Marketing

Marketing includes all the businessactivities involved in getting goods from the producer to the consumer. The producer is responsible for the design and manufacture of goods. Early marketing techniques followed production and were responsible only for moving goods from the manufacturer to the point of final sale. Now, however, marketing is much more pervasive. In large corporations the marketing functions precede the manufacture of a product. They involve market research and product development, design, and testing.

Marketing concentrates primarily on the buyers, or consumers, determining their needs and desires, educating them with regard to the availability of products and to important product features, developing strategies to persuade them to buy, and, finally, enhancing their satisfaction with a purchase. Marketing management includes planning, organizing, directing, and controlling decision making regarding product lines, pricing, promotion, and servicing. In most of these areas marketing has complete control; in others, as in product-line development, its function is primarily advisory. In addition, the marketing department of a business firm is responsible for the physical distribution of the products, determining the channels of distribution that will be used and supervising the profitable flow of goods from the factory or warehouse.

 

Consumer marketing should be based on understanding consumer values, wants and needs. The fundamental principles for a marketer are:

¾ understand the customer (through research)

¾ understand the grouping (to which the customer or his business belongs)

¾ create a choice (a difference in price, concept or value that will distinguish your product)

¾ communicate that choice (through promotion and advertising)

 

Marketing is integral to the success of a business, large or small, with its primary focus on quality, consumer value and customer satisfaction. A strategy commonly utilised is the "Marketing Mix". This tool is made up of four variables known as the "Four P's" of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. The marketing mix blends these variables together to produce the results it wants to achieve in its specific target market.

The following describes the four P's of marketing:

Product

Products are the goods and services that a business provides for sale to the specific target market. When developing a product it is necessary to consider quality, design, features, packaging, customer service and any subsequent after-sales service.

Place

Place includes distribution, location and methods of getting the product to the customer. This includes the location of the business, sales outlets, distributors, logistics and the potential use of the internet to sell products directly to consumers.

Price

Price concerns the amount of money that customers must pay in order to purchase your products. There are a number of considerations in relation to price including price setting, discounting, credit and cash purchases as well as credit collection.