Marketing (22064Y)

Introduction

Crocs Company has become the popular footwear brand (refer Figure 1). It has

become world – wide. According to the web, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocs, “Crocs,

Inc. is a shoe manufacturer founded by 3 friends - Scott Seamans, Lyndon "Duke" Hanson,

and George Boedecker, Jr- to produce and distribute a foam clog design acquired from

a Quebec company called Foam Creations. The shoe had originally been developed as a

spa shoe. The first model produced by Crocs, the Beach, was unveiled in 2002 at the Ft.

Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida, and sold out the 200 pairs produced at that time. Crocs

was the title sponsor of the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour from 2006

through the 2009 season.”

According to the Crocs website, http://www.crocs.com.my/about_crocs.php, there are

a little of everything of Crocs that are “Born in Boulder, Colo. as a simple, comfortable boat

shoe, today Crocs™ footwear can be found across the globe and in more than 120 styles for

men, women and children. With distinct collections, Crocs offers colourful, lightweight

comfort for any occasion and every season. All Crocs™ shoes are uniquely designed and

manufactured using the company's proprietary closed-cell resin, Croslite™, a technology

that gives each pair of shoes the soft, comfortable, lightweight, non-marking and odor-

resistant qualities that Crocs wearers know and love. Crocs™ footwear is ideal for casual

wear, as well as for professional use and recreational activities. More than 100 million pairs

of Crocs™ footwear have been sold.”

Crocs product had been well – known since it had been found in 2002. With it

technology called Croslite, offers colourful and comfortable for any condition had attract their

customer till today.

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Marketing (22064Y)

Table Of Contents

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Content Pages

Introduction 1

Question 1 3 - 4

Question 2 5 - 6

Question 3 7 - 9

Question 4 10 - 11

Conclusion 12

Recommendation 13

Bibliography 14

Appendices 15 - 16

Marketing (22064Y)

Question 1.

Present two (2) definitions of marketing and compare both definitions. Provide relevant

examples which relate to Crocs.

According to the web, http://heidicohen.com/marketing-definition/, in the article

entitled “72 Marketing Definitions”, posted on March 29 2011, had defined the definitions

of marketing by the American Marketing Association (AMA) Board of Directors and by Dr.

Philip Kotler. As stated in the above, American Marketing Association (AMA) Board of

Directors had defined marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for

creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for

customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Next, Dr. Philip Kotler had defined

marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the

needs of a target market at a profit.  Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It

defines measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It

pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and

promotes the appropriate products and services.”

Instead of this two definitions, there were numerous definitions from the others

point of view. Even though this two definitions seems differential but it still carried the

same meanings. From my point of view from this two definitions, I can say that marketing

is all about the activities to meet the customer needs and wants. Other than that,

marketing is the action of promoting and selling products or services. In addition, we can

see that the marketing was all about the process to identify the customer and also the

target market which will give big value to the business. Besides that, marketing can be

said as the management process where we can see in marketing it required us to plan

and analyse the market and profit potential that worth to our business. It needs us to

explore, create and deliver the value towards our customer and fulfil their needs and

wants. In the context of marketing, we can see that the customer satisfaction played an

important roles that will affect our business. Marketing also will show our capability in

fulfilling our customer needs and wants. Furthermore, marketing represent the exchanges

of ideas from marketer itself to attract customer of its products or services and customer

will offers a sum of money in return for their creativity to fulfil the customer demands.

Marketing can be done in various ways as long as it will create customer attraction

towards our business products or services. For Crocs company, they has their own way in

marketing. According to Crocs website , http://www.crocs.com.my/about_crocs.php,

Crocs stated that “With distinct collections, Crocs offers colourful, lightweight comfort for

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any occasion and every season. All Crocs™ shoes are uniquely designed and

manufactured using the company’s proprietary closed-cell resin, Croslite™, a technology

that gives each pair of shoes the soft, comfortable, lightweight, non-marking and odor-

resistant qualities that Crocs wearers know and love. Crocs™ footwear is ideal for casual

wear, as well as for professional use and recreational activities.” From my point of view,

Crocs Company has created footwear that is suitable to be use in various activities. That

show Crocs had do their marketing so that customer can buy their product which is suits

their types of activity day to day. Another marketing method that had been used are Crocs

creates colourful footwear and also comfortable footwear which were colourful footwear

can be catchy to the eyes of customer and comfort ability were the most important thing to

attract customer towards their products. Other than that, Crocs make their shoes design

unique from the other branded shoes. Crocs also had their own technology in making

shoes which will differentiate them from others brand. The uniqueness of Crocs had

already attracted customer from entire world. They do marketing to fulfil the needs and

wants of customer and also to achieve their target market where we can see that Crocs

had created footwear that are perfect to be used for casual wear also for professional use

and recreational activity.

What can be conclude are the marketing activities was done to make sure we

have fulfil our customer needs and wants. Other than that, is to make sure our customer

satisfaction as our top priority. Furthermore, marketing was done to identify our target

market so that in return will profit our business.

Question 2

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Marketing (22064Y)

Identify at least (3) main characteristics of a marketing – oriented organization of Crocs and

provide example for each.

According to the web,

http://newavessays.com/service/custom-essay-writing/samples-of-essays/yqpm2q/,

marketing orientation can be defined as “a concept of an organization which underlines that

the company`s success is mainly based on customers` satisfaction.” From my

understanding, I can said that marketing orientation was all about to satisfied the customer.

In marketing orientation customer was the pillars towards the success of our business.

Without customers, there is no business would happen. So, it is important to make sure the

customer needs and wants has been fulfilled.

The first characteristics for marketing – oriented business is to identify the customer

needs and wants. Second characteristic is to developed products to meet the customer

needs and wants. The third characteristic is to inform customers of the existence of the

product and persuade them to buy our product.

To identify the customer needs and wants, marketer has to do marketing research.

Marketer do marketing research to get the information about the basic requirement of

customer and desire for a specific product or service that we need to meet. In Crocs

Company, they do marketing research to identify their customer needs and wants. They do

research to get information about their customer favourite types of footwear. Their product

comes with various colour, and also comfortable in any situation suits with the customer

needs and wants (refer Figure 2).

Next is to developed products to meet customer need and wants. Marketer will do

research and development to do systematic investigation into and study of product and to

create new product suitable with the flow of new era. In Crocs Company, all their footwear

got unique design and manufactured using their own technology that will increase their

customer needs and wants. Crocs had developed more than 120 designs of footwear which

already taken place and popular item in the market.

Last but not least is to inform customers of the existence of the product and persuade

them to buy our product. To make sure this will happen, a business will have to do some

promotion to attract our customer to our product, to publicizing our product and also to

increase our business sales. In Crocs Company, we can see their advertisement of their new

product in television, newspaper, and magazine and also in their website. We also can see

that every celebration in this country Crocs will do promotion with offering special discount

and give special gift to their loyal customer (refer Figure 3). Other than offering discount,

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Crocs offer their customer to join their club. By joining this club, their customer will always up

to date to their product, news and also promotion that will be held.

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Marketing (22064Y)

Question 3

Explain four (4) elements of the marketing concept and relate your answer with Crocs.

According to the web, http://bieap.gov.in/marketing.pdf, “marketing concept holds

that the key to achieving organisational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of

target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than

the competitions.” There were four elements of the marketing concepts that I had highlight.

The elements are customer orientation, competitor orientation, inter – functional coordination

and also profit orientation.

According to the web,

http://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfProceedings/001/Papers/OPS-06.1.pdf, Kotler had

defined customer orientation as “A customer orientation holds that the main task of the

organization is to determine the perceptions, needs, and wants of target markets and to

satisfy them through the design, communication, pricing, and delivery of appropriate and

competitively viable offerings.” Next, according to the web,

http://www.blurtit.com/q246832.html, customer orientation had been further analyzed as “an

organisation must have a thorough understanding of its target buyers, so that it can create a

product superior value for them. Value is defined by customers and can be created by

increasing the benefits to the buyer in relation to the buyer’s cost or by decreasing the

buyer’s cost in relation to the buyer’s benefits. A customer orientation requires that a

company understands not only the present value to the customer, but also how this is likely

to evolve over time.” From my point of view, customer orientation had become the focal point

of everything in a business activity. Like in previous discussion, I have said that marketing

was all about to satisfy the customer needs and wants. Therefore, customer orientation is

likely to be said as where the firm use its resources for gather information about their

customer needs and wants.To further explore what the customer wants, market

research should be done to get the information that is difficult to obtain. Through

the information obtained, what customer wants is certainly more accurate. Product produced

will be more fulfilling a feature required by customers. With

this, both customer and marketer will profit. What the customer wants is not fixed at all

times. Customer expectations will change every time. Therefore, the market research needs

to be done from time to time with the tide of time. Customer

preferences are not fixed lead organization should always be alert. If this is ignored the other

parties will overcome our organization. For Crocs Company, customer orientation had been

adopt as we can see, Crocs success to fulfill their customer needs and wants where Crocs

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had created footwear which are colorful, comfortable, got unique design and footwear that

are suitable in any conditions and occasions.

A business firm should not only focus to its customer. This can be dangerous to the

business firm. The competitors will see this as firm weaknesses. Therefore, customer

orientation and competitor orientation should be balance. According to the web,

http://www.blurtit.com/q246832.html, competitor orientation had been analyzed as “as well

as focusing on its customers, a firm should look at how well its competitors are able to

satisfy buyer’s needs. It should understand the short term capabilities and strategies of

current potential competitors.” From my point of view, after customers,

competitors should not be overlooked.  This is because, without competition, the

business will not be moving forward. Competitor orientation made to collect data

on competitors' activities. This case should be considered completely as

competitors certainly would have study also our business. Healthy competition

should occur because our customers will see our business performance in good

condition. We should not underestimate the ability of our competitors, because they will

definitely have a strategy as well as to compete with us. To preserve the reputation, we

must understand and overcome the strength of competitors. In addition, we also need

to master the weaknesses of competitors. With this, it is not impossible for us to be at the

peak of success.  As well practice the customer orientation we have been able to dominate

our competitors. When said competitor orientation, every business firm must have applied it.

For Crocs, it ought to be adopt it. According to the web, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocs,

“Crocs announced in 2006 that it filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade

Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Federal District Court against 11 companies that

manufacture, import or distribute products, called "croc-offs", that Crocs believes infringe its

patents.  Seizures of fake crocs occurred in 2007 in the Philippines and Denmark, and were

under litigation in South Africa. In 2007 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety

Commission requested a voluntary recall of Croc-like clogs due to a potential choking hazard

involving detaching plastic rivets. Brands which produce Croc-like shoes include Airwalk,

Poliwalks, USA Dawgs/Doggers, NothinZ, Veggies etc. Versions of the Croc style clogs have

appeared in children's fashion catalogs, usually under their own name brands or as no

names. Other knock-offs are in discount stores, amusement park stores, beach stores,

department stores, and superstores.” From above statement, Crocs is really should adopt

this orientation because there are many competitor outside company that tried to stole their

ideas.

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According to the web, http://www.blurtit.com/q246832.html, inter-functional

coordination has been analyze as “it is futile for marketing managers to

develop marketing   plans  that are not acted upon by people who are capable of delivering

promises made to customers. Many individuals within the organisation have a responsibility

for creating value not just marketing staff and a marketing orientation requires that an

organisation draws upon and integrate its human and physical resources effectively and

adapt them to meet customer needs.” From my point of view, inter – functional coordination

is more towards inside of company. In addition inter – functional coordination is a strategy to

suit and send the resources to create unprecedented value for the target

market. Therefore, an organization aimed at window of opportunity across the value

chain customers, not just to sell products and services but also create value for customers.

Other than that, in inter - functional coordination, it engaging in inter-functional customer

calls. It also sharing information among functions and integrated all function in strategy

which will give contribution of all functions to customer value and sharing resources with

other functions. For Crocs Company this orientation has been adapt because as we can see

Crocs had strived to create opportunity to make sure customer stick with their products.

According to the web, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/profit-

orientation.html, profit orientation can be defined as “a term used to describe

a business that operates under the primary objective of making money. Although

most commercial enterprises have some form of profit orientation to motivate employees to

maximize revenues, the most successful producers also incorporate a customer

orientation into their corporate philosophy to protect the company's reputation and

facilitate client satisfaction with its products.” Next, according to the web,

http://www.blurtit.com/q246832.html, profit orientation had been analyzed “by providing

market offerings that satisfy customer needs/wants, the business achieves its own goal thus

making a profit.” From my point of view, if customer satisfaction is achieved,

then the return is for the business itself. Customer plays a big role in business. Without

customer, the business certainly wills not achieve profitability. If there is no profit, there is

no profit orientation. Profit is the highest objective that needs to be achieved in the business.

In Crocs Company this orientation must already been adapt it has show their marketing

strategy had succeed as their product saleable across the world. Every business want profit

as the return. This is also for the succeed company like Crocs. They have manage to make

profit from day to day.

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Question 4

Provide an indication of the likely costs and benefits to Crocs in adopting a marketing

approach.

Marketing approach is needed in business organization. When it comes to

marketing, it was all about to satisfy customer needs and wants. There still had benefits and

costs when adopting a marketing approach.

Benefits that come when using marketing approach are, firstly, it increased customer

satisfaction. Secondly, it improved customer care. Last but not least, quality of services and

products will be improved.

First of all, it increased customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction said to be

happened when it is refer to the extend to which a product’s perceived performance matches

a buyer’s expectation. This will show that the right information had been gathered during

market research. The outstanding marketing companies go out their ways to keep their

customer satisfaction. Marketing company willing to undertake risks to make sure their

customer is satisfied with their products. When a customer was satisfied to the company

products, they will make a repeat purchases and they will spread the others about the good

experiences they got when purchases the products. In Crocs situation, it has been confirm

that Crocs customer satisfied with their product. If not, their brand would not become world –

wide. It is not easy to the company to get be in this position. Without customer, Crocs means

nothing and would not be in their position right now.

Secondly, marketing approach had improved customer care. Marketing company will

be more concern about their customer needs and wants. They concern to make sure their

customer demands has been fulfill. Besides that, marketer also should be aware of several

trends in natural environment. Other than that, they are responding to consumer demands

with ecologically safer products, recyclable, better pollution control and more energy efficient

operations. Customer right now was more concern to the environment. They realized their

responsibility toward the earth. Crocs products were create with high technology which is

called Croslite. This technology was loved by their customer as it soft, comfort, and very

light.

Last but not least, marketing company will improve their quality of services and

products. It designed to constantly improve the quality of their products, services and

marketing process. By improving the quality, it will attract more customers to stick to our

products and services. As we know, that the quality has a direct impact on product

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performance and automatically hence on customer satisfaction. As we had know the Crocs

company mission, “Bring profound comfort, fun and innovation to the world’s feet.” It was

already enough to prove that Crocs will improve the quality of their products.

Not only benefits, marketing approach also got it costs. When relate to marketing

approach, the costs that happened are, first of all, it cannot serve products to all customer in

a given market. Next, it will lower down productivity. Last but not least, marketing approach

will involved with high cost.

First point had stated that it cannot serve products to all customers in a given market.

This is because only selected target market the product can be serve. Target market which

will benefit to the company can only be serving the product. Company not open the market

to the others which is likely will costs the company. This is because, not all country around

the world will afford to buy Crocs product. Therefore, Crocs will only serve their product to

the country which will be profitable to their company.

Secondly, it will lower down the productivity. When productivity has lower down, it will

not produce more. It only can produce the product to the selected target market only. When

this happened, company is not in safe position as if it will fall anytime. As we know, outside

there, there were so many fake products had been produced that will caused their

production to be low down. This was unhealthy condition as it will affect their productivity.

Last but not least, marketing approach will involved with high cost. It said to be

involved with high cost when to retaining the customers. And also the cost of attracting the

selected target market is high. Marketing company had to focus on customer needs and

wants to keep their customers always purchasing to them thus, high cost will be involved. To

find suitable target market, market research had to be done. By doing this activity, marketing

company is confirming will be face with high cost. Crocs had to suffer a while because

marketing approach involved high cost of money. They need to do this to make sure

customer will attract to their products because in marketing, customer needs and wants was

the focal point to be achieved. So, they had to do marketing even though it required large

amount of money.

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Marketing (22064Y)

Conclusions

From above discussion, we can conclude marketing is all about the management

process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements. The important key

words in marketing are needs and wants, demand and also customer satisfaction. This all

refer to the customer.

I had identified the three characteristics of a marketing – oriented organization which

are to identify the customer needs and wants, to developed products to meet the customer

needs and wants and to inform customers of the existence of the product and persuade

them to buy our product.

Next, I had discovered the various elements of the marketing concepts which are the

customer orientation, the competitor orientation, inter – functional coordination and the profit

orientation. Customer orientation is about the study of customer needs and wants. The

competitor orientation is about the study of competitor activities and identifies the strength

and weaknesses of competitors. Inter – functional coordination is about the condition inside

the company. It also involved with satisfying the customer needs and wants.

Last but not least, I had already provided the benefits and costs if we adapt the

marketing approach in our business. The benefits a business will get are based on customer

satisfaction, customer care and also quality of services and product. The costs that will

happen are it cannot serve the products to all customers in a given market. Next, it would

lower down the productivity and last but not least, it involved high cost.

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Recommendations

In this part, I would like to recommend Crocs Company idea that might be will

profitable to their business and improving their reputation. As we know, Crocs is a world –

wide brand. When the brand has been world – wide, the price will be high as their brand

reputation. But, this will not be affordable by some people. As they want footwear like Crocs,

they would buy the fake one which is more affordable. This will result in fall of production for

Crocs. Therefore, Crocs should investigate more on their product pricing system.

Other than that, Crocs Company may exchange technology and idea with others

footwear brand to create a new revolution of shoes which are more innovative and follow the

fashion flow.

In addition, Crocs Company may do a competition among students from high school

to university because students nowadays have high creative thinking. And as the prize Crocs

Company can offer scholarship to those students who have won. This can be part of Crocs

social responsibility.

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Bibliography

Cohen, H. (2011, March 29). 72 Marketing Definitions. Retrieved February 6, 2012, 5.19

a.m. Retrieved from http://heidicohen.com/marketing-definition/

About Crocs. Retrieved February 6,2012, 5.30 p.m.

Retrieved from http://www.crocs.com.my/about_crocs.php

Marketing Orientation (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2012, 5.45 a.m. Retrieved from

http://newavessays.com/service/custom-essay-writing/samples-of-essays/yqpm2q/

What Are The Elements Of The Marketing Concept? (n. d.). Retrieved February 10, 2012,

3.19 p.m. Retrieved from http://www.blurtit.com/q246832.html

Kothwal, T. M., Mahadev, K. Elements Of Marketing, 145. Retrieved February 10, 2012, 3.25

p.m. Retrieved from http://bieap.gov.in/marketing.pdf

Karvinen, K., Bennet, D. Introducing Customer Orientation Into The Operations Of The

Building Components Industry, 9. Retrieved February 10, 2012, 3.40 p.m.

Retrieved from http://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfProceedings/001/Papers/OPS-06.1.pdf

Profit Orientation (n. d.). Retrieved February 10, 2012, 3.48 p.m.

Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/profit-orientation.html

Crocs. Retrieved February 10, 2012, 3.55 p.m. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocs

Juhari, J. J. (2011). Study Module Marketing (22064Y). Kolej Profesional MARA Seri

Iskandar.

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Appendices

Figure 1 : Crocs logo

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Figure 2 : Different color and designs

Figure 3 : Crocs promotion

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