BUS101: Introduction to Business
Study guide and Definitions
Unit 1: The Context of Business
1.1 Business Basics
Section 3: Addressing Market Needs
In today's business environment, ascertaining market needs is vital for a firm's future
viability, and even existence, as a going concern.
Learning Objectives
● Recognize the needs for markets
● Describe the relationship between the market, a firm, and a consumer
Key Points
● A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social
relations, and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange.
● Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies
that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands.
● Market research is for discovering what people want, need, and believe; and how
they behave.
● Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with
similar motivations.
Terms
● Market
-A group of potential customers for one's product.
● Demand
- The desire to purchase goods or services, coupled with the power to do so, at a
particular price.
Example
● Markets vary in form, scale, location, and types of participants, as well as the types
of goods and services traded. Examples of markets include:
○ Physical retail markets, such as local farmers' markets, shopping
centers and shopping malls
○ Non-physical internet markets
○ Ad hoc auction markets
○ Markets for intermediate goods used in production of other goods and
services
○ Labor markets and international currency and commodity markets
○ Stock markets, for the exchange of shares in corporations
Study guide and Definitions
Unit 1: The Context of Business
1.1 Business Basics
Section 3: Addressing Market Needs
In today's business environment, ascertaining market needs is vital for a firm's future
viability, and even existence, as a going concern.
Learning Objectives
● Recognize the needs for markets
● Describe the relationship between the market, a firm, and a consumer
Key Points
● A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social
relations, and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange.
● Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies
that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands.
● Market research is for discovering what people want, need, and believe; and how
they behave.
● Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with
similar motivations.
Terms
● Market
-A group of potential customers for one's product.
● Demand
- The desire to purchase goods or services, coupled with the power to do so, at a
particular price.
Example
● Markets vary in form, scale, location, and types of participants, as well as the types
of goods and services traded. Examples of markets include:
○ Physical retail markets, such as local farmers' markets, shopping
centers and shopping malls
○ Non-physical internet markets
○ Ad hoc auction markets
○ Markets for intermediate goods used in production of other goods and
services
○ Labor markets and international currency and commodity markets
○ Stock markets, for the exchange of shares in corporations
