Marketing is an organizational function. It is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and services to facilitate exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. It focuses on discovering and satisfying the needs and wants of prospective customers using common sense and not manipulation. For marketing, there should be two or more parties with unsatisfied needs.
The organization should have the desire and ability to satisfy the needs of the customers.For the two parties to communicate with each other, a way should be established. Importantly, there should be something of value to exchange between the parties. Many other people are involved in a business. Stakeholders are those who stand to gain or lose by the policies and activities of a business. They include customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and people in the surrounding community.
The management team controls finance, marketing, information systems, human resources, research and development, and manufacturing departments.They, in turn, establish partnerships with suppliers, relationships with customers, alliances with other organizations, and ownership of shareholders. Social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory factors are environmental forces that have an impact on an organization. Market can be defined as people with the desire and ability to buy a specific product, good, service, or idea. In a consumer market a product is purchased for personal use and in a business market products are bought by organizations for their own use or resale.Target market refers to one or more specific groups of potential customers toward which an organization directs its marketing program.
A marketing program represents the target market and marketing mix, or 4Ps. The 4Ps are: product, price, promotion, and place. The product aspect defines the characteristics of the organization’s product or service. Price aspect decides on the pricing strategy. Place is about having the product or service available at the right place at the right time.
Promotion comprises advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. Pricing, the ultimate goal of all marketing activity, is to increase sales and profits. It aims at achieving a target return on investment/profit, building traffic, achieving a greater market share, creating an image, and in furthering social objectives. Price competition emphasizes on low price.
Nonprice competition emphasizes on quality and service such as promptness and friendliness. It aims at adding value, educating consumers, and in establishing relationships.Globalization means that products are available from around the world. Distribution is a marketing channel where products are moved from the point of origin to the consumer.
Different types of firms participate in marketing channels. Channel members, also called intermediaries, resellers, and middlemen, negotiate with one another, buy and sell products, and facilitate the change of ownership between the buyer and seller in the course of moving the product from the manufacturer into the hands of the final consumer.An intermediary functions between manufacturer and end-users. An agent or broker is an intermediary with legal authority to act on behalf of the manufacturer.
A wholesaler is an intermediary who sells to other retailers. A retailer is an intermediary who sells to consumers. A distributor is usually an intermediary who sells, maintains inventories, and extends credit. In business markets the term “wholesaler’ might refer to a “distributor. ” A dealer may be a distributor, a retailer, or a wholesaler.
Intermediaries can be eliminated, but not their functions.They survive because they perform some of the marketing functions better than the producer. They add cost to the product, but they add value to the product that off-sets the cost increase. A promotional mix is a combination of one or more elements. Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of a product by a sponsor. Personal selling is a personal presentation by a firm’s sales-force to build customer relationships.
Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase/sale of product.Public relations build good relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building a good corporate image, and by handling stories/events, and by warding off unfavorable rumors. Direct marketing refers to direct communications with target consumers to obtain an immediate response using mail, telephone, fax, or e-mail. Market leadership management’s research and teaching activities primarily focus on the domains of marketing and strategy.
Health services management explores issues that face managers in the health sector.In finding the right marketing job find the industry that interests you personally and choose a company. Some companies recruit and train graduates, some use search firms to “steal” experienced people, while many centralize their marketing in the U. S.
or abroad. Remember, it’s easy to find a marketing job; it’s harder to find the right marketing job. Employees seek leaders, innovators, diversity, and passion in their staff. They need problem solvers with creativity, intelligence, and people who fit the job profile perfectly.You should first obtain good grades since most companies ask for them.
You may get involved in extra-curricular activities. You may try and make sacrifices to gain work experience by doing summer jobs, voluntary services, or by working in clubs, etc. Marketing Magazine, October 2006 reports that marketing company salaries are decided by the size of the company (market leaders, mid-size to small, smaller entrepreneurial). The salaries in advertising agencies are decided by the agency size in terms of revenues they make (e. g.
, large - $10M+, medium - $4M to $10M, small – less than $4M).
