearly delimit its  goals of action  on the one hand, which gives it the opportunity to set specific objectives, measurable for the organization and on the other hand  the image goals  through which it becomes known to the public. , mass media, beneficiaries.

The organization must also secure a certain  position  within the community, depending on the ability to create impact, especially by clarifying its mission. To this end, the organization must identify the needs of the community in which it wants to operate, to find solutions to solve them, to know the competitors, to develop the message through which it clearly expresses its position, which it then tests to find out if she will be supported.

Of course, the objectives of non-profit organizations are complex, given the wide range of fields of activity, they target places, people, ideas, organizations.

Achieving the objectives cannot be measured strictly in financial terms, as they materialize in: popularizing social causes, improving public attitudes, encouraging donations and contributions, highlighting and consolidating social attitudes, distributing ideas or information, communicating views, trying to change behavior (eg campaigns for family planning, combating smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse), changing beliefs (eg advocating for the liberalization of abortion), actions to change beliefs (eg campaigns for women's rights, ethnic and religious tolerance, protection of endangered species), determination of occasional actions (eg mass immunization campaign), etc.

The objectives must be clearly defined from the beginning in order to be correctly received by all categories of public involved: government, beneficiaries, donors, community, volunteers, etc.

The non-profit organizations, through the programs they carry out, identify with the organizations providing services for the benefit of the community. That is why we must take into account the four characteristics  that differentiate product services and that impose on the marketing of services a series of particularities, which are also found in social marketing: intangibility, variability, inseparability, perishability.

Especially these characteristics give social marketing particularities in the use of the marketing mix.

Specific to non-profit marketing is the fact that it addresses the two categories of people: beneficiaries (customers of the organization) and financiers. This involves on the one hand identifying and assessing the needs of consumers, the public in the community to define the 'niche'. and the target group, interested, in order to finally delimit the generic objective of the organization, by establishing the services that best meet the needs of customers, which contributes to increasing social welfare in the community.

On the other hand, non-profit marketing aims to identify potential funders, to know the problems and their intentions, to maintain special relationships between donors and non-profit organizations.

NPOs are in constant contact with the media, the community and people related to the organization such as: members of management boards, executive committees, volunteers, etc.

The correlation of the social services offer of the NPOs with the obtaining of the financial resources necessary for their accomplishment, requires the use of specific means and tools for raising funds and finding sponsors, which the non-profit marketing can identify in the person of some interested individuals or groups. (eg economic organizations, religious groups, foundations, government).

Thus, non-profit organizations are involved in exchanges with financiers, sponsoring organizations, etc., in addition to the actual customers, appreciates Th. P. Holland. (Organization: Context for Social Services Delivery 1995 p. 125). The relations established between the bidder and his public have an important role. Experience shows that organizations that know how to build and maintain strong relationships will gain the long-term appreciation and support of a larger and more loyal audience (Ph. Kotler, G. Armstrong ?? Principles of Marketing 5 ^th , Prentice Hall Englewod Cliffs , New Jersey 1991 p.497).

In order to support social programs, it is very important that public opinion be informed about the respective social problems, the consequences of ignoring it, as well as about the ways in which one can contribute to solving them. "Shouldn't we start from the premise that everyone knows the existence of a certain social problem?" (WGNikels ?? ?? Marketing Communication an Promotion ?? 3 rd Edition, John Wiley & Sons Inc. 1984 p. 343.) and is willing to provide money to support social causes., Even if he appreciates the campaigns organized for this purpose. ONP.

Therefore, a special role is played by promotional activities that can be carried out successfully if they are well organized. Non-profit marketing includes all efforts by non-business organizations to sell their products, increase their membership, gain support, solicit funds, or achieve any other marketing goal (Ibidem). pp. 444) ??.

The essential objective of non-profit marketing is to solve or alleviate the needs of customers, which are used as a justification for obtaining resources, which represent the raison d'être of non-profit organizations.

Since the success of the activities of these organizations cannot be appreciated by the profit obtained, the role of marketing is to highlight those characteristics, properties, qualities that are representative of the organization, whose activity must be customer-oriented (beneficiary), because they have chances to survival in the competition for donations and scholarships, only those that meet customer requirements. As a result, non-profit marketing is becoming more sophisticated, more complex, as each market segment must be approached in specific terms.

Experience has shown that in the long run, only organizations that make decisions based on the wishes and needs of customers have been successful.

1. Ecomarketingul  (K. Hanion, Th. Kinneer (Editors) ?? ?? Ecological Markrting American Marketing Association, Chicago 1975 MC Demetrescu ?? ?? Ecomarketingul Nr.1990 Marketing, Social Marketing A. Novac ?? No ?? Marketing .5 / 1990) or ecological marketing is marketing in the service of environmental protection and ecology.

 It represents the totality of the activities involved in obtaining the social acceptance of the ecological ideas, of a public and private behavior corresponding to the ecological requirements. It consists in developing, implementing and controlling programs for assimilating ecological precepts, taking into account products, costs, distribution, information communications, the market as a whole, by constantly reporting to the interdependencies between marketing and concerns to safeguard nature, purity and beauty.

 Having a special role both in the short and long term, ecomarketing reconceptualizes the relationship between the marketing specialist and the consumer, targeting both the consumer, the economic agent and society, constantly ensuring that ecology is not endangered in the transit of goods.

The essential goal of ecomarketing is the integration of ecological awareness, which can stop the degradation and disappearance of the planet.

2. Educational marketing  (MC Demetrescu ?? Social marketing for education in vol. ?? Scientific management of the school ?? ?? Journal of pedagogy 1976; A. Novak ?? Op. Cit. P.2; Ph. Kotler, Karen Fox ?? Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions ?? Englwood Cliffs NJ Prentice Hall 1985; P. Duponey ?? Marketing de l ?? education et de la formation? when carrying out educational activities, as an expression of prospecting and improving the means by which education can use its possibilities of integration and influencing society.

In this field, the market is represented by the manifest or latent need of pupils and students, family and society, to educate the youth at the same time as endowing it with skills and knowledge useful to modern society.

Four environmental agents are involved in the development of market relations: the educational unit, the enterprise benefiting from the labor force, the owners of the labor force and the state (V. Olteanu ?? op. Cit. P.36-40).

The educational unit maintains relations with two categories of clients: the economic agents that are the beneficiaries of the qualified labor force and the pupils and students who are preparing for a profession.

Peculiarities also appear in the substantiation of the marketing policy. Thus, for general education, the Ministry of National Education elaborates strategies, and in higher education it must be formulated at the level of the institution.

Of course, the most important features appear in the marketing policy, both in setting objectives, in developing strategies, and especially in the field of marketing mix. The educational marketing policy is particularized ?? by the specific way of substantiation, which implies the correlation of micromarketing techniques with those of macromarketing and the participation of different decision-making levels in their formulation and execution ?? (V. Olteanu, I. Cetină ?? Op. Cit. P.183).

There are also a number of specificities in terms of product, price, distribution and promotion of educational activities.

The educational marketing has as objective the elaboration and application of the strategies and programs of instruction and education through the correct evaluation and the permanent redesign in order to correlate the formation of the young generation with the general interests of the society, with the development of the human personality.

This objective is achieved through its essential functions: prospecting social requirements, investigating individual aspirations and options, increasing the adaptability of education to societal requirements, meeting individual and educational aspirations, continuous evaluation of the education system, which ensures the efficient organization of demand-based discovery. needs and shifting their dynamics.

3. Public health marketing consists of a set of activities that direct ?? production ?? and the distribution of medical care, based on the knowledge of the beneficiary and his needs (Al. Pescariu ?? ?? Is it possible marketing in public health ??? ?? Marketing bulletin no.2 / 1974; S. Mesaroş ?? Possible applications of Public Health Marketing, CCSS 1988; A. Novac ?? Op. cit. p.1; Ph. Kotler, Robeta N. Clarke ?? Marketing for Health Care Organization ?? Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall 1987; JC Andreani? ? Medical Marketing: Marketing Mix Strategies, French Marketing Review No. 119/1988).

The demand for medical services is represented by specific elements of demographic and socio-economic nature, elements that determine the quality of the biological background of the population, which require the exact assessment of the level of general and specific morbidity, as well as the estimation of its trends.

The offer of medical services can be made based on one of the following principles:

- payment possibilities

- needs determined objectively or subjectively

- maximum benefit over costs (by benefit meaning the favorable influence on health)

- giving priority assistance to those who need it most.

The need to distribute supply according to one of these principles stems from the fact that, in this area, resources are limited, so marketing approaches forecasts to estimate demand and the allocation of resources for supply.

Also in this field, the marketing policy must aim at creating product lines, improving the emergency care of the medical services, providing the medical care at the headquarters of the organizations, as well as the elaboration of the most expressive advertising programs.

4. Marketing cultural[1]  and sports  is a new field, in the phase of crystallization of content, determined on the one hand by the unprecedented development of these activities as an expression of the degree of civilization and on the other hand, by the deepening competition between providers of such services. complementary.

For now, the two areas are linked because as a way of performing services and consumption they have many elements in common, they satisfy a complex of similar needs, which is why they are in competition or association, the public representing their consumer satisfying certain needs through the show offered.

Due to their content and nature, cultural and sports services are very diverse (theater, museum, cinema, competition, championship, concert, visual arts, etc.), but differences in marketing are not essential, although there are differences in nature. and their markets, distribution and effectiveness.

The sponsorship request is a specific element that expresses the need for a company to transmit a series of messages with a promotional role through a sporting or cultural event. (V. Olteanu ?? Op. Cit. P.132).

The application of marketing in sports means taking into account the fact that it has become increasingly important a multiproduct capable of generating at least four categories of results, expressed in terms of profitability: sports results, financial results, motivational results and marketing results. and communications (V.Olteanu, I. Cetină ?? Op. cit. p.197).

It should also be borne in mind that the public is both a practitioner and a spectator, and in this activity there are certain relationships between sports institutions and environmental agencies.

That is why E. Ledos (E. Ledos, Quel marketing pour les fédérations sportives ?? Revue Française du marketing nr.138 / 1992, p.57) places sports marketing in 3 areas:

1- commercial marketing found in the relations with the spectators

2- public service marketing based on the social responsibilities of sport

3- associative marketing ?? specific to associations.

It should also be noted that sports marketing is practiced both at the level of specific bodies (Olympic committees, federations) so at the macro level, and at the level of sports clubs and associations, so at the micro level.

The debates that have taken place in recent years regarding the place, role and perspective of marketing (E. Biberi ?? Reflections on the concept of marketing in the last decade of the millennium ?? Marketing no.1 1990 p.2) in modern society have highlighted two trends .

The first reflects the expansion of the fields of application of marketing in various sectors of human activity, as specialists believe that a number of social and economic policy problems of society can be solved using marketing techniques, finding similarities in terms of problems that must be solved and which can be solved by applying the same principles and methods.

The second trend expresses the inopportuneness of drawing boundaries between the fields of marketing, because in most cases no substantial changes are needed in the structure, forms, methods and marketing techniques to be used.