There are five major approaches to the analysis of marketing problems. This article gives a brief description of the five approaches.
1. Functional Approach in Agricultural Marketing
This method classifies the activities that occur in the marketing process into functions. A marketing function may be defined as a major specialized activity performed in accomplishing the marketing process.
Under this functional approach, marketing functions are classified into three:
i. Physical function
ii. Exchange function
iii. Facilitating function
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2. Institutional Approach in Agricultural Marketing
This approach studies the various agencies and business structures that perform the marketing function. It tends to answer the question of “who does what in marketing.” “Who” refers to the agency or institution, while “what” refers to the function that is being performed.
Marketing institutions are the wide variety of business organizations that have developed to perform certain marketing functions. The institutional approach considers the nature and character of the various middlemen and other intermediaries in the marketing machinery. It also includes the arrangement and organization of the marketing systems. This approach emphasizes the human element of marketing.
3. Commodity Approach in Agricultural Marketing
This approach concentrates on the study of the marketing of related products such as livestock products, which include milk, meat, cheese, and butter, or crops such as cereals (rice, maize, sorghum, and millet), or tubers such as yam, cassava, and potato. Given this nomenclature, it is possible to talk about the food grains marketing system, the beef marketing system, or the cotton marketing system in Nigeria.
4. Behavioural Systems Approach in Agricultural Marketing
The marketing process is continually changing in its organization and functional combinations. A major problem faced by market analysts is understanding and predicting changes.
The behavioural systems approach is used to analyze the behaviour of firms as it affects their decisions under different market structures. It examines the market, its operators, or the organizations involved as a system of behaviour, which enables the understanding of anticipated but unforeseen changes in the marketing system.
The behavioural systems approach stipulates that food marketing should be looked at as a number of behavioural systems involved in various kinds of decision-making. It emphasizes the multidisciplinary approach to the study of the marketing system.
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5. Market Structure and Performance Approach in Agricultural Marketing
Market structure analysis emphasizes the nature of market competition and attempts to relate the variables of market performance to types of market structure and conduct.
Market structure is a description of the number and nature of participants in a market. Market conduct deals with the behaviour of firms. Firms that are price-makers are expected to act differently from those in a price-taker type of industry.
Market performance is a reflection of the impact of structure and conduct on product prices, costs, and the volume and quality of output. If the structure of a market is that of monopoly rather than pure competition, poor market performance can be expected.
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