Mkt 100 principles of marketing

What is Marketing? Does it mean promoting goods or services? Or does it mean advertising…or branding? Would you say marketing is the same as selling? Well… Marketing is more than just that… Much more! Marketing is the process of creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing goods, services, and ideas to facilitate satisfying exchange relationships with customers, and to develop and maintain favorable relationships with stakeholders in a dynamic environment. In simple terms, marketing is the process of determining the needs and wants of consumers, and creating products or services that satisfy those needs and wants. It includes all activities necessary to move a product from the producer to the consumer. Marketing focuses on making the product available in the right place, at the right time, and at a price acceptable to the buyers. On a broader level, a typical marketing process goes through the following stages: • Conduct market research • Identify target market(s) • Develop a marketing mix for each target market The first stage in a marketing process is to conduct market research to identify needs and wants that are not being adequately satisfied. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze market needs, market wants, market size, and competition. It includes detailed analysis of the current market situation and also explores the effects of competitive, economic, political, legal and regulatory, technological, and sociocultural factors on the marketing plan. The market research process follows these steps: • Identify the research problem • Designing the research study • Collecting data • Analyzing research findings • Report the results The next stage in a marketing process is identifying one or more target markets that have needs that firm may be able to satisfy. A target market is a specific group of customers with similar needs and wants. Within the target market, a firm can meet the needs of customers through five key marketing activities – people, product, pricing, distributions, and promotion. These are referred to as 'marketing mix'. A primary goal of any organization is to create and maintain the right mix of these elements to satisfy customer needs. People are the individuals responsible for carrying out the activities of the marketing strategy. Product is what goods or services are offered to customers. Price is the value of the exchange between the customer and producer. Distribution is how the product is delivered to the customer. And promotion is how the producer communicates the value of its products. Customer needs and wants are the focal point of all the products/services that organizations develop, price, distribute, and promote. Let's take a look at an example to learn how Eat Healthy, a health snack producing company, combines all five elements of the marketing mix to develop its marketing strategy. Eat Healthy strives to be a company making tasty yet healthy snack items in an increasingly sustainable way. To achieve this, the company identifies its target market comprising a vast range of consumers. However, to enter the market it targets one of the more specific types, the health conscious women's market. The product is a healthy yet tasty energy bar made from nourishing ingredients. The pricing strategy is that of price skimming, wherein the product is initially set at high prices to "skim" profits by selling to the consumers most willing to pay a high price. The distribution channel will be indirect, which typically involves wholesalers and retailers. Another distribution strategy is to introduce the product into vending machines to make the product more available to people 'on the go'. The target consumer's awareness of the product will be enhanced by advertising the product on a number of media by showing a famous personality promoting health and fitness by using the product. The company recruits and trains individuals to properly implement the marketing strategy It's important to understand consumers' buying behavior and their buying decision process for companies to properly market its product. Marketing directly affects the level of sales for a product and determines the level of profitability. WEEK 1 Principles of Marketing The Marketing Concept The Marketing concept is based on placing the customer at the center of the business. Although this might seem like the natural thing to do, this was not always true. The marketing concept, as we understand it today, is the result of an evolution in the approach to marketing that began with a production orientation. Production Orientation The Industrial Revolution led to the mass production of goods resulting in a proliferation of products in the second half of the 19th century. The focus of businesses during this period was to produce goods efficiently and deliver them to the market. There was no focus on individual customers. Sales Orientation In the early 1920s, the strong demand for products plummeted and companies had to focus more on selling their products. Many promotional offers were placed on products and many companies adopted aggressive sales techniques like door-to-door selling. Sales was given utmost importance during this period and this came to be known as sales orientation. Market Orientation In the early 1950s, businesses started realizing the importance of producing goods that meet the needs of customers. Research was conducted to survey the market.