Introduction to Marketing

What is Marketing?

• Marketing involves creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging products or services.
• The process of marketing provides value to customers, clients, partners, and society.
• Understanding customer needs and building long-term relationships is an important part of marketing.
• The four key elements are creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging value.
• Value can be remembered with the mnemonic "CCDE": Create, Communicate, Deliver, and Exchange.

Marketing as an Exchange

• Marketing equals the exchange of value.
• For an exchange to occur, two or more parties must be involved, each must have something valuable to offer, both need to communicate and deliver their value, and each party must have freedom to accept or reject offers.
• Forced transactions are not marketing, all involved sides must agree.

Components of Marketing (The 4 P's)

• The components are also known as the marketing mix and shape marketing strategy.
• Product refers to what you sell, goods or services, which must satisfy customer needs and include features like design, quality and branding.
• Price indicates how much customers pay, and should reflect value and market conditions, including discounts or payment plans.
• Place refers to where and how the product is available, including physical stores, online or distribution channels to ensure easy customer access.
• Promotion indicates how customers learn about the product through advertising, sales, social media, and public relations and aims to attract and persuade buyers

Value in Marketing

• Value equals what a customer gets minus what they give up.
• Value balances benefits received and costs paid like money, effort and time.
• Benefits minus the sum of price and non-financial costs formulate value.
• The marketer's goal is to ensure customers feels they are getting more than what they are giving up and create a positive and satisfying exchange.
• Customer value is personal with different customers valuing different things.

The Marketing Mix - 4Ps

• The 4Ps involves both the product and what is offered.
• Included are features, quality, branding, packaging, services, and warranties.
• Customers pay for the price, while both premium, competitive, or discount pricing is used, and can be fixed, or flexible.
• Place refers to how customers get a product, and can be online, retail or wholesale, local national or global with varying product availability and transport logistics.
• Promotion refers to how you reach customers, the ways being coupons, deals, TV, social media, public relations, direct marketing, emails, SMS or personal selling.
• The Marketing Mix, "P" can be remembered using the mnemonic device: product - what, price - how much, place - where, and promotion - how do they know?

Marketing's Role and Products

• Marketing creates goods, services, or ideas that satisfy customer needs.
• A product is anything that satisfies a want or need.
• Products include physical goods, services, experiences, events, people, places, organizations, information, and ideas.

Product Attributes and Types

• Tangible attributes are physical characteristics like size and materials.
• Intangible attributes have brand reputation and service commitment.
• Consumer goods are bought for personal use, food, clothes, etc..
• Industrial goods are used in production or business operations like machinery and raw materials.
• A product can be a service, idea, or experience instead of just physical items.

Price Strategy In Marketing

• Price is the exchange value of a product or service.
• Price can be monetary(money), or non-monetary(loyalty, data, time).
• Pricing is a key element of the marketing mix that affects customer perception, demand, profitability and competition.
• Companies should balance low costs with quality to reduce pressure.
• Customers compare prices to experiences or competitors for reference prices.
• High prices can signal better quality of products, known as price-quality inferences.
• Prices ending in .99 suggest deals, while round numbers suggest luxury in price endings.
• Pricing affects customer psychology and decisions, and is not just about the cost.

Promotion Strategy

• Promotion is communicating an offering's value to current and potential customers.
• Methods to inform, persuade, and remind customers about products and brands are marketing communications.
• Goals of consumer promotion are to create awareness, educate customers, persuade consumers, and interact with consumers.
• Promotional efforts should connect with the customers regardless if it is to inform, engage, or encourage actions.
• The Promotional Mix includes different methods for communicating with customers to inform, and persuade them.
• Paid promotion through channels like TV, radio, print, and digital ads are advertising.
• Direct communication with potential customers like promotional emails or catalogs is direct marketing.
• Social media ads and influencer marketing are digital or internet marketing.
• Short-term incentives to encourage immediate sales are sales promotion.
• Gaining media attention without paying for it is publicity or public relations.
• Direct, face-to-face communication to persuade customers is personal selling.
• Each promotional mix part works together to build awareness and drive sales for a unique purpose.
• Integrated Marketing Communication(IMC) is the coordination of all marketing and promotional activities in order to communicate effectively with customers.
• A key element of IMC is the elements delivered from advertising, sales, public relations, and direct marketing will give a unified message.
• Maximum impact across all channels is made with clarity and consistency.
• All marketing activities reflect the same brand image making sure customers receive a consistent experience and a unified image.
• Brands will use consistent logos, colors, messaging and tones for strong, unified communication.
• IMC helps ensures all marketing efforts work together for a strong message.

Place Strategy

• Marketing distribution delivers offerings.
• Ensure customers know how to use the product and have after-sales service.
• Supply chains involves delivery value processes involving multiple stages and organization.
• A supply chain will involve manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, and the customers making sure products and materials smoothly gets to consumers.
• The right places of physical or online stores provides a better change where customers can easy access the product.
• Store size and layout should cater to customer's needs and ensure ease of purchase with the store area.
• Supply chain management have coordination of organisations that includes transportation, warehousing, and inventory management to give good conditions for customers.
• Effective distribution is not just getting the product but ensuring satisfaction with access and delivery.

Production Orientation Through History

• Production orientation focuses on products at a low cost, assuming due to affordability customers will buy.
• The production orientation begun in the late 1800s or the industrial era, and focused on mass production and scaled economies.
• Demand was higher during the production era in the late 1800s to 1920s leading companies to increase product.
• Philosophy was to produces high quantities to reduce costs and make products affordable for everyone.
• If you produce it, they will buy it with the assumption that mass production will guarantee strong sale.
• Focus is on efficiency to believe affordably and widely available products will attract consumers.

Selling Orientation Approach

• A marketing approach where businesses sell aggressively their products, assuming without persuasion customers will not buy.
• The selling orientation was especially present during the Great Depression as most had less income and high competition.
• Door-to-door sales would implement sales tactics like the Hoover Vacuum.
• Less money for consumers and increased supply pushing businesses to promote sales.
• "Push" approach heavily on sales, promotions, and aggressive, pushing for hard selling tactics.
• The saying became "if you push it, they will buy it", where selling rather than demand drove the economy.

Product Orientation

• Businesses who focus on product innovation and differentiation implementing a marketing approach.
• Demand for goods increased and more products became available creating a product orientation.
• Procter and Gamble introduced slight variations on existing products to differentiate themselves even more.
• P&G sells kinds of toothpaste with the thought that consumers will choose the best or innovative product.
• Better better, unique products will attract buyers for companies believing in this implementation of product orientation.
• One must develop superior products and focus on sales and customer tactics, a great product does not guarantee success without engagement.

Market Orientation

• Marketing focuses on both the needs of customers and creating products for them with this business approach.
• Understanding customer desires will lead to better sales for business realizing this leading to a market orientation.
• Focus is on listening to customers to create products and align the 4P's based upon customer satisfaction and understanding.
• Under the premise customer-driven companies to stay competitive must research, listen and adapt to consumer preferences.

Value Orientation Approach

• Focus on creating long-term value for customers through personalized relationships and one-to-one marketing.
• Going beyond just the product alone and delivering great services and engagement builds long-term customer bonds.
• Meet the needs of a individual customer by focusing on more personalized marketing to have further interactions.
• Better engagement and relationship building will increase loyalty and repeat purchases if you interact with them, and they will continue to buy.
• One must understand and priorities the customers with meaningful benefits going beyond.

Key Aspects of Marketing

• Creates and enhances a product's value by making it more accessible, appealing, and useful to consumers.
• Satisfies the needs of both survival and wants by directing them to specific products or services.
• A transaction occurs where value is exchanged for an agreement between many different parties
• Requires marketing mix decisions such as product, price, placement and promotion in a strategic planned fashion.
• Can be a business and market performed that product in where individuals market themselves.
• Non-profit organizations uses marketing to raise awareness for charity campaigns among other things
• Marketing strategically and not just to sell needs you need to create value and is more about facilitating exchanges.

Business Mission

• A business mission gives a statement of the company's intended purpose to differentiate the company from others.
• Missions focuses on identifying a business's operations.
• Vision = "Where do we want to go?", while "What do we do?" represent the mission.
• Characteristics of a strong mission statements include enduring and specific characteristics, and is environmentally sensitives.
• A good mission statements provide a plan for clarity, direction, and competitive differentiation while balancing balancing operations with future aspirations.
• Good mission focuses on limited goals to define what the company's main objectives.
• The core principles will guide any business with stressed major policies and values.
• Employees and stakeholders must align to ensure employees and stakeholders align with in those values.
• Industry, Geography and Target customers are where the company operates to help clarify.
• A Great Memborable meaningful statement will guide a company's strategy.

Strategic Planning

• A long-term process that helps organizations allocate resources to seize market opportunities represent the overall strategic planning.
• Internal environment analyses will assess the assess strengths and weaknesses including the assess strengths and weaknesses.
• PESTEL and SWOT analyses help tools will identify threats in a market that the business is in.
• Internal and external factors that influence and have impact on an organization is a situation analysed.
• Define what the organization does and it's long-term purpose when developing mission statement.
• Create specific time based measurable goals to set.
• Determine how and how to form efficient objectives when formulating strategies for business growth.
• The process involves in that strategic planning is to analyze the environment define strategic goals and develop strategies.
• Key step in strategic planning to understand external environment helps businesses assess the situation.
• Situation analyses helps align the strengths in a market in order to make informed decision.
• A situation provides a better full picture of a business that will effective provide strategies based upon data in.
• One force to note is forces that are close to a directly impact ability to serve the microenvironment.

Microcompanies

• The internal factors like company resources helps analyze what the company owns.
• Personnel or brand reputation are to show personnel and workforce which makes the environment the micro.
• Suppliers provide all materials the business will engage in to produce better more sustainable results for customers and quality.
• The supply chain management connects to be in a great position and improve customer and production results.
• Customers are most important that the company provides and understand to be in great communication.
• It gives customer the micro environment and helps shape strategy and relations.
• What a consumer and to sell at a higher level that the resellers and customers have to engage in with the better products.
• The publics affect public and can help communities the micro environment.
• Governments provide better agencies that show a lot of value of what helps the company achieve their goals.
• Improve or be a part in media relations by have an overall ability to market towards better outcomes for the customer.

Macro Externalities and Environments

• Helps the economy adapt to changes and helps adapt outside of the environment.
• Help adapt to societal changes.
• Laws affect the company in a negative the legal part is always of great consideration.

Political Legalities

• The political illegal part will affect how the company changes in the state of the political situation.
• In order there needs to be a business change will or outside force that changes what was there before.
• Wealth distribution must be in a way that's in better understanding with better results and low crime.
• A higher power can help take care of and change how business may be treated over time.
• Stay in informed state with heavy impacts towards legalities of the regulations.
• Helps better create a sustainable growth towards new demographics.

Demographic Environments And Factors

• the definition that's set to have a great age in the population affects all the goods and services that influence the product or service.
• If more kids are born certain younger generations may demand certain technologies which create innovation in the product or service.
• The higher educational standard the service gets is important that the product increases more and in new ways that improve it for customers or certain populations.

Economic Environments

• There are many factors and conditions that effect how the price gets to consumer.
• Consumers may only want to spend a certain amount or the availability or raw materials is scarce.
• Societal factors and the cultural environment shape consumer beliefs and traditions.
• Many influences will go into a buying decisions and needs.
• A main element of marketing is to help influence consumer and that's what the main objective is.

Tech

• Innovation leads to better more advance societies.
• When certain technologies may become outdated new ways evolve the system.
• They regulate in place to have a more secure and well built environment.
• As many thing are adopted and in society some just do thing slower and some do it faster.
• Help marketers understand new challenges and tech.

Competitive Environment

• This affects a company from a overall perspective instead a competitors perspective.
• Influences in the intensity of competition creates a great dynamic to the company’s advantage.
• Barriers on high entities may cause reduction as higher capital takes away from better alternatives for all.

SWOT - In depth

• The company's strengths and weakness must me identified to determine what gives one the advantage.
• Areas to avoid are the companies that has weak point and or may not be well established.

Fixed vs Variable Costs:

• Variable Costs are in direct proportion to product which makes the sales vary on direct proportion.
• That the higher production means higher prices.
• It helps relate costs to production and is more of a direct process.
• A chair to get more chairs is more chairs meaning more costs in raw materials and labor for a variable aspect.
• Help manage those expenses depending on fluctuating more you produce higher variable and value will increase.

Operating Costs

• Must help keep the business stable.
• They make capital costs expense the operation with monthly payments for salaries.
• Most things that do not function the company get deducted from revenue and the payments are yearly to help with costs.

Capital Costs

• Helps maintain long term asset and upgrade many things to long term and make improvements.
• This may help over more than one year to keep value and increase the market for operations This all may include Machinery store and renovations this is not expense but will provide benefits for