Marketing involves activities that promote the buying and selling of products or services, including advertising. Marketing professionals aim to capture the attention of target audiences through strategies like celebrity endorsements, catchy slogans, memorable packaging, and media exposure.
Understanding Marketing
Marketing involves actions to attract and maintain customer relationships, including networking, quick communication, and client meetings. At its core, marketing matches a company’s products and services with customers, ensuring profitability.
Formal Definition
Marketing is the process of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging valuable offerings to customers, clients, partners, and society. (American Marketing Association, 2017)
What Are the 4 P's of Marketing?
The Four Ps of marketing—product, price, place, and promotion—make up the essential mix for marketing a product or service. The concept was popularized by Neil Borden in the 1950s.
Product
Product refers to the item a business offers to meet market demand or fill a gap. Marketers must understand the product, its unique features, potential pairings with other products, and the availability of substitutes before creating a campaign.
Price
Price refers to the cost at which a company sells a product. When setting the price, companies must consider production, marketing, and distribution costs, as well as competitor pricing and consumer value.
Place
Place refers to how and where the product is distributed, whether through physical stores, online platforms, or both. It involves decisions on product placement in stores and its digital presence online.
Promotion
Promotion involves marketing activities like advertising, sales promotions, public relations, and direct marketing. It varies based on the product life cycle and considers how price and distribution impact consumers’ perception of quality.
Types of Marketing Strategies
Marketing includes a wide range of strategies that evolve over time, with certain approaches better suited for different companies.
Traditional Marketing Strategies
Before technology and the internet, traditional marketing was the main method for promoting products. Key traditional marketing strategies include:
Outdoor Marketing
This involves outdoor advertising, such as billboards, bench ads, vehicle wraps, and public transit promotions.
Print Marketing
This involves easily printed, replicable content. Traditionally mass-produced for all customers, modern printing allows for more flexibility and differentiation in materials.
Direct Marketing
This entails specific content delivered to potential customers. Some print marketing content could be mailed. Otherwise, direct marketing mediums could include coupons, vouchers for free goods, or pamphlets.
Electronic Marketing
This involves using TV and radio for advertising, delivering short digital content that captures attention through visual or auditory media.
What Are the Benefits of Marketing?
Effective marketing strategies can benefit a company in many ways. While developing and executing the right plan can be challenging, successful marketing can lead to significant results.
Audience Generation
Marketing helps a company target specific people who will benefit from its product, whether they recognize the need or not, connecting with the right demographic
Inward Education
Marketing helps collect valuable data, like market research, to understand customer demographics. This information enables companies to cater to specific groups, boost sales, and use resources more efficiently.
Outward Education
Marketing helps communicate what your company does, the products you sell, and how you can enrich others’ lives. It educates potential customers and introduces your company, its history, and its values.
Brand Creation
Marketing lets a company proactively shape its brand by engaging customers with targeted content to influence their emotions and reactions, creating an image before they interact with the product.