List of Careers

Marketing is basically the strategic part of every business. It incorporates everything about understanding the market, both yours and that is not yours. Bringing your products/services to a market and even developing new markets. It’s not just about selling products, but producing something that sells.

Marketing impacts heavily upon the following activities:

• Business development
• Product development
• Market development
• Market research
• Competitor analysis
• Pricing strategy
• Public relation
• Customer service
• Promotion
• Brand development
• Corporate/Company identity

The foundation of all good marketing is to know your market, which is to know the type of customers that you are dealing with. A well marketed business is completely customer focused. They identify what the customer wants or needs and then supply the product/service at a price that the customer is able to pay.

As the classic saying goes that the customer is always right, does not mean that a business should have excellent customer service, but making the customer’s priorities their own. As Henry Ford said, “Whoever focuses on how much they can give for a dollar rather than how little, is bound to succeed”.

Know your customers and what they want even before you make them your customer. Big business houses do this by carrying out a market research to find out the best balance of the 4 P’s before they go any further.

Even small business can do their individual research, like calling up customers for their opinion or sending mails or SMS. Comparing the data from the customers and the competitors in the market will help in making a good mixture of the 4 P’s.

The four P’s of marketing – product, price, place and promotion need equal blending to create a mark and sustain in the market.

The product sold must be both useful and within the price range of the customer. Price is the acid test where you have to give valuable features to the customer at a reasonable price. Place is important for financial and legal issues as well as for a cost efficient business. Of course online business has increased the radius of marketing a lot. Promotion relates to advertisement, sponsorship, public relation, special offers and a lot more.

The cheaper the product/service, the lesser they have to travel and the easier their availability the less the promotion needed. For example a computer at a competitive price having maximum feature and warranty need no promotion.

Marketing is the process used to determine what services and products may be of interest to the customer. It is the technique that is used to increase sales, communication and business development. It makes more sense if to think marketing as a process to benefit from customer value in the most effective way, subject to the ethical and other constrains that one may have.

There are different ways of delivering customer value. For example a ‘brick kiln’ owner provides a basic product like brick and therefore provides relatively little value above that. While others like those manufacturing ‘computers’ provide other services along with its tangible value, like warranty, technical support and software updates.

Value must always be considered from the point of view of the customer. Some customer value certain product attributes more than others. Take for example some expensive product may be of great value to one segment of customer, while for another section it may be just a luxury. This is because the benefits received are seen as even greater than the sacrifice made in terms of money.

The marketing process involves ways that value can be created for the customer. Form utility involves the idea that the product is made available to the consumer that is more useful than the commodities used in creating the product. For example a customer buys a chair instead of the wood needed to create it. Place utility is the product is provided at the location of the consumer which is worth more than the place of manufacture. Time utility is the idea of making the product available when the customer wants it. Possession utility is the idea of making a number of products from different manufacturers available at the same place e.g. a ‘shopping- mall’.

There are two approaches to marketing- traditional selling and marketing. Traditional selling believes only in the increase of sale of the product. While the concept of marketing focuses on getting what the consumer seek.

The 4 Ps- product, place, promotion and price are within the control of each firm but not environment.