Marketing

According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Marketing is a crucial part of a successful business. Marketing is more than advertising and sales. Its just not that simple. It also includes pricing, creating value, distribution, and customer satisfaction. According to management guru, Peter Drucker, The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary. It is in a businesss best interest to have a hard-working and versatile marketing team.

Find a Market to Target:

A business must first select a target of its product or service. The question, Who do I want to buy my product, needs to be answered. Market segmentation is usually done. This is when a company divides a population into different types of segments such as, geographic, demographic, gender, and income. This allows the company to seek their potential customers with common needs or characteristics. It must then select which segment or segments it wants to target. Another thing to consider when targeting your market is to determine how your product will reach your target.

Advertise to your Consumers:

After you have chosen your target, you need to advertise and brand your product. There are so many ways to advertise today. You can advertise through commercials on the radio or television. You can also advertise on newspapers, billboards, buses and bus stops, internet, and even on the sides of buildings. One of the most effective advertising methods is branding. Your purpose is to have people think of your product as much as possible. If you work for Tide for example, you want for people to think of Tide anytime they think of detergent. A good headline or slogan needs to be created. Anytime someone says, $5 footlong, we know theyre talking about Subway. Children, just like adults, are advertised to also. We are all vulnerable to branding. Since we are children we get branded. Our views and opinions towards different brands can change as time goes on. The following graph shows how the consumers appeal towards different car brands has changed in 2010 according to a survey of 4,294 adults.

Figure 1.

Make your Sales:

A company must decide how their product will get into the hands of its customers. Will the company distribute to stores where customers can purchase from? Or will they sell directly to its customers via a website or phone? An adequate sales team needs to be in place to process the orders coming in and to try to reach new customers. Sales promotions are successful in selling more. Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product. Some of the most common types of promotions used are coupons, mail-in cash rebates, price packs , premiums, promotional products, point-of-purchase, contests, and sweepstakes. I just received and email from Chevy for a chance to win a Chevy Camaro SS. I clicked on the link where it allowed me to enter the sweepstakes and also gave me information regarding this car. It also had a field where they can send me information regarding any other vehicle they make. This technique worked because it got me to browse through their website a bit.

Satisfy your Customers:

A business wants to satisfy as many customers as possible. If everything is done properly, you will capture customer loyalty and retention. The more loyal customers a business 2

has the longer that business will last and the more it will profit. We all talk. When we like something, we tell our family and friends. That is what businesses want. That is actually free advertising. It is only achieved with customer satisfaction. Apple has slowly beet its way past Microsoft in customer satisfaction. Many customers make comment to each other how much trouble they have using Windows and how they prefer Macs OS. Figure 2.

Even after you have beet your competitor, you should always keep striving to improve your product or products to keep your customers happy.

References
Daley, Jason. How to Make Marketing Brilliance. Entrepreneur. February 2011. Marketing Mechanics. Reeves Journal. December 2010. King, Ruth. McNamara, Carter, MBA, PhD. All About Marketing. Internet. http://managementhelp.org/mrktng/mrktng.htm Neal, Carolyn P. From the Editor. Marketing Management. January-February 2006, p.3. Ward, Susan. Writing the Business Plan: Section 5. About.com Guide. Internet. http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/businessplans/a/bizplanmarkplan.htm American Marketing Association. Marketing defined. http://www.marketingpower.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx?dLetter=M Figure 1. Tsunami of Negative News Devastating Toyota While Ford Enjoys a High Tide of Good News. March 19, 2010. http://www.dealer-magazine.com/home/single-article/tsunami-ofnegative-news-devastating-toyota-while-ford-enjoys-a-high-tide-of-good-news/40581108b8.html Figure 2. Bookwalter, J.R. Love your Mac? Youre Not Alone [Updated]. Sept. 21, 2010. http://www.maclife.com/article/news/love_your_mac_you%E2%80%99re_not_alone_updated