Marketing Concepts Overview

Marketing is a social process where individuals and groups obtain needs and wants by creating and exchanging products and value. It encompasses all activities to place a product or service with potential customers.

7 Functions of Marketing

Product/Service Management: Involves developing, designing, and managing products or services to meet consumer needs. Activities include researching preferences and improving offerings.
Pricing: Determining the value exchanged for products, balancing profitability and customer satisfaction. This includes analyzing market conditions and setting competitive price points.
Promotion: Communicating with customers to inform, persuade, and remind them about products. Activities range from advertising and sales promotions to public relations and direct marketing.
Distribution (Place): Ensuring products are available to customers at the right place and time. This involves choosing channels and ensuring efficient delivery.
Market Research (Information Management): Gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about the market, competition, and consumer behavior. Activities include surveys and monitoring trends.
Selling: Direct interaction with customers to influence purchase decisions. This involves identifying targets, managing relationships, and providing after-sales support.
Financing: Securing funds for marketing activities and managing sales-related financial transactions. This includes budgeting and offering credit options.

The Marketing Mix (4 Ps)

The marketing mix is a foundational framework of actions a company uses to promote and sell products, traditionally summarized by Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Product: The goods or services offered to meet consumer needs. Key considerations include design, features, quality, branding, and packaging.
Price: The amount customers pay to acquire the product. This involves pricing strategy, production costs, competitor pricing, and perceived value.
Place: Distribution channels and locations where the product is available. Considerations include channel selection, market coverage, logistics, and specific locations.
Promotion: Communication strategies to inform, persuade, and remind customers. This covers advertising, sales promotions, public relations, and digital marketing.

Marketing Environment

The marketing environment refers to forces affecting marketing management's ability to develop and maintain customer transactions, comprising microenvironment and macroenvironment components.

Microenvironment Forces

Factors close to the company that directly affect its ability to serve customers.

Company: Marketing managers must work harmoniously with all internal departments (e.g., finance, R&D) to provide customer value.
Suppliers: Individuals or firms providing resources for production; supply issues can damage sales and goodwill.
Marketing Intermediaries: Firms that help promote, sell, and distribute goods, including resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services agencies, and financial intermediaries.
Customers: Various types of markets including consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
Competitors: Companies must provide greater customer value and satisfaction than rivals by positioning their offerings effectively.
The Public: Any group with an actual or potential interest in or impact on an organization's objectives, such as financial, media, government, citizen-action, local, general, and internal publics.

Macroenvironment Forces

Largely uncontrollable external factors influencing the company.

Demographic Environment: Factors like population size, location, age, and income level used for market segmentation.
Economic Environment: Factors affecting consumer purchasing power and spending patterns, including income levels and distribution.
Natural Environment: Natural resources needed as inputs or affected by marketing activities, including raw material shortages and pollution.
Technological Environment: The most dramatic force, creating new products and opportunities, with ongoing concerns about product safety.
Political Environment: Laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit organizations, including legislation and ethical considerations.
Cultural Environment: Institutions and forces affecting a society’s basic values, perceptions, and behaviors.

Channels of Distribution

Distribution focuses on getting products/services to the right people at the right time, considering profit and effectiveness, often through intermediaries.

Channel Flows: Products can move from Manufacturer to Wholesalers, Retailers, Agents, or directly to Customers in various combinations.
Distribution Intermediaries:
- Manufacturer: Firms producing products in large quantities.
- Wholesalers: Organizations purchasing from suppliers and selling to other resellers.
- Retailers: Organizations selling products directly to final consumers.
- Customer: Individuals who buy and use the product.

Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing involves using online channels and strategies to promote products and services.

Content marketing
Online retail sites
Mobile applications
Social Media channels
Email marketing
Eye-catching words
User-friendly website

Chapter 4: Marketing Concepts - Brief Summary

Chapter 4: Marketing Concepts - Brief Summary