- A.A management orientation that holds firms succeed when they identify and satisfy customer needs better than competitors do. ✓
- B.Product, Price, Place, Promotion — the four levers a marketer pulls to deliver a value proposition to a target segment.
- C.A management orientation that prioritizes production efficiency, low cost, and wide distribution — assumes customers prefer affordable, available products.
- D.A management orientation that holds firms succeed when they identify and satisfy customer needs better than competitors do.
The Marketing Concept is a management orientation that holds firms succeed when they identify and satisfy customer needs better than competitors do. The other options describe related but distinct concepts in Marketing Fundamentals — see the deep-dive guide for the full distinction.
How to think about questions like this
Firms that start with the customer outperform those that start with the product. Questions like this test whether you can distinguish The Marketing Concept from neighboring concepts. The most common trap is choosing a closely-related concept that sounds similar but applies in a different context.
When you see a definition question on an exam, do two things: (1) translate the question into your own words, then (2) generate the answer in your own words before reading the options. This avoids the cognitive bias of recognizing a familiar phrase as correct just because it is familiar.