15 July 2009

Marketing

Marketing is Philosophy.

Components of Marketing

  • M - Marketer
  • M - Market
  • C - Customer
Market is a place where buyers, potential buyers, sellers, resellers, intermediateries meet for exchange of goods & services.

Market is set of actual & potential buyers of products & services

Marketing more than any business functions deals with customers.

It is critical to the success of every organization.

Marketing means profitable customer relationships



Goals of Marketing

To attract new customers by promising superior values & to keep & grow current customers by delivering satisfaction.


Principles of Marketing

Marketing is about understanding the customer’s needs and ensuring that products and services are of the highest possible standards in order to satisfy the potential customers wants and needs.
Marketing also focuses on ways in which the business can influence the behaviour of customers.



Understanding Customers Needs

It is very important to understand the needs and wants of customers. The needs of customers may vary between different groups of people.

Customers needs include:
Good customer service – This would include the after care service and the service provided when the purchase of the goods is made.

Understanding & keep ahead of competition
The business may consider their competitive markets and may evaluate the competitive prices in order to provide a better service and better quality. They can use these strategies to meet the needs of their customers.
They need to have unique goods in order to stay ahead of competitors. For example a game shop can get the latest games so more customers can come there because no one else will have them
Communicate effectively with its customers to satisfy customer expectations.
The business will need to think of innovations, which they could use to help with communication between suppliers, contractors and customers.
There are a ways in which the business could communicate with its customers, this could be through the use of phone, fax and Internet.

Co-ordinate its functions to achieve marketing aims

  • Firms may need to diversify the way they operate in order to achieve marketing aims and objectives.
  • Company may change the way they deal with the level of production in order to achieve higher and more efficient production levels.
  • This could include the diversification of the work force and the diversification with the allocation of the resources available to the company.

Be aware of constraints on marketing activities

Be aware on the operations including the problems, which are associated with marketing activities and once evaluated then make sure they can change their marketing activities in order to achieve higher profit margins.


The Market, its definition and structure

A market consists of all the consumers who purchase a particular type of good or service. The market may be sub-divided into separate segments each of which can be considered to be a separate market in its own right.

It is very important for a business to be able to define its market:
1. So that it can estimate the size of the market
2. So that it can forecast the growth of the market
3. To identify the competitors in the market
4. To break the market down into relevant segments
5. To create an appropriate marketing mix to appeal to customers in the market.


There are different types of markets,
for example:
Business-to-Business (B2B) markets in which a businesses customers are other businesses.
Business to Consumer (B2C) markets in which businesses sell to other customers.

Some markets take place in a physical location e.g. a street market, whereas others may be virtual markets e.g. when people buy and sell through the medium of the Internet.

The size of the market can be calculated in terms of the number of customers that make up the market, or the value of sales in the market.
A business can then calculate its market share in terms of the number of customers its sells to, or the total value of its sales.

Markets are typically structured into segments. Primary segmentation is between customers buying entirely different products. For example, an oil company manufactures a wide range of fuels and lubricants for road, rail, water and air transport and for industry, all of them for different groups of customers.
Further segmentation can be based on demographic and psychographics factors. Demographics segment people by clearly ascertainable facts their sex, their age, size of family, etc.


Types of customer

Organizations will often set up different structures to deal with different sets of customers. This is because they will often give some groups more time and attention than others.
An obvious example would be in a hospital where casualty patients would require a different type of attention to those requiring a routine X-ray.

Many businesses will have different procedures for dealing with large and small customers.
Separate departments might handle these accounts, using different types of paperwork, offering different rates of discount, and treat customers in different ways.
The advantages of organizing in a pattern based on having different sets of customers are:

Different types of customers can be dealt with by separate departments.
Customers will be more inclined to deal with a business with departments concentrating on their particular needs.
It is easier to check on the performance of individual products.

Distribution

Getting products from the point of production into the hands of the end-user with the help of various transport modes, together with the cooperation of wholesalers and retailers.

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