(consider the hotel industry)

FUNDS INFORMATION (feedback loop) (immediate environment of customers, suppliers, competitors) Figure 9.1 shows how the survival of an organisation depends a great deal on whether it can use its scarce resources to produce goods and/or services that customers want. The organisation uses so much of its scarce resources on products and/or services that if they are not what customers want or need then the organisation is unlikely to succeed. In order to determine what customers want or need the organisation needs to know who their customers are, or could be. This allows the organisation to determine what benefits the customer is seeking by buying the organisation's goods or services. The first thing to determine is who the customer is for each of the organisation's products. ORGANISATION RESOURCES GOODS SERVICES CUSTOMER INFORMATION OPERATIONS INFORMATION (exchange (inputs) (transformation processes) (outputs) relationship) SUPPLIER (exchange relationship) MARKETPLACE View larger image Figure 9.1 Input-output diagram for a business organisation a. Broadly, does your organisation engage in transactional or relationship marketing? b. Can you briefly describe your customers? C. Which of the ideas in the Marketing Mix (the 4Ps) can you see in action in your own organisation's approach to marketing or any other organisation of your choice? d. How effective do you think the marketing activities of your own or any of other chosen organisation are in connecting with customers