Marketing- An Overview

Marketing a business firm produces Goods and sells them to customers for a profit margin production of goods by a firm and distribution of the same to the customers depends largely on marketing thus let us have a detailed look at the concept of marketing marketing commences before production starts and ends after rendering sale services to the consumers marketing is the process of developing promoting and distributing products in order to satisfy customers needs or wants according to Philip Coulter Marketing is a social process by which individual groups obtain what they need and want through creating offerings and freely exchanging products and services of value with others hence the important features of marketing are need and want creating a market offering customer value and exchange mechanism need and want a marketing firm needs to identify desires of the target customers and develop products and services to satisfy such desires creating a market offering a marketing firm needs to create a complete offer for a product or service of an organization a marketing offer may include features like size quality taste etc at a certain price available at a given outlet or location and so on customer value a buyer purchases a product if it is likely to give greatest benefit or value for the money to be spent by the buyer a marketing firm adds to the value of the product so that the customers prefer the product to the competing products and decide to purchase it exchange mechanism a marketing firm works through the exchange mechanism the individuals buyers and sellers obtain what they need and want through the process of exchange traditionally marketing is regarded as an activity performed by business organizations however marketing can also be performed by nonprofit organizations such as hospitals and schools the process helps these organizations in achieving their goals such as spreading the message of family planning improving the literacy standards of people and providing medication to the sick let us understand the difference between marketing and selling marketing refers to a range of activities of which selling is just one part marketing is everything that an organization does to reach and persuade its prospective customers while the sales process is everything that the organization does to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract both are necessary for the success of a business Marketing functions start from identifying the consumer needs and ends with satisfying the consumer needs there are a number of activities involved in the marketing process of an organization one of the important functions of a marketer is to collect and analyze market information to identify the needs of consumers a marketing firm arrives at various decisions for successful marketing after analysing the available opportunities and threats as well as strengths and weaknesses of an organization another important activity of a marketer is to develop appropriate marketing plans to achieve the marketing objectives of an organization these objectives may include increasing market presence dominate the market or increase share a complete marketing plan may cover important aspects including the plan for increasing production levels promotion of the products and other action programs to attain these objectives product designing and development is another important activity of a marketing firm the firm needs to decide on the product design as it helps in making the product attractive to the consumers moreover a good design can improve performance of a product and give it a competitive advantage in the market a marketing firm needs to decide on the standardization and grading of the goods and services of an organization standardization involves producing goods at predetermined specifications it ensures that product offering meets established quality and quantity it also helps in achieving uniformity and consistency in the output grading is classification of products into different groups on the basis of some important characteristics like quality size just to name a few it is particularly necessary for products which are not produced according to predetermined specifications for example agricultural products a marketer needs to take decision with respect to packaging and labeling of a product as they serve as a promotional tool for an organization Packaging refers to designing the package water products labeling refers to designing the label to be put on the package a label may be in a form of a simple tag or complex graphics branding is a very important decision area for a marketing firm brand name helps in building customers loyalty and in promoting its sale a marketer needs a brand name to distinguish a product of his firm with that of the competitors he needs to decide if each product should be given a separate brand name or the same brand name will be extended to all products of the company like Samsung washing machine television and refrigerator customer support is another important function of a marketing firm customer support includes after sales services handling customer complaints and adjustments procuring credit services maintenance services technical services and consumer information customer support services proved very effective in bringing repeat sales from the customers and developing brand loyalty for a product price of product is the amount of money a customer will have to pay to obtain a product a marketing firm needs to analyze the factors determining the price of a product properly and take several crucial decisions in this respect including setting the pricing objectives determining the pricing strategies determining the price and changing the prices promotion of products and services is a process of informing the customers about the firm's product its features and other characteristics promotion of products also persuades the customers to purchase these products the four important methods of promotion include advertising personal selling publicity and sales promotion a marketer has to take several crucial decisions in respect of promotion of the products and services such as deciding the promotion budget the promotion mix that is the combination of the promotional tools that will be used the promotion budget to name a few a marketing firm also needs to manage physical distribution of goods and services the firm needs to take two major decisions under this function decision regarding channels of distribution like wholesalers retailers to be used and physical movement of the product from where it is produced to a place where it is demanded under this function the important decision areas include managing levels of stock of goods storage and warehousing and transportation of goods from one place to the other factors such as nature and cost of the product location of the target market play an important role while deciding on mode of transportation and warehousing there should there be a delay in delivery in case of any contingencies as we have seen the main aim of an organization's marketing team is to develop satisfying relationships with customers that benefit both the customer and the organization these efforts lead marketing to serve an important role for the development of organizations customers and the society at the organizational level marketing is an important business function that is necessary in all types of organizations be it a for-profit or a not-for-profit one for the for-profit organization marketing is responsible for most tasks that bring revenue and profits to an organization for the not-for-profit organization marketing is responsible for attracting customers needed to support the not-for-profits mission like raising donations or supporting a cause moreover a marketing firm interacts with the public and what the public knows about an organization is determined by their interactions with marketers thus we can see that marketing plays a crucial role in the survival and growth of an organization at a broader level marketing offers significant benefits to consumers as well as society marketers develop products that satisfy needs of consumers and products that enhance society's quality of life create a competitive environment that helps lower product prices develop product distribution systems that offer access to products to a large number of customers and many geographic regions will demand for products that require organizations to expand their labor force offer techniques that have the ability to convey messages that change societal behavior in a positive way example anti-smoking advertising to summarize marketing is a very important aspect in business since it contributes greatly to the success of the organization production and distribution depends largely on marketing it is generally assumed that sales and marketing are basically the same these two concepts are different in many aspects which we have already covered organizations without a marketing mindset are at a disadvantage in today's business world those who are still centered around their products rather than their customers are doomed to fail knowing what your clients expectations are exceeding them and building a reputation based on that is the key to success you

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Keywords: marketing, warehousing, qyuki, want, branding, need, mix, marketer, product, selling, market, exchange, shopping, merchandising, production, concept, yt:stretch=16:9

Id: KtLphGqNaxk

Length: 14min 52sec (892 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 04 2012