What is Marketing?

Learning Objectives: Understanding the basic concept of Marketing

A stall place in Sunday market and a stall keeper standing and telling the audience about the product and discount offers. Is he doing a Marketing Job?

Your mobile phone is ringing, when you receive a call and someone tells you about a service or a product, is he/she doing Marketing Job?

If someone’s stand alongside the road and offers you Mangoes on a specific price which are listed on mango boxes, is he/she doing Marketing Job?

If your answer is yes, then you are absolutely RIGHT. 

Traditionally, we have been associating marketing with sales, but marketing includes advertising, development, promotion, retail as well as a lot of other activities that connect the company with the customers.

Marketing is defined as the process of creating value by different authors. In simple words, marketing is all about providing solutions to the problems of the customers and society.

Marketing is the social process by which individuals and organizations obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging value with others.

Kotler and Armstrong

Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)

PROCESS OF MARKETING:

·        Analyzing & Strategy

·        Creating

·        Communicating

·        Delivering

·        Exchanging

·        Offering

Let’s understand the marketing process.

A company firstly analyzes the need of customer and market demand using different strategies like

5C Analysis (Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators and Climate) it is an internal Analysis.

PEST Analysis (political, economic, social and technological) it is an external analysis.

SWOT Analysis to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats to gather information and data.

After understanding the customer requirement with the help of different forms of data the company, Creating process start and they create a product according to the needs.

Now it’s time to build a communication with the market or customers especially for the target audience who needs the product, successful communication will become your sell and it’s time to deliver the product.

The product will be delivered by exchanging the value (product in return of money OR product in return of product) between customer and the product company.

To earn money is not only the purpose of Business. You can earn money by the selling of product but is the customer having your product happy? 

If the answer is YES, the customer gives you a STAR rating and tells other customers about your service or product and become your ambassador.  

EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

The concept of Marketing has changed throughout the scope of history. Each era of Marketing has built up from its predecessor. Viewing how Marketing developed we realise what are the core concepts that underpin it today. 

Marketing has gone through 7 different eras in time – Trade, Production, Sales, Marketing Department, Marketing Company, Relationship and Social Media Eras. 

With time, activities such as exploring new product avenues, optimizing machine production, making a substantial sales effort, differentiating your product, being customer-centric, creating long-lasting relationships and creating digital communities all have involved in the broader meaning of Marketing.