BASICS OF MARKETING

 Marketing, we all have heard a lot this term. So what is marketing? Who is a marketer? Also, what is a market? First let us understand the market.  A “Market” is defined as any place where an actual or potential buyer and seller interact with each other and involves in the activities of purchase or sale of a product or service.

Then, who is a marketer? A marketer is someone who seeks a response, attention, purchase from another party and party is called the “prospect”. This indicates that everyone markets something at some point in time (though not in the commercial sense of the term). Marketers are the persons who create demand for their offerings.

Now the question is what are the things which can be marketed? So the entities which can be marketed are classified into 9 categories. They are-

(1)    Goods

(2)    Services

(3)    Experiences

(4)    Events

(5)    Places

(6)    Persons

(7)    Properties

(8)    Ideas

(9)    Information

Now let us understand the term “marketing” and its concepts. Marketing means creating demand. Marketing is the process which links people’s needs, want and demands with those capable of fulfilling the same for mutual benefit and satisfaction. People have different needs, wants and desires of products and services. Marketing is process to fulfill those desires by creating value for customers at the same time making profit for the producer or company who is the manufacturer of that particular product. Marketing is very vast and involves various activities. Some people misunderstand marketing and consider it as sales only. But in reality marketing is very broad and sales are just a part of marketing. Marketing activities involve activities like.

(1)    Sales

(2)    Promotion

(3)    Branding

(4)    Advertising

(5)    Research and Development

(6)    Visual Merchandising

Marketing is mainly concerned with market or customer demand. Those demands are categorised in different states.

      (1)   Regular demand- Products like toothpaste, soap, shampoo, salt etc

      (2)    Irregular demand- e.g.  Holidays, destination, umbrella, raincoat.

      (3)    Full demand- under this highly perishable goods are covered which are highly demanded.  We            should try to maintain it by ensuring quality, keep offering fresh to prevent boredom.

      (4)    Overfull demand- Product demand is greater than its supply.

      (5)    Negative demand- under this those products come which are generally disliked by the                        customers but they are ready to pay for the product.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

Many important terms are related to the concepts of marketing and are introduced in the definition. Those are classified as

(1)   Needs, wants and demands

(2)   Target markets, Positioning and Segmentation

(3)   Offering and Brands

(4)   Value and satisfaction

(5)   Marketing Channels

(6)   Supply chain

(7)   Competition

(8)   Marketing Environment

NEEDS, WANTS AND DEMANDS -

Needs are basic human requirements such as food, clothing and shelter. Beside this human have several other needs like education, recreation, entertainment etc. Needs becomes wants when they are directed towards specific products. Ultimately, wants get converted into demands when the customer has ability to pay and buy the product.

TARGET MARKETS, POSITIONING AND SEGMENTATION - After the production of a particular good the next task is to decide which market the product has to address whether consumer market, business to business, non-profit organization, government or global. However customers taste differ with target market having different needs and wants. This demands market to be divided into segments. Segmentation is done by identifying different group of customers with similar needs and wants using identifiers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral differences among groups of buyers. After doing all the above activities the next and most important step is positioning the market to seek maximum number of customers like at a central location.

OFFERING AND BRANDS- Marketers satisfy customer nee by putting forth a set of benefit to satisfy a need called value proposition. The value of an offered product is the degree to which the product satisfies the need of a customer.

VALUE AND SATISFACTION- Value is the degree of satisfaction of needs derived from the product. Many products can satisfy a customer need but customer’s buying choice follows only on the perception on the product’s value. Alternatively, satisfaction refers to the fulfillment of need of a customer. 

MARKETING CHANNELS- Marketing channels are the path or set of processes or activities necessary to transfer the ownership of the produced goods from the producer to the end customer. It consists of all marketing activities necessary for marketing management.

SUPPLY CHAIN- A system of organization which involves system, information, activities or process required to move a product or service from its supplier to the customer. It is process through which raw materials get transformed into finished product.

COMPETITION- Competition is the most important part of any business. Competition in a market occurs when two or more parties strive for a common goal and which is desired individual and achieved without cooperation.

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT - Market is forced by some factors which affect a firm’s ability to form and make a successful relationship with their customers called marketing environment. In these two types of forces works i.e. internal force and external force. Marketing environment is a mix between these two forces.