Introduction To Marketing

Introduction To Marketing

1. Marketing is the activity set of institutions and processes for creating , communicating delivering and exchanging offerings that value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

2. Marketing Concept

   • Integrated Effort: All staff accept the responsibility for creating customer’s satisfaction.
   • Goal Achievement: The belief corporate goals can be achieved through customer satisfaction. ( you set a goal I’m going to have this much money, and through the activity you will try and achieve that)
   • Customer Orientation Corporate activities are focused upon providing customer

3. 3 conditions must be met before the marketing concept can be applied

   • 1. Company activities should be focused on customer satisfaction
     • 2. Company’s integrated effort for the implementation of the concept should not only run through the marketing department
       • 3. Management must believe that corporate goals can be achieved through satisfied customers. Some companies are quicker and better at recognising the importance of the marketing concept ( eg nike shoe business)

4. Customer Value

   • Price Value: one of the most powerful customer motivations to purchase is because a product is perceived as being cheaper than those offered by competitors. (Aldi, ryan air).
   • Performance Value: in the same way that some customers have a preference for low price, others are more concerned about product performance. What they are looking for is the latest features and they are attracted to products by their functionality and perceived quality levels. The priority for companies operating in this space 1. Innovative 2. Exploiting changes. 3. Discontinuities in technology
   • Emotional Value: This is the reason why some customers will pay huge premiums for luxury brands (channel, Hermes) and why others will que for hours to be first among their peers to own certain products (ipad, kate moss clothing) one of the challenges facing modern firm is to find effective ways to differentiate products based on performance elements.
   • Relation Value: This is the quality of service by the customer particular opportunity in the case of service business such as a restaurant meal or business taxation services, which are not eat to evaluate in advance of purchase. When the customer finds a good quality service provider, they may be willing to stay with this provider and as the relationship builds a high level of trust becomes established between the parties.

5. Marketing Planning and Strategy

   • The moment you start to plan you start to plan your marketing, marketing is the process at the start of the planning process, this is so marketing efforts can be effective.
   • The process by which businesses analyse the environment and their capabilities, decide upon courses of marketing action and implement those decisions is called marketing planning.
     • The following key questions need to be asked when thinking about marketing planning: 1. Where are we now? 2. Where would we like to be 3. How do we get there?
       •  For marketing efforts to be effective, it is essential that a planned approach is taken. The process by which businesses analyse the environment and their capabilities, decide upon courses of marketing action and implement those decisions is called marketing planning.
     • Marketing Strategy: All the main planning stages outlined above such as the business mission, the marketing audit and marketing objectives will feed into the marketing strategy that is developed.
       • Marketing Actions Any strategy will be ineffective unless it is converted into actions. This set of decisions has traditionally been described as the company’s marketing mix (week 3) which normally comprises the 4Ps of product, price, promotion and place.
   • Business Mission and Strategy- has to be relevant.
     •  Effective mission statements infuse organizations with a sense of purpose as well as defining the domains in which they operate
       • The Marketing Audit
         • 1. Starting points of planning 2. Organization’s current situation 3. A systematic examination of a firm’s marketing environment, objectives, strategies and activities, which aims to identify key strategic issues, problem areas and opportunities. 4. An internal audit concentrates on those areas that are under the control of marketing management 5. An external audit focuses on those forces over which management has no control. 6. The results of the marketing audit are a key determinant of the future direction of the business and may give rise to a redefined business mission statement.
           • Where are we now? Where is our company right now? What is the situation? internal audit- look at yourself, management, production, staff. External, what if my product is good but people don’t have money. Brexit- people stop coming. Out of the control of the business, so they have to find a strategy and adjust. And sustain, keep the level up. External factors- company is doing great, but financial crisis could change that.
         • Marketing Objectives- SMART
           • 1. marketing objectives need to be: SMART, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. 2. There is little point in having vague objectives such as to grow the business or to increase sales in a new market. 3. what is the specific target for sales growth: a 10 per cent increase or 50 new customers? 4. What is the time frame to achieve this growth – six months, one year? 5. It is only when very precise objectives are set that their attainment can be assessed.