My Marketing Assistant

What is Marketing?

Dr. Philip Kotler, the Godfather of Marketing in my eyes, says that:

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

There are many definitions of marketing and, generally speaking, the better ones are more focused on customer need and customer satisfaction.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the UK’s leading international body for marketing and business development, says that marketing is:

".... the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably"

Here at MY Marketing Assistant, we believe that marketing is simply about meeting the needs and wants of customers. Marketing is about understanding customers and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand.

Once a business has mastered this, then communicating to current customers and prospects form a fundamental part the Marketing Plan.

When developing a marketing strategy you will have the task to create the consumer awareness of the products or services you provide through various marketing techniques. And we can help you brush up your knowledge of these techniques and help you create maximum awareness of your products or services.

Marketing is NOT simply about promotion – Learn The Four P’s of Marketing

Many people tend to think that marketing is the promotion of products, especially advertising. However, in professional usage the term has a much wider meaning which recognises that marketing is completely customer-centred.

Below is the famous 4 P’s of Marketing:

Product:

The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants.

When your business introducers a new product into a market, or a service, it is imperative that you ask yourself the following questions:

• Who exactly is your product or service aimed at?
• What will my customers benefit from purchasing my product or service?
• How will I position the product or service in the market?
• How does my product or service differentiate against my competitors?

What you need to remember is that providing a product or service will not simply generate business. Your mentality needs to be that you are providing benefits to the changing needs and demands of your customer. Your product must be focussed on this.

Pricing:

This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including any promotional discounts etc.

You business may adopt a number of pricing strategies and these are generally based on what objectives your company has set itself to achieve. Below are some examples of universally known pricing strategies:

Penetration pricing: This is when an organisation sets a low price to increase sales and market share. An example of this can be seen when Dell Computers lower the cost of their locations (by locating their shop-front online) and with the decrease in overheads were able to decrease the cost of their laptops and PCs considerably.

Skimming pricing: This is when an organisation sets an initial high price and then slowly lowers the price to make the product available to a wider market. The objective is to skim profits of the market layer by layer. This is very common when demand of the product or service is high initially and an example of this is usually seen when new computer consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii, are launched into the market.

Competition pricing: This is when an organisation sets their price in comparison with their competitors. The concept is simple and is widely used by many organisations in the world.

Product Line Pricing: This is when an organisation prices different products or services within the same product range at different price points. An example of this would be Apple selling their range of iPods at differing prices. Generally, the greater the features and the benefit obtained (in this case, higher capacity to store music) the greater the customer will pay. This form of price discrimination not only assists the company in maximising turnover and profits, but also offers the customer a greater choice of product.

Bundle Pricing: This is when an organisation bundles a group of products at a reduced price, for example when a supermarket offers a six-pack of their baked beans at an overall reduced price rather than expecting a customer to pay for six tins individually.

Psychological pricing: This is when an organisation prices their product or service based on psychology of the numbers, for example pricing a product at 99p instead of &1.00 or, on a higher scale, &9,995.00 instead of &10,000.00.

Premium pricing: This is when an organisation, usually selling something particularly exclusive, heighten their pricing. An example of this would be Porsche or any designer labels.

Optional pricing: This is when an organisation sells optional extras to their product and services to increase their turnover. An example of this would be when an organisation sells shoes but also offer a shoe buffers, protection spray, in-soles etc as optional extras.

Promotion:

This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.

A successful product or service means nothing unless the benefits are communicated to the potential customers. This is when a An organisations promotional strategy can consist of:

Advertising
Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. This could be print advertising, television, in-store displays, web advertising, banner advertising and email advertising.

Personal selling

This is a process of helping and persuading one or more prospects to purchase a good or service or to act on any idea through the use of an oral presentation. This could be in various sales presentations, sales meetings, sales training and telemarketing can be face-to-face or via telephone. Much of face-to-face personal selling may happen at a trade event or business seminar.

Direct marketing

Direct marketing enables you to communicate with your customers in a more personalised way than advertising, such as greeting them with a letter or telephoning them directly. Telemarketing, direct mail, email newsletters and collateral mailers are all examples of direct-marketing techniques. Successful direct marketing depends on whether you can acquire and successfully maintain a database of your target market. Some marketers find this alone justifies the cost of advertising in a national consumer or trade publication.

Sales promotion

This is the incentives to sell the product or service in the short term. This could be a monetary promotion, loyalty awards, point-of-sale displays or anything that attracts attention. Sales promotions are usually short-term effects and not really effective at building brand or consumers’ long term preferences to a company.

Public relations

Non-paid non-personal stimulation of demand for a product or service by planting significant news bout it or a favourable presentation of it in the media, usually the press. Businesses usually pay for their corporate affairs to be planted into the media, however many marketers believe that genuine PR is generated naturally, usually when a company does a good deed or when it experiences something which journalists find extremely newsworthy. PR usually comprises of newspaper and magazine articles, TV and radio presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue advertising, and seminars.

Place:

Refers to the channel by which a product or services is sold (e.g. online or retail), which geographic region or industry, to which socio-economic group etc.

Distribution Strategies

Depending on the type of product being distributed there are three common distribution strategies available:

1. Intensive distribution: Used commonly to distribute low priced or impulse purchase products eg chocolates, soft drinks.

2. Exclusive distribution: Involves limiting distribution to a single outlet. The product is usually highly priced, and requires the intermediary to place much detail in its sell. An example of would be the sale of vehicles through exclusive dealers.

3. Selective Distribution: A small number of retail outlets are chosen to distribute the product. Selective distribution is common with products such as computers, televisions household appliances, where consumers are willing to shop around and where manufacturers want a large geographical spread.

If a manufacturer decides to adopt an exclusive or selective strategy they should select a intermediary which has experience of handling similar products, credible and is known by the target audience.

Conclusion

Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing your organisation to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.

Keep reading the ever-growing selection of MY Marketing Assistant articles to ensure that our marketing expertise, becomes your marketing expertise.