What Marketing Is

What is Marketing 

Here we are going to discuss the following topics relating to marketing management.

• Marketing, markets and marketing strategies 
• Segmentation 
• Segmentation, targeting, and positioning ( STP ) 
• The marketing mix 
• Managing products and brands 
• Pricing strategies 
• Place: distribution channel management & Promotion strategies 

Marketing , markets and marketing strategies 

Companies sell their products or services in markets they have chosen for targeting. To sell their products and persuade customers to buy them, companies' s must undertake marketing activities.

Marketing strategies are plans developed by companies for selecting target markets and marketing their products or services to potential customers in the target market. 

Marketing creates value by creating interest in a product or service and persuading customers in the target market to buy it. 

Marketing 

It may be tempting to think of marketing as a combination of advertising, sales promotions, and selling, but it covers a wider range of activities. There have been many different definitions of marketing. 

• ( a ) The American Marketing Association ( AMA ) Board of Directors, which now reviews its definition of marketing every five years , has defined marketing most recently as : ' the activity , set of institutions , and processes for creating communicating , delivering , and exchanging offerings that have value for customers , clients , partners , and society at large ' ( 2012 )

• ( b ) A previous definition of marketing by the AMA was that marketing is: ' the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives ' ( 1985

• ( c ) Philip Kotler, a leading writer on marketing management, has defined marketing as:' the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best, and its designs and promotes the appropriate products and services'.

Marketing: the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. 

Marketing strategies are strategies/plans for marketing a product or service to a target market.

Markets 

Companies undertake marketing in selected markets. So what is a market? The definition of a market is that it is a group of consumers or organizations:

• That is interested in a product ( or service ) 
• That has the resources to buy a product or service. 
• That is permitted by law or regulation to buy a product ( or service ) 

Using this definition, we can make a distinction between the following markets : 

Potential market  

The total of the consumers or organizations that might be interested in buying the product (or service) 

Available market

The total of the consumers or organizations in the potential market who have the resources to buy the product. 

Qualified available market

The total of the consumers or organizations in the available market who are permitted by law to buy the product, or who are not prohibited by law from buying it.  

Target market 

The part of the market to which the business organization has decided to sell its products ( to serve )

Penetrated market

The part of the target market that the organization has succeeded in selling its products  

There are other ways of classifying markets.

Geographical markets 

Markets may be defined or classified according to the geographic area they cover: global market, regional market, national market, local market. 

Product markets 

Markets may be defined by the type of product that is sold in them, such as a market for oil, the energy market, a stock market, and so on. Within the product market, there are different variations of the product. Even in the market for something basic such as bottled water, there is still water, sparkling water, flavored water, water for water dispenser machines, and water bottles of differing sizes.

Customer markets

Markets may be defined by the intended customers, such as a consumer market, an industrial market, a retail market, and so on.  

In marketing, a market is often defined in terms of its buyers or potential buyers. 

• Consumer markets ( for example, markets for food, cookers, television sets, clothing ) 
• Industrial markets ( also known as a business - to - business, for example, selling machines to a factory ) 
• Government markets ( markets for products that governments purchase, such as armaments and, where there is state-run medical services and schools, medical equipment, medicines, and school equipment )
• Reseller markets ( markets, where the sellers are manufacturers of goods and the buyers, are retailers or other organizations that resell the goods they buy, such as wholesalers ) 
• Export markets ( selling goods to customers in other countries ) 

Consumer goods markets 

Consumer goods are goods that can be used by consumers without the need for any further commercial processing. Consumer goods may be further classified according to the method by which they are purchased : 

• Convenience goods. Goods that consumers buy from a convenient location, such as a local store or supermarket. These are goods that are often purchased regularly and are low - priced. They usually have close substitutes, which may be sold under different brand names. 

• Shopping goods. Goods that consumers may buy after having looked at different products from different manufacturers or retailers before deciding which product to buy. They usually have a higher unit value than convenience goods and are bought less frequently, often from a specialist retailer,  

• Specialty goods. Goods where the consumer wants to buy a specific product because of its unique features. These are generally high - priced goods that are available only from a limited number of sellers. Consumers will take time and trouble to find somewhere they can buy the product. 

Industrial markets or business - to - business ( B2B ) markets 

In industrial markets, the customer is another firm, such as for the sale of machine tools or consultancy advice. In an industrial market, more than a consumer market, customers are motivated by financial and commercial considerations such as :

• Product quality 
• Price 
• Credit terms 
• Delivery dates 
• After-sales service 
.

Industrial goods are purchased by companies in the middle of a supply chain. The purchased goods are used to make other industrial goods or to make consumer goods. The demand for industrial goods depends on the demand for consumer goods that are sold at the end of the supply chain.

Marketing strategies and value creation 

Marketing activities by a company create value by : 

Making potential customers in a target market aware of the company ' s product ( or products or brand name ) and getting them interested in it 

Making interested customers want to buy the product 
Getting them to buy it and depending on the nature of the product, getting them to buy the product repeatedly), many times over 

Value is created in marketing by selling more products and through a combination of sales volume and sales price. 

Competitive advantage may be created by success in taking target customer ' s want to buy the company ' s products rather than the products of a competitor. 

Marketing strategies are concerned with: 
Selecting target markets 
Deciding on the appropriate methods for marketing to the selected target market 

Companies may select several different target markets. However, there is no single standard product that is sold to a universal global audience. 
Every market is a variation of a geographical market, product markets, and customer markets.

We will discuss the following topics in the coming post series. Got touch with us. 

• Segmentation 
• Segmentation, targeting, and positioning ( STP ) 
• The marketing mix 
• Managing products and brands 
• Pricing strategies 
• Place: distribution channel management & Promotion strategies 

To be continued...