Purpose of Marketing

In today's competitive environment, a strong focus on customer satisfaction is essential to the success of any organization. Rapid globalization means that companies now compete in markets all over the world. Foreign and domestic organizations are realizing that profit will only be achieved through the use of marketing. Marketing is the business function that focuses on satisfying the needs and wants of coustemers through exchange processes. It is the only revenue-producing activity for the organization. Drucker says, "Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two - and only two - functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation create value, all the rest are costs." (See Drucker, Peter F., People and Performance, Harper college Press, 1977, p. 90) Thus, sound marketing is critical to the success of the organization, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, foreign or domestic. 

The idea that profit is not the primary goal of business is not a new. In 1954, Peter Drucker made the point in his book, The Practice of Management. "Profit is not the explanation, cause or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but the test of their validity." Profits are an essential result of business success. Again, the true purpose is the creation of customers: the efficient provision of goods and services which people want to buy. Satisfy customers and profit will follow. 

Many people think that marketing is just selling and advertising. Peter Drucker explains marketing this way: "The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself." This is not to say that selling and advertising are unimportant, but rather that they are part of a larger "marketing mix" that must be orchestrated for maximum impact on the marketplace. 

Jerome McCarthy delineates the marketing mix as the four Ps (product, price, promotion, and place). Thus, a marketing mix is a specific combination of four strategies -- product, price, place or distribution, and promotion or marketing communications -- designed to satisfy customers. The focus of marketing is to do such an excellent job of developing, pricing, promoting, and distributing a product to customers that the product practically sells itself.

Introduction to Marketing

Marketing plays a major role in our daily lives. Each day is filled with consuming products made available by marketers. We pay for marketing each time we buy a product. In fact, half of every dollar spent at the retail level goes to cover marketing costs. Marketing is responsible for satisfying customers, which in turn increases our standard of living and quality of life.

GS holds the key to score high marks in UPSC Mains

The Civil Services (Main) Examination 2011 is scheduled in October . Over the years, there has been a rise in preparation awareness among aspirants, but this exam continues to throw a surprise element calling for newer strategies.

The papers have clearly shown that the UPSC seems to be determined to select those aspirants who are able to cover most of the topics in the syllabus with focus on current affairs.

The number of questions in the General Studies question papers has been doubled from 30 to 60, says P.S. Ravindran, director, Vajiram and Ravi Institute for IAS Examination, New Delhi. “As UPSC covers a large number of areas, General Study’s preparation should be comprehensive,” he says. He stressed the need to score more than 320 marks in both the optional subjects as scoring in the General Studies has become more challenging.

A good number of aspirants in the previous mains examination were not able to score more than 270 out of 600 in both the GS papers.

Many questions pertaining to current affairs of the month of October 2010 were unexpected and candidates found it quite tough to write them properly in the 2010 mains.

Candidates who were able to read at least two broadsheet newspapers such as The Hindu regularly were able to answer those questions. “Reading of two newspapers and Frontline is necessary. Questions based on less prominent news is also being asked,” says Mr. Ravindran.

Instead of reading tons study materials, candidates are advised to select two source materials and concentrate on that with four rounds of quick revision.

A thorough preparation of in statistics and Indian Economy is key for high score. The questions would cover Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development, Panchayati Raj, International events and employment.

Issues arising from the social and economic exclusion of large sections from the benefits of development, economic and trade issues such as foreign trade, foreign investment, economic and diplomacy issues relating to oil, gas and energy flows, the role and functions of IMF, World Bank and WTO which influence India's economic interaction with other countries and international institutions are important.

The aspirants who score more than 300 in the GS papers are those with excellent understanding of the subjects at the secondary and higher secondary school level.

They do not need to have any specialized study in any of the subjects for the GS. NCERT books of geography, polity, economy, history and statistics continue to be useful for revising the syllabus for the main examination.

IGNOU study materials on optional subjects could be of great used for understanding the basic for the General Studies and the optional subjects.

The CSAT-2011 had 14 questions on current affairs of May 2011. Over 70 questions in the CSAT -2011 were related to current affairs. This trend is likely to continue in the civil services main examination as well.

“Many first-timers have cleared the prelims. So presentation of answers will be more important,” says Ganesa Subramanian, Director, Ganesh's IAS. Questions pertaining to the celebration of the 150 years of existence of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, diamond jubilee celebrations of the Election Commission of India, Union Budget, Constituent Assembly and Reserve Bank of India may be of significance, he says.

Current affairs based on newspaper reports from September 2010 to October 2011 are the important areas. The aspirants must be able to think and formulate views based on their subject knowledge based primarily on NCERT material.

Last year, questions on news covered in the period between October 1 and 15 oct took candidates by surprise.

More surprises may be in store of UPSC for them this year. Commission is expected to continue testing the analytical ability of candidates in this main exam . Environment, ecology, biodiversity and climate change may be key segment.

Reading editorials of newspapers has been a helping strategy for Essay paper and for answering questions on polity and social issues.

 Economic Survey and publications such as Yojana,Kurukshetra may be useful. Lok Sabha channel debates may throw light on social issues and helpful of opening the windows of the mind. Weekly group discussions or joint study with other candidates would enrich the understanding of key areas.

UPSC aspirants demands to disclose the cut-off marks of CSAT

Several UPSC aspirants who alleged discrepancies in the prelim exam results declared in the last week of August are demanding that the commission should increase the transparency in the entire process. They said the UPSC must release the cut-off list of the CSAT examination held in June this year.

The recently declared UPSC-CSAT results have left many aspirants in complete confusionas many students who were confident of getting through the prelim exam easily have not made in the list of passed candidates. 

This has even shocked the coaching class teachers. “Few students whose preparation was not up to the mark have cleared while those who were doing well have not,” said one teacher.

Raman sinha, 24, one of the aspirants said, “After the exam, I had checked my answers in the answer guide and according to it, I should have easily cleared the exams.

 Had UPSC come out with its own answer key we could have checked our answers but now there’s no way to cross check.”

While aspirants from other cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, have similar complaints, this is not the first time that this has happened.

For sevear  years, aspirants have been complaining of discrepancies in the prelim results. But the number of complaints this year is alarmingly high.

For last few years there has been an increasing demand from students that UPSC declare the cut-off marks and the answer key as many public service commission’s in the country do.

MPSC not only declares the cut-off and answer key within few days of the examination, but it also provides a photocopy of the answer sheet.

BPSC and UPPSC also do same to create better transparency but UPSC don't do it.

This has made the whole process transparent, said Aditya srivastava, who teaches Public Administration at a Coaching Classes.

In 2006, CIC had directed UPSC to disclose students’ marks and cut-offs for the preliminary examination after the allegation made by the informal group Transparency seekers.

Latter matter went on court the Delhi high court and Supreme Court had upheld the decision and had directed UPSC to disclose the cut-off marks besides model answers and the scaling systems. 

But despite of court directive UPSC hasn’t taken any step in this direction. Students are planning to file a PIL in the High Court.

JPSC 4th PT Result no Respite yet ! for the Aspirants

Ranchi, Sept, 24: Jharkhand Public service commission (JPSC) Ranchi which is known as the most controversial public service commission in the India is now struggling to go ahead with the next level of examination amid controversy over the recently announced PT result.

Earlier JPSC had successfully conducted the examination after several postponements despite of claimed carefulness by the JPSC  the questions asked in the 4th PT examination are under the centre of controversy.

The toughness level of various optional papers was not at same level so the competitive advantage in this 4th civil service examination is extensively under the favor of some privileged optional. Especially the history optional paper was so easy that average students had marked more than 90 questions.

To tame the misbalance JPSC adopted the scaling system and this system has criticized by the aspirants furthermore several defaults are also reported by the media in the published result.

According to insiders ,Examination controller of JPSC Rantikant Jha has also admitted that there are several mistakes in PT result ,and it looks that commission is trying to rectify in result therefore students who passed in the PT is still waiting for the mains form.

If JPSC will revise the result it will show the exit way to some of the aspirants who has already cleared the PT and some new aspirant will appear in mains basket.

The credibility of the commission is still deteriorating under newly appointed chairman Shiv Basant.

Mains examination is already delayed it further raised the question over the competency of the JPSC to take the examination.