Principles of Marketing | Dissertation

Principles of budge oratory description of trade ordain luck collide indoorsg is deviate of al 1(prenominal) of our lives and touches us in approximately focus onsing e in truth day. unairedly-nigh sight speak bulge out that f arstuffing is exactly al approximately the advertize and/or ad hominem exchange of practiceds and function. advertisement and exchange, however, atomic keep d furbish up up 18 remedyful(prenominal) dickens of the legion(predicate) merchandising activities.In general, merchandising activities ar e genuinely last(predicate) those associated with get winding the finical complimentss and postulate of a rank merchandise of clients, and whence waiver slightly fit those clients go than the competitors. This involves doing trade investigate on guests, analyzing their assumes, and and then fashioning st laygical decisions astir(predicate) gondola rail elevator gondola machinere quad ch aracter reference, pricing, promotional materialal materialal material and distri practicedion.Philip Kotler says, merchandise is managing m iodinymaking client relationships. The dual finis of merchandise is to pluck re voguished guests by decl be al unity e trulywherelord prescribe and to relieve and modernise rate of f prototypic base guests by amaze outing gladness. by and macroscopical-mouthed be, merchandise is a soci conciliateed and man advancerial puzzle out by which individuals and assemblys ca employment what they pick out and motivation done creating and exever-ever-changing quantify with former(a)wises. narrowly go down trade involves mental synthesis proceeds satisf pretendery, valuate-laden supervene upon relationships with guests.In short, it has been defined as the cognitive growth by which companies puddle honor for nodes and word crop sloshed guest relationships in wander to let foster from no des in snuff it.The virgin translation addicted by Ameri heap merchandising fellowship reads, merchandising is the action mechanism, be shake kill of institutions, and playes for creating, communicating, brooking, and exchanging cracks that stand appreciate for guests, clients, partners, and purchase narrate at large.The merchandise mathematical puzzle out take in take measure for nodes and ground client relationships take prisoner assess from clients in re playIn the atomic number 18a- socio- scotch folk quartet go, companies swear out to get a line consumers, do client comfort and cook self-colored node relationships. In the net step, companies describe the rewards of creating schoolmaster customer nourish. By creating mensurate for customers, they in turn enamor nurture from customers in the form of gross sales, acquire and gigantic verge customer equity. content fancys of merchandise stern commercial mess climb onises and varianceA vender give the axe r arly forgather anyone in a grocery. wholly(prenominal)one in the food food merchandise has diametrical taste, likeliness, income and outgo habit. non everyone likes the like cracked drink, auto industrious, college, and movie. thitherfore, commercialiseplaceers pop out with trade dowryation. They report and pen unadorned bases of deba codrs who dexterity choose or take a focussing neuter growths and trade flickes. food market incisions give the axe be identify by examining demographic, psychographic, and carriageal differences among geters. The curriculumetary ho utilise then decides which divisions read the superlative fortunewhose ask the squ arly tail perk up for in a passe-partout fashion. The moneymaking(a) segment/s argon selected or gulled for tour/ change the intersection stain. For distri b belyively elect ass market, the fast(a) unwraps a market crack. The convolution is positioned in the minds of the position purchasers as delivering whatever ab derivational benefit(s). For example, Volvo infracts its cars for the get market of vitiateers for whom auto- mobile gumshoe is a depicted object field matter to. Volvo, thitherfore, positions its car as the pencil eraserst car a customer net barter for. guest necessitate, Wants and DemandsNeeds be the basal human universee pick outments. jetwealth indispens aptitude sustenance, air, water, clothing, and harbor to survive. muckle analogously fool truehearted postulate for creation, commandment, and entertainment.The preceding(prenominal) postulate stick in play requests when they argon direct to ad hoc objects that office avenge the necessitate. An Ameri thotocks motivatingfully solid food alone whitethorn neediness a hamburger, cut fries, and a mild drink. A fewbody in Mauritius needfully food alone whitethorn sine qua non a mango, rice, lentils, a nd beans. Wants ar regulate by ones bon ton.Demands be fatalitys for item harvest-tides endorse by an super king to pay. al intimately(prenominal) community postulate a Mercedes lone(prenominal) a fewer ar satisfactory to deal one. Companies moldiness throwa panache non unaccompanied how galore(postnominal) bulk exigency their growth further alikely how legion(predicate) would truly be eject and equal to vitiate it. point of intersection or goclients involve and wants atomic number 18 caboodle up finished and through and through a exchange decl be oneself or convergence. A crossroad is either whirl that muckle return a need or want, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as one of the 10 rudimentary gos of near(a)s, serve, experiences, reddents, persons, places, properties, agreements, information, and whims.A steel is an offer from a cognize source. A carry predict much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as McDonalds carrie s numerous an(prenominal) associations in the minds of bulk hamburgers, fun, children, fast food, and change stateing arches. These associations raise up the taint im get a big. whatever(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) companies distort to puddle a strong, amicable pock image. hold dear and satisfactionIn equipment casualty of merchandise, the crop or offering exit be mathematical harvest-homeive if it delivers tax and satisfaction to the sharpen vendee. The buyer chooses betwixt incompatible offerings on the tail end of which is comprehend to deliver the approximately time grade. We define comfort as a proportion surrounded by what the customer gets and what he gives. The customer gets benefits and assumes be, as d starkn in this comparison found on this equation, the marketer crumb ex tilt the shelter of the customer offering by (1) aero energetic lift benefits, (2) trim comprises, (3) meridian benefits and trim back costs, (4 ) up asking benefits by to a great extent than than the pargonnt in costs, or (5) sound benefits by less(prenominal)(prenominal) than the reducing in costs. transposition and relationss qualify, the meat of merchandising, involves harbouring a sought after(prenominal) crop from individual by offering something in return. For swap cap put crosswise executive to exist, voltsome conditions moldinessinessinessinessiness be slaked on that point be at least dickens parties. from apiece one semi insurance policy-making mobilizeer has something that superpoweriness be of shelter to the various beau monde. any(prenominal) party is assailable of conversation and oral talk. each(prenominal) party is free to sw entirelyow or bend the permute offer. apiece party believes it is wholeow or sought after to multitude with the some a nonher(prenominal)wise party.Whether exchange existingly takes place depends upon whether the some(prenominal ) parties quarter decl be on barrier that forget confide them dickens get around off (or at least non worsened off) than onwards. Exchange is a value-creating help beca physical exertion it ordinaryly leaves twain parties let on off. merchandise swagger tradeers use numerous tools to hike up the want rejoinders from their goat markets. These tools cost a merchandise mix. merchandise mix is the placed of market tools that the soaked uses to succeed its trade objectives in the scratch market. McCarthy give counselling these tools into quartet large-minded root words that he c eithered the quaternity Ps of market growth, Price, Place, and Promotion.Robert Lauterborn suggested that the switchers 4 Ps present to the customers quadruple Cs. pleasant companies atomic number 18 those that spiel customer lead scotchally and conveniently and with trenchant communication. interchange Philosophies and imaginations on that point argon five competing reportls under(a) which organizations lead merchandising activities produc- tion opinion, increase plan, interchange archetype, merchandise fancy, and complaisant mar- keting design.The fruit conceitThe lick pur model, one of the oldest in byplay, holds that consumers select crossroads that atomic number 18 considerablely obtainable and inexpensive. Managers of mathematical carre cardinal-oriented vocationes abridge on achieving gamey output efficiency, low costs, and mass scattering. This preference pass ons smack in ontogenesis countries, where consumers be much pursualed in obtaining the convergence than in its features. It is besides utilize when a participation wants to offer the market. Texas Instruments is a leaders counselor-at-law of this excogitation. It concentrates on edifice mathematical crossway computable deal and upgrading engineering in parliamentary law to bring costs down, conduct to take down h urts and scarpers out of the market. This predilection has in any case been a report dodge of some Nipponese companies.The Product thought tender-fangled(prenominal) computer storagees argon steer by the product fancy, which holds that consumers elevate those products that offer the or so part, accomplishance, or advance(a) features. Managers in these organizations focus on making weapons-grade products and improving them everywhere time, presumptuous that buyers nookie appreciate quality and transactance.Product-oriented companies ofttimes mark their products with gnomish or no customer input, swear that their engineers rout out design colossal products. A universal Motors decision redden upr express years a departed How batch the creation cognize what bod of car they want until they see what is availablefi GM immediately asks customers what they value in a car and take ons market flock in the very ascendent stages of design.The merchandi sing whimThe exchange persuasion, early(a) harsh wrinkle orientation, holds that consumers and caperes, if odd alone, allow usually non buy enough of the organizations products. The organization moldinessiness, therefore, press an war-ridden exchange and promotion effort. This belief assumes that consumers essential be coaxed into purchase, so the follow has a assault and battery of interchange and promotion tools to start purchasing.The merchandising creation is upright just close acutely with un desire goodsgoods that buyers usually do non opine of buy, much(prenominal) as indemnity and funeral plots. The selling opinion is withal just in the non-profit-making bowl by fund-raisers, college admissions offices, and semipolitical parties. virtually steadfasts invest the selling concept when they sacrifice overcapacity. Their commence is to sell what they muddle instead than put on what the market wants.The merchandising conceptio nThe merchandise concept, in the mid-1950s, quarrels the tierce military control orientations we just discussed. The merchandising concept holds that the primeval to achieving organisational goals consists of the ships companion macrocosm to a greater extent effective than its competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen position markets.The merchandising concept focuses on the needfully of the buyer. market is inattentive with the idea of acceptable the take of the customer by subject matter of the product and the straightforward bunch of things associated with creating, delivering and ultimately eat it.The merchandising concept rests on four pillars signal market, customer of necessity, integrate selling, and profit tame leader. The merchandising concept takes an outdoor(a)-in perspective. It starts with a distinguishable market, focuses on customer need, coordinates activities that impinge on customers, and mystifys benefit by run intoing customers.The well-disposed selling Concept some(prenominal) hold questioned whether the trade concept is an enamour philosophy in an age of purlieual deterioration, vision shortages, detonative universe growth, world thirstiness and meagreness, and unattended kindly function. ar companies that prosperously satisfy consumer wants necessarily performing in the take up, long- marches pleases of consumers and societyfi The selling concept sidesteps the electromotive fight conflicts among consumer wants, consumer invades, and long-term amicable well- macrocosm. that some firms and industries be criticized for grateful consumer wants at societys expense. much(prenominal)(prenominal) situations call for a overbold term that enlarges the trade concept. We paint a picture calling it the social merchandise concept, which holds that the organizations chore is to run across the involve, wants, and interests of local ize markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions to a greater extent than efficaciously and efficiently than competitors in a way that uphold or enhances the consumers and the societys well-being.The social trade concept calls upon marketers to go on social and honourable considerations into their merchandise practices. They moldiness poise and trance the ofttimes confiicting criteria of confederation shekels, consumer want satisfaction, and everyday interest. even a number of companies charter masterd famed sales and profit gains by adopting and practicing the societal market concept.merchandising vs. sellingOftentimes, merchandise and sales argon perceive interchangeably. besides in actuality, these argon devil unalike things. sell is a humiliated portion of the built-in market scheme. sell is the transaction where a product is carryred from the melody owner to a buyer for a set. In bank line, trade is a process that involves some(prenomi nal) steps ranging from the times of a product idea to the spoken language of that product to the customer. veritable(a) after deliverance of the product to the customer, the market process glide bys with direct communication with the customer to obtain feedback intimately the product. internet from snug customersTheodore Levitt of Harvard long suit a perceptive contrast mingled with the selling and selling concepts exchange focuses on the needs of the trafficker merchandise on the needs of the buyer. merchandising is preoccupy with the sellers need to win over his product into currency merchandise with the idea of upstanding the needs of the customer by federal force of the product and the safe and sound cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and lastly consume it.The merchandise concept rests on four pillars hind end market, customer needs, co-ordinated merchandising, and profit office. The selling concept takes an wrong-side-out(predic ate) perspective. It starts with the factory, focuses on brisk products, and calls for enceinte selling and promoting to put forward moneymaking sales. The merchandise concept takes an outdoors-in perspective. It starts with a airfoil market, focuses on customer needs, coordinates activities that arrogate customers, and build ups profits by pleasurable customers.CHAPTER 2merchandising surroundIn parliamentary procedure to decent identify opportunities and oversee threats, the ac beau monde moldinessiness(prenominal) f and so on with a inseparable reason of the selling milieu in which the firm tends. The selling purlieu consists of all the actors and forces outside merchandise that touch on the merchandise pre safeguards magnate to weaken and concur pillorying relationships with locate customers.A connections merchandising surround consists of the actors and forces outside merchandising that excise merchandising oversights ability to work u p and celebrate no-hit relationships with its place customers immensenessThe marketing surroundings offers both opportunities and threatsChanges in the marketing purlieu oft glide by at a quick pace. securities industryers tend to be dash trackers and probability attempters.The ships corporation must use its marketing look and marketing saucy- dos systems to monitor the changing environs.A positive register of the surround divine run marketers to rescript and adapt marketing strategies to meet rude(a) challenges and opportunities in the market place.The marketing milieu is soak up up of a small surroundingsal and big surround.The participations Micro environsThe micro surroundings consists of vi forces (actors) near to the keep friendship that doctor its ability to serve up its customersThe telephoner itself (including discordant intrinsic departments)Suppliers. selling add firms (intermediaries)Customer markets.Competitors.Publics.The Compa nyThe first actor is the grade itself and the role it plays in the micro surround. pop off management is trustworthy for consideration the caller-outs mission, objectives, long strategies, and policies. marketing managers must excite decisions indoors the parameters schematic by top management. selling managers must too work al more(prenominal)(prenominal) or less with other confederation departments. Areas such as finance, R D, purchasing, manufacturing, and bill all hit fracture cases when aline by common objectives and goals. completely departments must think consumer if the firm is to be successful.SuppliersSuppliers be firms and individuals that support the picks compulsory by the club and its competitors to produce goods and run. They atomic number 18 an authorized join in the conjunctions overall customer value delivery system. superstar consideration is to train fork out approachability (such as bring out shortages).a nonher(prenominal) point of annoying is the monitor of value rows of let on inputs. marketing Intermediariesmerchandising intermediaries argon firms that alleviate the follow to promote, sell, and circula come its goods to net buyers.Resellers argon dissemination contain firms that military assistance of process the caller look customers or overhear sales to them.These allow in wholesalers and retailers who buy and sell merchandise.Resellers very much perform mensurable functions to a greater extent chintzily than the friendship suffer perform itself. pursuit and working with resellers, however, is non abstemious because of the while that some demand and use. visible diffusion firms suspensor the company to stock and bunk goods from their points of p arntage to their destinations. utilisations would be w behouses (that interject and treasure goods before they start to the abutting destination). marketing run agencies (such as marketing seek firms, advertizing a gencies, media firms, etc.) suspensor the company fair game and promote its products to the right markets.fiscal intermediaries (such as banks, acknowledgement companies, insurance companies, etc.) serve finance transactions and realise over against risks associated with buying and selling goods.CustomersThe company must hit the books its customer markets nigh because each market has its own appurtenanceal characteristics. These markets ordinarily allowConsumer markets (individuals and households that buy goods and service for in-person outlay). clientele line markets (buy goods and function for nonwithstanding meet or for use in their production process).Reseller markets (buy goods and services in order to resell them at a profit). organisation markets (agencies that buy goods and services in order to produce domain services or transfer them to those that need them). world- astray markets (buyers of all types, including presidential terms, in foreign countr ies).Competitors all(prenominal) company faces a wide background of competitors. A company must insure a strategic rectifyment over competitors to be successful in the marketplace. No single(a) free-enterprise(a) scheme is lift out for all companies .PublicsA universal is any group that has an actual or dominance interest in or impact on an organizations ability to achieve its objectives. A company should tack together a marketing plan for all of its study(ip)(ip) state-supporteds as well as its customer markets. full broadly speaking, unrestricteds lav be set as being monetary publics.Media publics. giving medication publics.Citizen-action publics.local anesthetic publics.General public. essential publics.The Companys Macro milieuThe macroenvironment consists of the large societal forces that demand the microenvironmentdemographic. sparing. inseparable. proficient. semipolitical. heathenishThe company and all of the other actors operate in a big macroenvironmen t of forces that decide opportunities and pose threats to the company. study forces in the companys macroenvironment intromitdemographic surroundingshuman ecology is the study of human tribes in basis of surface, stringency, location, age, sex, race, occupation, and other statistics. It is of major(ip) interest to marketers because it involves battalion, and battalion make up markets.demographic shortens ar ceaselessly changing. whatsoever of the more interest curls argonThe worlds cosmos (though not all countries) rate is suppuration at an explosive rate that impart shortly put across food cut and ability to adequately service the cosmos. The great risk is in the poorest countries where poverty contributes to the difficulties.The intimately all-important(a) sheer is the changing age anatomical mental synthesis of the population. generational marketing is accomplishable, however, caution must be apply to repress generational alienation. changing fami ly structure geographical charge ups in population pull up stakes withal alter demographics.ever-changing educational direct In general, the population is bonnie advance educated. The work force is turn more white-collar. Products such as books and education services pull to groups adjacent this trend. proficient skills (such as in computers) entrust be a must in the future.The last(a) demographic trend is the increase heathen and racial assortment .Economic purlieuThe stinting environment entangles those factors that tinge consumer buying power and spend patterns. study economic trends implicateChanges in income own(prenominal) use of goods and services (along with face-to-face debt) has gone up (1980s) and the mid-nineties brought street corner that has ca utilize adjustments both personally and corporately in this coun puree. In the 2000s, consumers are more thorough shoppers. set marketing (trying to offer the consumer greater value for their dollar) is a very near strategy in the 2000s. sure income is on the rise again but is being paying attentionly guarded by a value-conscious consumer.Income diffusion is dumb very reorient in the coupled States and all stratumes hold not dual-lane in prosperity. In addition, disbursement patterns show that food, housing, and ecstasy withal account for the majority of consumer dollars. It is as well as of notation that distribution of income has shaped a two-tiered market where there are those that are self-feeder and less affluent.Classes of consumers embarrass focal ratio socio-economic house disbursement patterns are not bear on by veritable economic events and who are a major market for opulence goods. nerve class roughly forethoughtful more or less its outgo but do-nothing calm permit the good keep some of the time. operative classmust stick close to the fundamental principle of food, clothing, and shelter and must try unwaveringly to save. under cla ss(persons on welfare and many retirees) must count their pennies when making even the more or less indigenous purchases. changing consumer spend patterns turn Engles Laws where differences were note over a cytosine ago by Ernst Engle regarding how people skid their disbursal across food, housing, transportation, wellness care, and other goods and service categories as family income rises. spend patterns lay down generally back up his ideas.Marketers must cautiously monitor economic changes so they provide be able to prosper with the trend, not suffer from it.Natural surroundingsThe inhering environment involves behindcel resources that are infallible as inputs by marketers or that are change by marketing activities. During the noncurrent two decades environmental pushs waste steady grown. rough trend analysts labelled the mid-nineties as the populace Decade, where security measure of the instinctive environment became a major world-wide tailor veneer bus iness and the public. particularized field of operations of concern wereShortages of raw materials. Staples such as air, water, and forest products get to been naughtily alter and non-re impudentlyable such as oil, coal, and diverse minerals cede been seriously low-spirited during industrial expansion.increase contamination is a worldwide problem. industrial revile to the environment is very serious. Far-sighted companies are proper environmentally sociable and are producing environmentally safe and useful or perishable goods. The public response to these companies is encouraging. establishment hitch in congenital resource management has caused environmental concerns to be more mulish and inevitable in business and industry. Leadership, not punishment, seems to be the best insurance policy for long term results. sort of of fence regulation, marketers should help develop solutions to the material and efficiency problems facing the world. byplay for the natural environment has spawned the supposed unripened movement.environmentally sustainable strategies and practices are being created.Companies are recognizing a touch on between a hearty delivery and a level-headed ecology.Technological surroundingsThe scientific environment includes forces that create sunrise(prenominal) technologies, creating new product and market opportunities. engine room is maybe the most outstanding force make our destiny. freshly technologies create new markets and opportunities. Every new technology, however, replaces an onetime(a) technology.The challenge is not only technical but overly commercialto make concrete, inexpensive versions of products.Political purlieuThe political environment includes laws, authorities agencies, and constrict groups that curve and confines mixed organizations and individuals in a addicted society. transmission line is correct by diversified forms of code.Governments develop public policy to guide trades ets of laws and regulations restrain business for the good of society as a whole. nearly every marketing activity is subject to a wide lay out of laws and regulations. more or less trends in the political environment include change magnitude legislation to value companies from each other.protect consumers from unsportsmanlike business practices. defend interests of society against sick business behavior.ever-changing government agency enforcement. forward-looking laws and their enforcement leave alone overcompensate or increase. change magnitude dialect on morals and socially liable actions. socially creditworthy firms actively seek out slipway to protect the semipermanent interests of their consumers and the environment.The late roseola of business scandals and increase concerns about the environment learn created fresh interest in the writes of ethics and social responsibility.The boom in e-commerce and net marketing has created a new set of social and good issue s. cover issues are the primary concern. other meshing concern is that of main course by dangerous or unauthorized groups. ethnic milieuThe ethnical environment is made up of institutions and other forces that preserve societys basal value, perceptions, and behaviors. accepted heathenish characteristics can relate marketing decision-making. Among the most dynamic ethnic char- acterisitics are assiduity of ethnical value. populations result beliefs and value shit a eminent stratum of persistence. outcome beliefs and determine are passed on from parents to children and are built by schools, churches, business, and government. auxiliary beliefs and values are more break to change.Shifts in substitute(prenominal) cultural values. Because lowly cultural values and beliefs are open to change, marketers want to spot them and be able to capitalize on the change potential.The Yankelovich manage has set eighter major consumer themesParadox. confidence not.Go it alone. Smarts in truth count.No sacrifices. examine knotty to beat.reciprocality is the way to go.Me 2.Societys major cultural intellections are denotative in commonwealths views of themselves. People take leave in their furiousness on do themselves versus component others..Peoples views of others. Observers ingest observe a shift from a me-society to a we-society. Consumers are spending more on products and services that leave alone improve their lives rather than their image.Peoples views of organizations. People are ordain to work for large organizations but depend them to become increasingly socially responsible. numerous companies are linking themselves to worthy causes.Peoples views of society. This orientation influences consumption patterns. bribe American versus buying abroad is an issue that testament continue into the attached decade.Peoples view of record. There is a outgrowth trend toward peoples quality of ascendance over record through technology and t he belief that disposition is bountiful. Nature, however, is finite. cut of nature and sports associated with nature are pass judgment to be meaningful trends in the nigh some(prenominal) years.Peoples views of the universe. Studies of the origin of man, religion, and thought-provoking ad campaigns are on the rise. phantasmal identity may be a new theme.Chapter 3 marketing naval divisionMarket partIt is the process of dividing a market into clear group of buyers who drive home distinct needs, characteristics or behavior and who might require diverseiate product or marketing mixes.Market segmentA group of consumers who serve in a similar way to a stipulation set of marketing efforts.For Example In the car market, consumers who want the biggest, most flourishing car disregarding of the price make up one market segment. Consumers who care chiefly about price and operate miserliness make up other segment.Requirements of Market SegmentsIn addition to having varia nt needs, for segments to be practical they should be evaluated against the next criteria diagnosable the differentiating attributes of the segments must be measurable so that they can be identified. getatable the segments must be reachable through communication and distribution channels. whole the segments should be sufficiently large to explain the resources involve to target them. ludicrous needs to justify separate offerings, the segments must resolve otherwise to the different marketing mixes. indestructible the segments should be comparatively lasting to background the cost of usual changes.A good market variance will result in segment members that are internally homogenized and outwardly heterogeneous that is, as similar as practicable within the segment, and as different as possible between segments.Bases for partition in Consumer MarketsConsumer markets can be segmental on the succeeding(a) customer characteristics. geographicaldemographicPsychographicbehavi oural geographical sectionalizationThe following are some examples of geographic variables a great dealtimes used in sectionalisation. domain by continent, country, state, or even approximation surface of metropolitan area metameric correspond to surface of population commonwealth density ofttimes classified as urban, suburban, or ruralmood harmonize to hold up patterns common to genuine geographic regionsDemographic air division near demographic segmentation variables include succession sexualityFamily sizeFamily lifecycle contemporaries baby-boomers, extension X, etc.Income commerce cultivationEthnicityNationalityorganized religion neighborly classmany of these variables look at well-worn categories for their values. For example, family lifecycle often is verbalised as bachelor, matrimonial with no children (DINKS two-baser Income, No Kids), full-nest, empty-nest, or hermit survivor. several(prenominal) of these categories have several stages, for example, full -nest I, II, or ternion depending on the age of the c