Market: 1) place of purchase and sale of goods and services, conclusion of trade transactions; 2) economic relations related to the exchange of goods and services, as a result of which demand, supply and price are formed.
The structure of the markets is extremely diverse. According to the type of goods sold, markets of raw materials, materials, jewelry, means of production, real estate, consumer goods and services, information and intellectual (spiritual) product, innovation, capital, currency, securities, labor, jobs and labor are distinguished. According to the scale of coverage of the territory, the world, zonal, regional, country markets are distinguished, and in relation to each country – domestic and foreign markets. According to the compliance with legal norms, legal (official) and illegal (shadow, black) markets are also distinguished. Securities, real estate, etc. markets are divided into primary and secondary, in which the resale of securities, real estate, etc. takes place.
The market is a conditional place for the purchase and sale of a specific type of goods, the conclusion of trade transactions that are carried out in conditions of competition determined by the intensity, in compliance with ethical and legal norms and rules.
The market is a very capacious concept, its functions are diverse:
pricing, based on the law of supply and demand; intermediary between the manufacturer (seller) and the buyer (consumer); regulating the relationship between the seller, the buyer and the authorities; realizing the interests of market entities; economic, translating the utility of a commodity into monetary terms; integrating technical, economic, legal, organizational aspects of economic management and other interests at all levels of management; informational, on all aspects; stimulating the steady improvement of the quality of objects of purchase and sale and general saving of resources through the law of saving time, the law of competition and other mechanisms; monitoring compliance with legislation and other regulations.
The market can be perfect and imperfect. The perfect market model is based on the assumption that all participants in trade transactions act solely on economic and legal principles. In addition, the following conditions are characteristic of a perfect market:
all goods of this type are objectively homogeneous in terms of their quality, appearance and packaging (homogeneous), and the price is unambiguously comparable to a certain product; the conditions of competition are the same for all sellers and buyers, there are no preferences of a spatial, personal and temporal nature; transparency of the market: sellers and buyers have the opportunity to fully review the market, obtain sufficient information about all the circumstances of transactions (prices, discounts, quality of goods, terms of delivery and payments).
The characteristics of the various forms of markets are given in Table. 1, in which forms of monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly refer to imperfect competition
[16 p.156-157].
Table 1 Resource requirements by component
Characteristics of different forms of markets
| Options (market signs) | Forms of markets | |||
| perfect or pure competition | monopolistic competition | oligopoly | monopoly | |
| 1. Number of manufacturers | A lot | A lot, but the product of each of them has significant differences | Little (2-8) | One |
| 2. Number of buyers | A lot | Ditto | Two or more | One or more |
| 3. The Power of Competition | Very strong | Strong | Weak | Missing |
| 4. Market shares | Small | Small | Big | The whole market |
| 5. Market access | Opened | Difficult | Difficult | Blocked |
| 6. Sales volume | Determined by competitiveness and demand for goods | Determined by the competitiveness and collusion of the participants | Determined by the competitiveness and collusion of the participants | Demand-driven |
| 7. Pricing Policy | Based on the law of supply and demand | Based on demand and competitiveness | Determined by demand and competitiveness | Determined by the manufacturer (seller) |
| 8. The role of quality and competition | Very high | Very high | High | Determined by the situation |
| 9. The role of advertising in product promotion | High | High | Very high | Determined by the situation |
| 10. Manufacturer’s profit margin (approximately) | Minor | 2-8 % | 8-20 % | More than 20% |
| 11. Resource Efficiency | Very high | High | Average | Low |
Source. R.A.Fatkhutdinov Strategic Marketing 3rd edition, p.157.