The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 Up’s of marketing:
(1) identification, selection and development of a product,
(2) determination of its price,
(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer’s place, and
(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
For example, new Apple products are developed to include improved applications and systems, are set at different prices depending on how much capability the customer desires, ND are sold in places where other Apple products are sold.
In order to promote the device, the company featured its debut at tech events and is highly advertised on the web and on television. Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School’s retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levity) “Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about.
And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs. ” In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demander that product and fulfilling the customer’s needs. Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer. Strategies and Tactics
Strategies are best explained as the direction the marketing effort takes over some period of time while tactics are actionable steps or decisions made in order to follow the strategies established. For instance, if a company’s strategy is to begin selling its products in a new country, the tactics may involve the marketing decisions made to carry this out. Performing strategic and tactical planning activities in advance of taking action is considered critical for long-term marketing success. Identify Arguably the most important marketing function involves efforts needed to gain knowledge of customers, competitors, and markets (I. . , where marketers do business). We will see throughout this tutorial how marketing research is utilized in all decision areas. Create Competition forces marketers to be creative people. When marketers begin new marketing By leaseholder new (e. G., a new product, a new way of getting products to customers, a new advertising approach, etc. ). But once something new is launched innovation does not end. Competitive pressure is continually felt by the marketer, who must respond by again devising new strategies and tactics that help the organization remain successful.
For marketers, the cycle of creating something new never ends. Maintain Today’s marketers work hard to ensure their customers return to purchase from them again and again. Long gone (see our discussion of History of Marketing below) are the days when success for a marketer was measured simply in how many sales they made each day. Now, in most marketing situations, marketing success is evaluated not only in terms of sales figures but also by how long a marketer retains good customers. Consequently, marketers’ efforts to attract customers do not end hen a customer makes a purchase.
It continues in various ways for, hopefully, a long time after the initial purchase. Satisfying Relationships A key objective of marketing is to provide products and services that customers really want AND to make customers feel their contact with the marketer is helping build a good relationship between the two. In this way the customer becomes a partner in the transaction, not Just a source of revenue for the marketer. Value for Both Customer and Marketer Value refers to the perception of benefits received for what someone must give up.
For customers, value is most often measured by how much benefit they feel they are getting for their money, though the value one customer feels may differ from what another customer feels even though they purchase the same product. On the other side of the transaction, the marketer for a for-profit organization may measure value in terms of how much profit they make for the marketing efforts and resources expended. For a successful marketing effort to take place both the customer and the marketer must feel they are receiving something worth while in return for their efforts.
Without a strong perception of value it is unlikely a strong relationship can be built. Throughout this tutorial we will emphasize value and show ways marketers build value into the products they offer.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELLING AND MARKETING
Marketing as a concept and approach is much wider than selling and is also dynamic as the focus is on the customer rather than the product. While selling revolves around the needs and interest of the manufacturer or marketer, marketing revolves around that of consumer. It is the whole process of meeting and satisfying the needs of the consumer.
Marketing consists of all those activities that are associated with product planning, pricing, promoting and distributing the product or service. The task commences with identifying consumer needs and does not end till feedback on chain of activity, which comprises production, packing, promotion, pricing, distribution and then the selling. Consumer needs become the guiding force behind all these activities. Profits are not ignored but they are built up on a long run basis. Mind share is more important than market share in Marketing.
SELLING
1 Emphasis is on the product
2 Company Manufactures the product first
3 Management is sales volume oriented
4 Planning is short-run-oriented in terms of today’s products and markets
5 Stresses needs of seller
6 Views business as a good producing process
7 Emphasis on staying with existing technology and reducing costs
8 Different departments work as in a highly separate water tight compartments
9 Cost determines Price
10 Selling views customer as a last link in business
MARKETING
1 Emphasis on consumer needs wants
2 Company first determines customers needs and wants and then decides out how to deliver a product to satisfy these wants
3 Management is profit oriented
4 Planning is long-run-oriented in today’s products and terms of new products, tomorrows markets and future growth
5 Stresses needs and wants of buyers
6 Views business as consumer producing process satisfying process
7 Emphasis on innovation on every existing technology and reducing every sphere, on providing better costs value to the customer by adopting a superior technology
8 All departments of the business integrated manner, the sole purpose being generation of consumer satisfaction
9. Consumer determine price, price determines cost
10. Marketing views the customer last link in business as the very purpose of the business
