Marketing

Marketing Process

The marketing process involves a series of steps that organizations undertake to promote and sell their products or services. It typically includes market research, identifying target audiences, creating marketing strategies, implementing campaigns, and evaluating their effectiveness. By following this process, businesses can better understand customer needs and preferences, and ultimately drive sales and customer satisfaction.

Written by Perlego with AI-assistance

7 Key excerpts on "Marketing Process"

Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
  • Marketing Strategy for Creative and Cultural Industries
    • Bonita M. Kolb(Author)
    • 2016(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    components , product, price, distribution, and promotion, to fulfill both the mission of the organization and the needs of the customer.
  • The process of writing a marketing plan will force the organization to answer difficult questions. An organization may have many ideas for future action, but as resources are limited, the plan will force the organization to make choices. Goals, objectives, and tactics that provide a roadmap of how to achieve these choices and how success can be measured will then be developed.

The relationship between strategic planning and marketing

New definitions for strategy and marketing
The world is much less static than in the past resulting in a new definition of strategy. Because consumers’ wants and needs constantly change as they access the continual stream of online information, the strategic planning process must be dynamic with constant revision as the plan is being implemented. As each action takes place, consumer feedback is assessed to see if changes must be made before the next step is taken.
Strategy old definition : “Create unique and sustainable value by differentiating goods and services.”
Strategy new definition : “Find unique, valuable, and sustainable ways of linking together a firm’s knowledge and skills with customers that will benefit from them.”
How consumers use products has also changed. In the past, a company would provide instructions on product use and expect them to be followed. Now the consumer decides how to use the product and then shares this knowledge online with others. As a result, the company must provide information that suggests how the product can be used to meet the consumer’s needs but must still understand that each customer is unique and may use the product differently.
  • Marketing Briefs
    eBook - ePub
    • Sally Dibb, Lyndon Simkin(Authors)
    • 2007(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    If the ‘right’ opportunities are pursued, customers are properly researched, the ‘right’ customers targeted with a marketing proposition designed to give a business an edge over its rivals, it is highly likely that customers will be satisfied, market share will rise in core target markets and profitability will support a viable future. Conversely, if a business develops a product or service which fails to reflect customer expectations and needs, is no better than competing offers and takes no account of evolving market conditions, it is unlikely that the future will be prosperous for such an organization. These sentiments are equally applicable to consumer or industrial markets, products or services.
    Definitions of marketing count for little if businesses do not develop a process, culture and set of operational procedures to actually practise marketing. The textbooks promote a process hinging on marketing analysis, marketing strategy, marketing mix tactics and internal programme controls, typified by Figure 1.1 . Recent research indicates that the majority of large UK businesses do now practise marketing and that when undertaking the more defined tasks of market opportunity appraisal, market segmentation/target marketing, or marketing planning, they do proceed through an analysis-strategy-programmes process as represented in Figure 1.1 .
    Figure 1.1 The Marketing Process
    Marketing is a process intended to identify market opportunities, satisfy customers today and in the future, create an edge over rivals, differentiate the product or service being marketed, while generating suitable financial rewards for the business. Marketing requires analysis, strategy formulation, tactical marketing mix programmes and operational controls to ensure their implementation. Marketing is one of the core disciplines of management.
    Business is widely deemed to have passed through various stages of evolution:
    1  Production Era: 1850s to 1920sMass production was brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Products were designed and developed without much thought for customer needs or competitive pressures. 2  Sales Era: 1920s to 1950sThe focus of business switched to personal selling and advertising. Customers were ‘persuaded’ to buy products.
  • Marketing Management
    eBook - ePub

    Marketing Management

    Text and Cases

    • Robert E Stevens, David L Loudon, Bruce Wrenn(Authors)
    • 2012(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    Chapter 1 The Marketing Management Process
    This chapter provides an overview of the marketing management process. It focuses on the tasks marketers must perform to manage the marketing activities of their organizations and the environment of marketing decisions. First, we will review the definition of marketing, the marketing concept, and the focus of effective marketing before turning our attention to these tasks.
    What is Marketing?
    The American Marketing Association defines marketing as follows: “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 goals.”1 Several key ideas are expressed in this definition. First, marketing is a managerial function involving both planning and execution. Thus marketing is not a group of unrelated activities but tasks that are planned and executed to attain identifiable objectives. Second, marketing involves the management of specific elements or functions: product, pricing, promotion, and distribution. These functions constitute the work or substance of what marketing is all about. To be involved in marketing means being involved in the planning, execution, and/or control of these activities. Third, marketing is goal oriented. Its aim is to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. Marketing’s concern is with customers and meeting a need in the marketplace. However, its concern is not just with any customers or all customers but those preselected by management as the market segment(s) on which the company will concentrate. Thus, specific customers with their specific needs become the focal point of an organization’s marketing activities.
    The Marketing Concept
    The marketing concept is a business orientation that focuses on satisfying customers’ needs at acceptable levels of revenues and costs. In for-profit organizations, acceptable levels of revenues and costs are defined in terms of a target return on investment; in not-for-profit organizations, the focus is on achieving a balance between revenues and costs.
  • Marketing Strategy for the Creative and Cultural Industries
    • Bonita Kolb(Author)
    • 2020(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    Strategic planning is inherently uncertain and dynamic as customers and resources are constantly changing. The best an organization can do is to evaluate the possibilities for future consumer needs and how it might provide customers with products that meet these needs. Social media has now provided new channels for obtaining this information (Breakenridge 2018). Analyzing consumer comments on social media can help the organization better understand consumer desires. Social media also allows the organization to more easily keep abreast of competitor strategies so that they can counter any threats to sells of their own products. Consumer feedback and competitor changes must be incorporated into the organization’s marketing strategy.
    Marketing strategy involves more than just knowing the components of product, price, distribution, and promotion; it also involves understanding a process of planning the use of resources. No strategy can be accomplished without a plan on how to use the resources of time, people, and money. The marketing plan starts with writing the mission, vision, and values of the organization. The next step is to analyze the organization’s internal resources such as people, money, and culture. Once this is done, the external environment is scanned to analyze how the economic, socio-cultural, technological, and demographic forces outside of the organization’s control will affect the ability to reach its strategic goals.

    Mission, vision, and values—telling everyone who you are and what you believe

    Marketing is a strategic process that starts with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. People who do not understand business believe that people in a company will do anything to make money. First, this is untrue because there are legal protections for the consumer. Second, people are too knowledgeable to purchase a product that does not provide the benefits they desire, and if they make a mistake and do so, they will go online to warn everyone else to not purchase the product. Finally, most people have ethical values that they incorporate into all aspects of their daily lives, including their businesses.
  • The Essential Management Toolbox
    eBook - ePub

    The Essential Management Toolbox

    Tools, Models and Notes for Managers and Consultants

    • Simon Burtonshaw-Gunn(Author)
    • 2009(Publication Date)
    • Wiley
      (Publisher)
    CHAPTER 7
    MARKETING MANAGEMENT
    Within this chapter are a number of marketing related models, although at the strategic level there is a natural proximity between marketing, business planning and organizational strategy development as successful marketing management leads to sales of goods or services necessary to sustain the business through income generation.
    Marketing is not just about the final action of sales - it is far more than this and has implications across the whole organization. In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing management as ‘the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably’. A similar definition comes from the American Marketing Association, which proposes this to be ‘the process of planning and executing the concept, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives’. A number of parts from the American definition can be seen in the ‘marketing mix model’ (the 4Ps) while the UK definition also shows some linkage to market research and consumer requirements management.
    A number of models in this chapter show a relationship between the organization and that of its current or potential customers in terms of demand, customer influence and approaches to promotion. The most famous of these is Ansoff’s product-market matrix which may be supported by other models to form a basis for business development. Linked also to the marketing of a product or service is its position on the product life cycle, which not only prompts the organization to respond with a strategy matched to its life cycle position but also relates this to the future demand from its customers and the four categories that these are likely to follow.
    An extension of the 4Ps model is matching the marketing mix to meet customer needs. Within this chapter are a range of models to examine product and marketing activities seen in the widely known and used product performance matrix of the Boston Consulting Group. In addition to this is the product life cycle and how this can be used to understand both the external market and the effects on the internal business in terms of constraints and opportunities. The marketing function should not be an isolated internal management activity as it draws a heavy reliance on an understanding of the market needs from customer analysis; from an understanding of the market in terms of growth potential, sustainment and attractiveness and from marketing intelligence. These factors provide reliable information on which to base market decisions which are then reflected in the product design and development, and in the strategic level business planning task.
  • Marketing Strategy
    eBook - ePub

    Marketing Strategy

    Overcome Common Pitfalls and Create Effective Marketing

    • Jenna Tiffany(Author)
    • 2021(Publication Date)
    • Kogan Page
      (Publisher)
    Chapter 1 , everyone in the organization must be moving in the same direction and fulfilling the organization’s vision. Your marketing plan will improve cross-team communication, and make sure that everyone knows what’s required of them to achieve the brand’s goals.
    The detail of the activities required to implement the plan such as budget, timescales and resources are included in Chapter 7 . The measurement for each activity is covered in Chapters 8 and 9 . Because, once the plan is defined, it doesn’t stop there. It’s an ongoing process.
    Let’s start by planning and determining how we are going to implement your strategy to achieve the objectives you defined in Chapter 3 .
    Table 5.1 The marketing mix
    Skip table
    1
    P
    PRODUCT
    Design, technology, usefulness, convenience, value, quality, packaging, branding, accessories, warranties
    2
    P
    PLACE
    Retail, wholesale, mail order, internet, direct sales, peer-to-peer, multi-channel
    3
    P
    PRICE
    Strategies: skimming, penetration, psychological, cost-plus, loss-leader
    4
    P
    PROMOTION
    Special offers, advertising, endorsements, user trials, direct mailing, leaflets/posters, free gifts, competitions, joint ventures
    5
    P
    PEOPLE
    Employees, management, culture, customer service
    6
    P
    PROCESS
    Especially relevant to service industries. How are services consumed?
    7
    P
    PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
    Smart, run-down, interface, comfort, facilities

    The marketing mix and why it’s still valid

    An excellent model to use to ensure that your marketing strategy is equally weighted and not overly focused on one area is the marketing mix – otherwise known as the 4Ps or the 7Ps (Table 5.1 ).
    If you remember from Chapter 4 , the 4Ps are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. These were introduced by E Jerome McCarthy in 1960 (Costantinides, 2006).
    As the services industry grew (explored in the history of marketing in Chapter 1 ), the marketing mix was extended to include three more Ps – People, Process and Physical Evidence.
    The marketing mix is invaluable. It’s a method that has existed for more than 60 years and it’s my go-to approach when creating a marketing plan to implement a marketing strategy. Why? Because the 7Ps ensures that all of the Ps are considered. As a result, your marketing efforts are equally weighted across all of the 7Ps, without all of the focus on product and price.
  • Fundamentals of Marketing
    • Marilyn Stone(Author)
    • 2007(Publication Date)
    • Routledge
      (Publisher)
    The corporate marketing plan will be a subset of the main plan focusing on providing the long-term direction of the organization regarding the markets and needs that will be served and will set goals for the SBUs. Managers within each SBU will devise more specific marketing objectives and programmes in the light of this plan. A schematic map of the planning process is shown in Figure 2.6 Table 2.2 Marketing strategy process: problem-solving process Figure 2.6 The marketing planning process Figure 2.7 SWOT: creating a fit between organization and environment MARKETING AUDIT: EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ANALYSES The marketing audit involves a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the business marketing environment. Why begin with the environment? If a systems approach is used as a starting point, it is possible to view the organization as an organism which must adapt to changing environmental conditions or die. Organizations are engaged in a battle for survival, which has a dual imperative to meet the needs of customers (Hooley and Lynch, 1985: Kohli and Jaworski 1990: 6; Narver and Slater 1990) and to fend off the competition. The logic is simple. How otherwise could a firm know where it wants to be and compute how it wants to get there if it does not know where it is now and how it got there? Taking the perspective of the organization, if it is to survive in the long run, managers must continually scan the environment to obtain early warning of opportunities that can be taken advantage of, as well as of potential threats to survival. The process of matching is summed up in the simple acronym Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. Managers seek to identify the most relevant opportunities and threats that are present in the external environment and to match these with perceived internal strengths and weaknesses