Overview

Marketing creates solutions by providing products, services and other market offerings , but then the next question is solutions to what? The traditional marketing answer is to customer needs and wants. This is one type of problem that people seek to solve through marketing. In any market exchange, however, with any market offering, there are two sets of problems or needs that are relevant i.e. those of buyers and sellers. Both customers and marketers may have problems which they attempt to solve through the market, one by buying an offering , the other by making it available and selling it.

We can view market offerings as solutions to customers problems or marketers problems, or both. Banks introduced automated teller machines (ATMs) as a solution to customers need for 24-hour access to cash and less waiting time. But ATMs also solved the banks problem of the cost of maintaining staff and facilities in high street and other expensive locations. The introduction of ATMs solved both customers and marketers problems.

One type of problem can often lead to another. A customer s need for a new product becomes the marketer s problem to find a solution and provide it. A marketer s problem, such as finding customers for a new product, leads to the customer s problem of hearing about it, understanding its use and considering whether to try it. Of course, in the later case you may say it is less of a problem, more an opportunity for the consumer. But this simply...