The assimilation of marketing concept by retail companies in Romania

The present evolution on consumption goods market generates serious and complex issues to retail companies. Under the circumstances of serious competition, retail companies in Romania confront themselves with the need of finding solutions to different aspects regarding integration on the market, identifying solutions concerning competition issues, initializing and developing businesses or determining the profitability of every activity. More than this, having a relation with the market they act, retailers must know and follow permanently the needs and the requires on the market, phenomenon that implies marketing research, studies and analysis that allow a better understanding of the economic processes, and also social ones, cultural, demographical, and so on. These present realities (and even possible evolutions) that characterize the sector of retail have been the element that determined the initiation of the present scientific action. The retail company is the link within a value chain that comes in direct contact with the final consumer. Therefore, our intention is to determine the place, role and importance of marketing within the general policies of retail companies. Naturally, this generated the question: is distribution marketing a specialized domain that implies policies, strategies and specific techniques, or the assimilation of the classic concept is sufficient in solving marketing and management problems?