The Market in the Marketing System

The market — a multifaceted concept. The market is viewed as a mechanism
that brings together supply and demand to ensure the processes of buying and selling goods at a given time and in a specific place.
The main elements of the market:

• - subjects (sellers, buyers, suppliers, intermediaries, etc.),
• - objects (goods, services, means of payment, etc.),
• - relations (exchange, partnership, competition, etc.),
• - environment (natural, social, cultural, etc.).

The conditions for the effective functioning of the market include, limited by the framework of the law:
the following:

• ▪ the right of everyone to produce, sell, and buy;
• ▪ the right to freely buy and freely sell in any market and at whatever free price a buyer can be found for;
• ▪ the right to have access to any branches of production of goods and provision of services.

The most important basic relationship of market subjects is
the interaction concerning the exchange of a good for an equivalent value in terms of
benefit. Equivalence in this case is established in the form of mutual
agreement between the seller and the buyer. Ideally, such an agreement is reached with
full mutual satisfaction of the participants in the exchange. At the heart of this
process lies the idea of satisfying needs.
Need — a necessity, a want for something, requiring
satisfaction. In the market, needs manifest themselves in the form of demand. It
represents a form of manifestation of the need for a good, backed by
monetary funds. Such demand is called effective demand.
Demand represents the effective need for a given
good, realized within the limits of the purchasing power of the consumer or
the maximum amount of supply.
Types of demand in marketing
Realized demand — this is demand that culminates in the purchase of a good.
Unsatisfied demand — this is the part of the demand actually presented by
the population that, at one time or another, was not realized due
to the low quality of the good, the high price, or the absence of the good from sale.
Forming demand represents a set of new
requirements placed by buyers on the consumer properties,
quality, and external design of goods, capable of entailing
the need for a substantial restructuring of production and the trading
assortment.
Rush demand is characteristic of those product groups for which
there is a shortage.
Classification of markets
From the point of view of spatial characteristics (territorial
coverage), the following markets are distinguished:
- local;
- regional (within the country);
- national;
- regional by group of countries (for example, North America,
Latin America, Western Europe, CIS countries, the Baltics, etc.);
- global.
Commodity markets differ according to the nature of the final use
of the good:
- market of consumer goods,
- market of goods for production purposes,
- market of services.
The specifics of researching the consumer goods market are related to the fact
that they are designed for a multitude of individual consumers. Great
attention in such studies is devoted to studying the tastes, requests,
preferences, and behavior of consumers. The types of the consumer market
are presented in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1. Classification of the consumer market

A characteristic feature of goods for production purposes
(raw materials, semi-finished products, equipment, etc.) is their close connection with
the production process. Particular importance in the study of such
markets is given to studying the relationships between potential buyers and
producers of goods.
Depending on the needs that determine demand for
the corresponding goods, markets can be retail or wholesale.
The retail (consumer) market — this is a market of buyers
acquiring goods for personal (family, household) use.
The wholesale market, or the market of enterprises, — this is a market of persons or
organizations acquiring goods for their further use in
the production process, resale, or redistribution. Accordingly,
one can speak of the following types of wholesale market: 1) the market
of enterprises purchasing goods for their subsequent processing; 2) the market
of intermediate sellers; 3) the market of government institutions.
The following types of wholesale market exist:
1) the market of enterprises purchasing goods for their subsequent
processing. Characterized by large but few
buyers, their relative geographic concentration, organization of
purchases using professionals (supply agents, departments
of material and technical support, etc.).
2) the market of intermediate sellers (intermediaries);
3) the market of government institutions consists of organizations
that purchase goods to ensure the fulfillment of their
functions, determined by decisions on various social, political, and
other issues. The range of purchases made on behalf of
government institutions is extremely wide and includes the acquisition
of products, ranging from consumer goods and agricultural
products to various types of weapons. A characteristic
feature of the government institutions market (schools, hospitals, the army, and
so on) is that purchases are made at the expense of state and
local budgets. Therefore, there is heightened attention and control over
purchases on the part of the public.
A closed market — this is a market in which sellers and buyers
are bound by non-commercial relations, legal and administrative
dependency, financial control, contractual relations, not
of a purely commercial nature.
An open market — the sphere of ordinary commercial activity, where
the circle of independent sellers and buyers is not limited.
Depending on the market-condition assessment, the following markets are distinguished:

• - developing,
• - shrinking,
• - stable,
• - unstable,
• stagnating.

Each of them determines the specifics of the policy for using
financial resources and short-term investments.
The potential market here accounts for 10% of residents (of the country, region,
oblast, etc.).
The developed market is formed by buyers who give preference to the products
of a given enterprise.
In terms of the specifics and content of marketing
activity, the following markets are distinguished:
- the target market, i.e., the market in which an enterprise achieves or intends to
achieve its goals;
- the barren market, i.e., one lacking prospects for the sale of certain
goods;
- the primary market, i.e., the market where the main share of the enterprise's
products is sold;
- the additional market, in which the sale of a certain
volume of goods is ensured;
- the growing market, i.e., one having real opportunities for growth in sales
volume;
- the layered (interlayer) market, in which commercial transactions are unstable, but
there are prospects for its transformation, under certain conditions, into an active
market (though it may also become barren).
Depending on the ratio of supply and demand, the following are distinguished:
- a seller's market, if demand exceeds supply. As a result, on
this market the seller dictates the terms.
- a buyer's market, when the buyer dictates the terms. In this
case, the buyer is given broad opportunities to choose
the product they need, since the supply of similar goods
exceeds the actual demand for them. In such a market, marketing is of especially
great importance for the seller. Its implementation allows the seller to achieve
the most effective exchanges in order to satisfy specific needs and
wants. In this respect, marketing as a type of human activity
implies, on the one hand, determining the actual needs and wants
of specific consumers, establishing the target orientation of the products manufactured,
organizing their production, delivering them to consumers, and servicing them.
On the other hand, this activity includes purposeful influence on
the market in order to shape needs and buyer preferences
to ensure the effective sale of the products manufactured.