OVERVIEW OF MARKETING

5.1 UNDERSTAND MARKETING

-The product concept is when the main focus of the company is on the products being.

-Like improving it, adding features to it, making the product superior each time.

-Assuming that customers will buy the products because they have greater quality.

-The selling concept is when the company will do a lot of promotions to make their products saleable.

5.1.1 DEFINE MARKETING-Marketing is the process of performing

market research, selling products and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising to further enhance sales.

- It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.

- It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.

5.1.2 EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF MARKETING MIX

A ) PRODUCT-The marketing mix concept has its roots in the

1950s U.S. corporate marketing world, and the practice of marketing has obviously evolved tremendously since this term was invented.

-One of the changes is that there are a lot more services available nowadays, such as those available online.

- Either way, product here refers to products or services. The product you offer needs to be able to meet a specific, existing market demand

B ) PRICE-The price you set for your offering plays a large

role in its marketability.-Pricing for offerings that are more commonly

available in the market is more elastic, meaning that unit sales will go up or down more responsively in response to price changes.

-By contrast, those products that have a generally more limited availability in the market (but with strong demand) are more inelastic, meaning that price changes will not affect unit sales very much.

-The price elasticity of your offering can be determined through various market testing techniques.

C ) PROMOTION-Promotion is concerned with any vehicle you

employ for getting people to know more about your offering.

-Advertising, public relations, point-of-sale displays, and word-of-mouth promotion are all traditional ways for promotion.

-Promotion can be seen as a way of closing the information gap between would-be sellers and would-be buyers.

-Your choice of a promotional strategy will be dependent upon your budget, the type of offering you are selling, and availability of said promotional vehicle.

D ) PLACE

-This term really refers to any way that the customer can obtain a product.

-Provision of a product can occur via any number of distribution channels, such as in a retail store, through the mail, via downloadable files, on a cruise ship, in a hair salon, etc.

- The ease and options through which you can make your product available to your customers will have an effect on your sales volume.

5.2 DETERMINE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

-It is very important for any business to scan and analyze their marketing environment by continuously monitoring what is going on in the marketing environment.

- Marketing decision makers must collect, analyze and diagnose information about the environment.

5.2.1 DETERMINE THE COMPANY’S MICROENVIRONMENT

A ) THE COMPANY

- Secretary is responsible for legal and administrative matters in addition to serving as the secretary to the board of directors.

-This person also ensures that board meetings take place at intervals stipulated in the company’s articles of association, and that policies that are decided are implemented.

- For this reason, the role of company secretary is a lateral relationship and is not in the line of command.

-This also applies to the relatively new function of corporate strategy whose function may be carried out by general management, but is often a separate, relatively small, function whose role it is to ensure that all subdivisions in the organisation have a plan

B ) SUPPLIERS-This consists of other business firms or individuals who

provide the marketing firm with raw materials, product constituents, services or, in the case of retailing firms, possibly the finished goods themselves. Firms, whether they be retailers or manufacturers, will often depend on numerous suppliers.

-The buyer/supplier relationship is one of mutual economic interdependence, both parties relying on the other for their commercial well-being.

-Although both parties are seeking stability and security from their relationship, factors in the supplier environment are subject to change, such as industrial disputes which will affect delivery of materials to the buying company

- Whatever the product or service being purchased by the marketing firm, unexpected developments in the supplier environment can have an immediate

C ) MARKETING INTERMEDIARIES

-(such as banks, credit companies, insurance companies, etc.) help finance transactions and insure against risks.

D ) CUSTOMER

-The company must study its customer markets closely since each market has its own special characteristics.

E ) COMPETITOR-Management must be alert to the potential threat of

other companies marketing similar and substitute product whether they are of domestic or foreign origin.

-In some industries there may be numerous world-wide manufacturers posing a potential competitive threat and in others there may only be a few.

-Whatever the type, size and composition of the industry, it is essential that marketing management has a full understanding of competitive forces.

-Companies need to establish exactly who their competitors are and the benefits they are offering to the market

F ) PUBLICS-that buy goods and services for use in producing

their own products to sell. -This is different from the reseller market which

includes businesses that purchase goods to resell as is for a profit.

-These are the same companies mentioned as market intermediaries.

-The government market consists of government agencies that buy goods to produce public services or transfer goods to others who need them.

- International markets include buyers in other countries and includes customers from the previous categories.

5.2.2 DETERMINE THE COMPANY’S MACROENVIRONMENT

A ) DEMOGRAPHIC -Marketers typically combine several

variables to define a demographic profile. A demographic profile (often shortened to "a demographic") provides enough information about the typical member of this group to create a mental picture of this hypothetical aggregate.

B ) ECONOMIC-Economic factors are of concern to marketing firms

because they are likely to influence, among other things, demand, costs, prices and profits.

-These economic factors are largely outside the control of the individual firm, but their effects on individual enterprises can be profound.

-Economic forces are often strongly related. A much quoted example in this context is the ‘oil crisis’ caused by the Middle East War in 1973 which produced economic shock waves throughout the Western world, resulting in dramatically increased crude oil prices.

-This, in turn increased energy costs as well as the cost of many oil-based raw materials such as plastics and synthetic fibres.

C ) NATURAL

-The natural environment involves natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities.

- During the past two decades environmental concerns have steadily grown

D ) TECHNOLOGICAL-Technology is a major macro-environmental

variable which has influenced the development of many of the products we take for granted today, for example, television, calculators, video recorders and desk-top computers.

- Marketing firms themselves play a part in technological progress, many having their own research department or sponsoring research through universities and other institutions, thus playing a part in innovating new developments and new applications.

E ) POLITICAL

-Political These refer to government policy such as the degree of intervention in the economy.

-Political decisions can impact on many vital areas for business such as the education of the workforce, the health of the nation and the quality of the infrastructure of the economy such as the road and rail system.

F ) CULTURE-They are perpetuated through family, the church,

education and the institutions of society and act as relatively fixed parameters within which marketing firms are forced to operate.

-Secondary cultural values, however, tend to be less strong and therefore more likely to undergo change.

- As recently as the 1960s, personal credit, or hire purchase as is sometimes known, was generally frowned upon and people having such arrangements tended not to discuss it in public.

- Today, offering instant credit has become an integral part of marketing, with many of us regularly using credit cards and store accounts.

- Indeed, for many people it is often the availability and terms of credit offered that are major factors in deciding to purchase a particular product