Every individual buys products or avails a service only if he is satisfied for the money he spends. So, what do you think are the areas for the marketers to worry about in order to satisfy their customer expectations? In fact, there are many like quality of the product or a service, its price, its usage rate, ease of disposability etc...
However in India, people are more aligned towards the quality of the product for a low price. So what is quality all about? The term quality refers to the characteristic property of an indispensable and distinguishing attribute of something or someone. It is determined by the product users or end consumers and not by the society in general. That would mean higher the quality of a product or a service, higher will be its demand and in turn higher sales. But it also does not mean, "Expensive" products have better quality.
Quality management is a phenomenon of focusing on a product or service's quality. Moreover, it also focuses on the ways to achieve it. Unlike the production concept where the customers had no options and had to consume products in spite of their low quality, Quality management has evolved with the marketing concept, wherein the customers are treated as the very purpose of the day to day business. Furthermore Quality Management is considered to have 4 main components:
Quality Planning: This is a systematic process of interpreting the objectives and requirements by establishing a sequence of steps for realizing them within a specified time. Quality Control: This is a process of maintaining proper standards in production process.Quality Assurance: This is a concept of systematic monitoring the various aspects of a process or a service to maximize the probability of attaining the minimum standards of quality.
Quality Improvement: It is a process of intentional change in the production system to improve the reliability of achieving an outcome. There are several methods for Quality management which drives quality improvement. Some of the most used methods are:
• Six Sigma
• Zero Defect Program
• PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
• Kaizen or better known as Continuous Improvement.
• TRIZ
• Business Process Re-engineering
• TQM (Total Quality Management)
Earlier the Japanese were tagged with low price and low quality products, but over time, they have evolved to be successful in achieving high levels of quality in their products. Most of the above mentioned methods are successful initiatives made by the Japanese.
With the consumer market growing at higher rate, quality has become a key differentiator for every company and quality management has successfully helped in laying a foundation for achieving this differentiation. The benefits of Quality Management are many:
• Helps in a complete involvement of the people.
• Offers a systematic approach to the management.
Recently the Quality management has also spread to various other fields other than manufacturing, and has extended into marketing, service and even sales. With the customers becoming more informed and sophisticated, and increasing expectations, the only way for the business to survive is by offering a commitment to quality. And this is possible only by running the business in a smart way by having an effective and efficient Quality Management System.