Marketing · Lesson 1

Needs, wants, exchange, history of marketing in Nigeria, functions, concepts and environment

WAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

WAEC: meaning; needs, wants, demands, product, exchange, transactions, markets; brief history of marketing in Nigeria; functions), 2 (Marketing concepts: production, product, selling, marketing, societal) and 3(c) (Marketing environment: political, cultural, religious, economic, technological, social). JAMB does not examine Marketing.

NECO: meaning; needs, wants, demands, product, exchange, transactions, markets; brief history of marketing in Nigeria; functions), 2 (Marketing concepts: production, product, selling, marketing, societal) and 3(c) (Marketing environment: political, cultural, religious, economic, technological, social). JAMB does not examine Marketing.

What you will learn

Define marketing and explain its key ideas.
Explain needs, wants, demands, product, exchange, transactions and markets.
Outline the history of marketing in Nigeria.
State and explain the functions of marketing and the utilities it creates.
Explain the importance of marketing to firms, consumers and the economy.
Compare the five marketing concepts.
Describe the marketing environment and the WAEC macro factors with Nigerian examples.

Key points

Marketing identifies and satisfies needs through exchange, profitably.
Need → want → demand; product, exchange, transaction, market.
History: barter and cowries; Royal Niger Company 1886; marketing boards 1947–49; SAP abolished boards 1986; FCCPA 2018; ARCON Act 2022.
Functions: exchange, physical supply, facilitating.
Utilities: form, place, time, possession, information.
Importance to firm, consumer and nation; criticisms.
Production and product concepts; marketing myopia.
Selling versus marketing concept.
Societal marketing balances profit, wants and society.
Micro vs macro environment; controllable 4Ps vs uncontrollable environment; SWOT.
WAEC macro factors: political, cultural, religious, economic, technological, social.
Essay technique: define, explain, Nigerian example.

Start here: What marketing means

Many students think marketing simply means selling or advertising. That is only part of it. Marketing is the whole set of activities by which a business (or any organisation) finds out what people need and want, develops goods and services to satisfy those needs, prices them, makes them available where and when people want them, and tells people about them, all in order to create satisfying exchanges that meet the goals of both the buyer and the seller.

A popular textbook definition, associated with Philip Kotler, describes marketing as a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. Another, from the American Marketing Association, describes it as the activity and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society. In WAEC answers you may give any clear definition, but you should always include these key ideas: identifying needs, satisfying them, exchange and profit (or organisational goals).

Marketing begins before production

A good marketer does not wait until goods are already in the warehouse. Consider a small bakery in Ibadan. Before it begins baking, it asks: Who will buy? Students, office workers or households? Do they want sliced bread, agege bread or wheat bread? What size, what price, which shops? Should it deliver early in the morning? All these questions are marketing questions, and they come before the oven is switched on. After the sale, marketing continues: the bakery listens to complaints, checks whether loaves were fresh and decides how to improve.

Marketing is everywhere

Marketing is done by manufacturers (Dangote Cement, Nestlé Nigeria), traders in Onitsha main market, banks, telecom companies, hospitals, churches and mosques that organise programmes, political parties seeking votes, and even a secondary school advertising its admission forms. Non-profit bodies use marketing ideas too: a public-health campaign to encourage childhood vaccination is social marketing.

Worked example 1.1 (WAEC style essay opener)

Define marketing.

Model answer: Marketing is the process of identifying customers’ needs and wants, developing products to satisfy them, and pricing, distributing and promoting those products so that exchanges take place which satisfy customers and achieve the organisation’s objectives, such as profit.

Notice the answer names needs, products, the four activities (price, distribute, promote), exchange and objectives. Examiners award marks for these key words.

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Practice questions

1. A basic human requirement such as food, shelter or clothing is a

need
want
demand
transaction

Show answer

A: need
Wants are shaped by culture.

2. The concept that holds that consumers prefer cheap, widely available products is the

marketing concept
selling concept
societal concept
production concept

Show answer

D: production concept
Focus on efficiency.

3. The concept that assumes consumers will not buy enough unless pushed by aggressive selling is the

product concept
marketing concept
selling concept
production concept

Show answer

C: selling concept
Selling what the firm makes.

4. The concept that focuses on product quality and features, risking ‘marketing myopia’, is the

production concept
product concept
selling concept
societal concept

Show answer

B: product concept
Levitt’s marketing myopia.

5. Uncontrollable factors outside a firm that affect marketing form the

marketing environment
marketing mix
product line
channel

Show answer

A: marketing environment
Political, economic, social, cultural, technological.

Key words

Marketing: Identifying and satisfying needs through exchange, profitably.
Need: A state of felt deprivation.
Want: A need shaped by culture and personality.
Demand: A want backed by purchasing power.
Product: Anything offered to satisfy a need or want.
Exchange: Obtaining something by offering something in return.
Transaction: A single completed exchange.
Market: All actual and potential buyers of a product.
Utility: Want-satisfying power of a good or service.
Marketing myopia: Focusing on the product, not the customer need.
Societal marketing: Satisfying customers profitably while protecting society.
Marketing environment: Forces outside the firm that affect its marketing.

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