What & How is Marketing
What are some issues surrounding the main stakeholder of a business that involve marketing?
Customers are one of the main stakeholders of any business. Customer satisfaction is the perceived performance of the product in delivering value relative to a buyer's expectations, which has 3 possible outcomes; Dissatisfaction, Satisfaction or delight. It is important that the marketing department know the target audience well so as to be able to delight them. Another important issue that arises is being ethical in advertising, which affects most stakeholder, but especially customers, pressure groups and the government. Advertising to children must be carried out in an ethical manner so to not cause the child any harm. It is unethical to be misleading within advertising which directly affects customers, however, this is controlled by government legislation. Advertising must not have a negative affect on society's values, for example advertising smoking has been banned so to discourage smoking. Adverts must also not encourage anti-social behaviour. Sustainable marketing can be used to maintain or improve both the consumer's and society's well-being and must be a need to meet not only present needs, but to consider future generations as well.
What is the product life cycle.
It describes the stages a product goes through from when it was first thought of until it finally is removed from the market. The main stages of the product life cycle are: Introduction (researching, developing and then launching the product), Growth (when sales are increasing at their fastest rate), Maturity (sales are near their highest, but the rate of growth is slowing down) and Decline(final stage of the cycle, when sales begin to fall). Extension strategies extend the life of the product before it goes into decline. Again businesses use marketing techniques to improve sales. Examples of the techniques are: Advertising, Price reduction, Adding value, Exploring new markets and New packaging.
What is market research?
Market research deals with the collection and analysis of information to assist the marketing planning process. There are four types of market research that needs to be collected, however, there is considerable overlap between them. 1. Management needs to possess accurate information about its current marketing activities. 2. Management needs to be aware of developments that are occurring in the market place which may have a direct or indirect bearing upon the business. 3. Market research involves feasibility testing: to assess the market potential of a new product or service; to assess the reaction of consumers to pricing policies or price changes; to asses the reaction of consumers to a particular advertisement etc. 4. The fourth type is a mixture of the previous three in that it collects information to evaluate a product and the way it is priced, promoted, acquired, perceived and experienced by the consumer after its launched.
What is the main factor that affects the importance of marketing?
Marketing importance is subject to the size of the company. In small companies marketing can be done by one person whereas in large companies there tends to be a marketing department, some even creating the CMO in the department.
Explain the link between the 4P's and the 4C's.
Product --> Customer needs and wants, Price --> Cost to the user, Place --> Convenience, Promotion --> Communication.
How much do companies invest in marketing?
Rule-of-thumb: Businesses that generate less than $5 million in revenue spend between 7-8% of revenues on marketing. "Most" businesses allocate between 2-5% of sales specifically to advertising.
What is marketing?
The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. "Because the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer, the business enterprise has two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing and unique function of the business." Drucker - The practice of management.
What is the marketing concept?
The marketing concept is the achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations better than competition. Customer orientation: corporate activities focused upon providing customer satisfaction. Integrated effort: All staff accept the responsibility for creating customer satisfaction. Goal achievement: the belief that corporate goals can be achieved through customer satisfaction.
Explain in detail the marketing mix.
The marketing mix be seen to have either 4P's or 7P's. The 4P's consists of product, price, place and promotion. The 7P's goes further to include people, physical environment and process. It is about putting the right product or a combination thereof in the place, at the right time, and at the right price. The difficult part is doing this well, as you need to know every aspect of your business plan. 1. Product: You must ensure to have the right type of product that is in demand for your market. 2. Price: Adjusting the price of the product has a big impact on the entire marketing strategy as well as greatly affecting the sales and demand of the product. 3. Place: You have to position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers. 4. Promotion: Promotion is a very important component of marketing as it can boost brand recognition and sales. 5. People: Thorough research is important to discover whether there are enough people in your target market that is in demand for certain types of products and services.The company's employees are important in marketing because they are the ones who deliver the service. 6. Process: The systems and processes of the organisation affect the execution of the service. 7. Physical Evidence: In the service industries, there should be physical evidence that the service was delivered. Additionally, physical evidence pertains also to how a business and it's products are perceived in the marketplace.
Explain what is meant by services.
They are economic activities offered by one party to another. They are intangible benefits purchased by customers that do not involve tangible ownership. The rental of goods is an example as payment is made for using/accessing something usually for a defined period of time instead of buying it outright. In exchange for their money, time and effort, service customers expect to obtain value from access to goods, labour and facilities. They key characteristics of a service are: Intangibility, Perishability, Heterogeneity and Inseparability.
What is the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Model?
Through segmentation,you can identify niches with specific needs, mature markets to find new customers, deliver more focused and effective marketing messages. The needs of each segment are not the same, so marketing messages should be designed for each segment to emphasise relevant benefits and features required rather than one size fits all for all customer types. The most common ways to segment is through demographics, psychographics, Lifestyle, beliefs and values, life stages, geography, behaviour and benefit. Market targeting involves the evaluation of certain market criteria in order to see the potential and commercial attractiveness of each segment. In order for market targeting to be carried out; the market must be large enough to justify segmenting, there must be measurable differences between segments, anticipated profits must exceed the costs of additional marketing plans and other changes, each segment must be accessible to your team and the segment must be able to receive your marketing messages and different segments must need different benefits. Positioning maps are the last element of the STP process. For this to work, you need two variables to illustrate the market overview. You can unpack the market by mapping your competitors onto a matrix based on key factors that determine purchase. You could use a product positioning map to analyse your own businesses current position in the market, and identify opportunities.
