Marketing is communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers, for the purpose of promoting or selling that product, service, or brand.
Marketing techniques include choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer behavior and advertising a product's value to the customer.
From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society's material requirements and itseconomic patterns of response.
Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long-term relationships.
Marketing Functions: Marketing have different functions such as Sales, Advertising & Brand Management, Research, Trade Marketing & Digital Marketing (Social Media Marketing is component / function of Digital Marketing).
Marketing blends art and applied science (such as behavioural sciences) and makes use of information technology.
Marketing is applied in enterprise and organizations through marketing management.
Customer orientation
In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no reason to spend R&D (research and development) funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods and services that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for afirm's future viability and even existence as a going concern. Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally, there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the market change identification approach and the product innovation approach.
A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer-centric alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, placement, promotion) of marketing management.
| Product | → | Solution |
| Promotion | → | Information |
| Price | → | Value |
| Place (Distribution) | → | Access |
Contemporary approaches
Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the customer,business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society.[4] Newer forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, "digital marketing", search engine marketing, or desktop advertising. It attempts to perfect thesegmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail, wireless media as well as driving audience from traditional marketing methods like radio and billboard to internet properties or landing page.
| Orientation | Profit driver | Western European timeframe | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship marketing /Relationship management[4] | Building and keeping good customer relations | 1960s to present day | Emphasis is placed on the whole relationship between suppliers and customers. The aim is to provide the best possible customer service and build customer loyalty. |
| Business marketing /Industrial marketing | Building and keeping relationships betweenorganizations | 1980s to present day | In this context, marketing takes place betweenbusinesses or organizations. The product focus lies on industrial goods or capital goods rather than consumer products or end products. Different forms of marketing activities, such as promotion, advertising and communication to the customer are used. |
| Societal marketing[4] | Benefit to society | 1990s to present day | Similar characteristics to marketing orientation but with the added proviso that there will be a curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in either product, production, or selling methods. |
| Branding | Brand value | 1980s to present day | In this context, "branding" refers to the main company philosophy and marketing is considered to be an instrument of branding philosophy. |
