Marketing Activities Explained

• Marketing includes the planning, pricing, distributing, and selling of a product or service.
• Marketers consider ten activities when meeting consumer demands.

Marketing Activities

• Marketing research involves gathering information on consumer preferences, habits, lifestyles, and competing products or services.
• Product development focuses on creating a timely and competitively priced product that meets consumer needs.
• Packaging involves developing innovative and protective packages for products, ensuring a satisfying customer experience.
• Pricing determines the optimal price for a product, not necessarily the lowest.
• Branding uses a product's name, trademark, logo, slogan, and package design to create a unique brand identity.
• Sales involves determining how and where to sell the product or service.
• Physical distribution focuses on getting the product or service to the customer efficiently and inexpensively.
• Inventory management ensures sufficient stock to satisfy customer needs while avoiding excess.
• Storage involves managing a space or facility to house products until needed for consumption or sale.
• Promotion focuses on effectively creating consumer awareness of the product.

Marketing Concept

• The marketing concept requires marketers to always consider potential customers and competitors in every business decision.
• Key considerations include what customers want and what competitors are doing.
• The steps involve identifying a market opportunity, ensuring it doesn't exist in the competitive market, and using appropriate marketing strategies to sell goods and services successfully.
• A new philosophy emerged: "Whatever you want, we’ll make."
• Consumer good and services are those sold for personal use by individuals.
• Industrial good and services are those sold for business use by companies.

Supply and Demand

• Demand is how much consumers want a good or service.
• Supply is how much of a good or service is available in the market.
• Marketing is less critical when supply is low because low supply equals higher demand, and the good or service sells itself.
• Marketing is required when supply is high to convince customers to buy a specific good or service, due to increased competition..

Organizing Marketing Divisions

• Regionally: Organized by city or province to cater to specific local tastes.
• Globally: Organized by country or continent, using marketing strategies based on local culture and buying habits and employing local staff.
• Brand: Organized by different product lines, a common approach as seen with Coke, Sprite, Crush, Fanta, and Fruitopia.
• Distribution: Organized based on how the product is delivered, such as Chapters' online site versus a physical bookstore, or a soft-drink company's supermarket versus vending machine distribution.
• Combination: Organized by a combination of factors, such as continent and then brand.

Not-for-Profit (NFP) Organizations

• NFPs improve the community and do not exist to maximize profit.
• Money raised is spent towards the cause the NFP supports.
• Marketing is critical for NFPs to increase awareness and raise funds due to many charities seeking money.
• Examples of NFPs include the Red Cross, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, MADD, United Way, Ronald McDonald House, and UNICEF.

Target Marketing + Push V. Pull Strategies

• Target market is a group of consumers that marketers want to attract.
• Aggregate marketers target everybody (ex. Coca cola, iphone).
• Differentiated marketers are categorized in a specific way (Consumers income, gender, lifestyle).

Push Strategies

• Suppliers convince retailers where and how to sell goods and services.
• Techniques include product placement, shelf space allocation, discounts, special displays, prizes/commission, and shelf allowances.
• Shelf allowance is money paid by suppliers to retailers for shelf space for a new product.

Pull Strategies

• Attempts to pull a customer into the retailer.
• Techniques include creative advertising, samples, coupons, publicity, and contests.
• Marketers hope to directly attract customer demand.
• A combination of both strategies is the best way to sell a product.

The 2 C’s and 4 P’s

• Consumer Market: Refers to all those consumers who may become interested in a G&S and have the means to buy it.
• Question to consider as marketers- who is the target market? What are their needs and wants?
• Competitive Market: All G&S that compete with each other for the consumers money
• Competition can be narrow (movie) or broad (entertainment industry)
• All forms of competition must be considered
• Who are our competitors? How do we differentiate ourselves?

The Marketing Mix - The 4 P’s

• Product: What G&S should we sell and how?
• Marketing research
• Product development
• Packaging
• Branding
• Price: How much should we charge?
• Too low?
• Too high?
• Place: How will we actually get our G&S to our customers?
• Distribution channel- How do we transport our goods
• Location- Where will we sell the G&S?
• Inventory Management- How to we ensure we get the appropriate goods at the rights time
• Storage- Where will we keep the goods
• Promotion: How do we create awareness of our G&S for our target market?
• Advertising
• Sales promotion
• Publicity
• Personal selling

Needs and Wants

• Needs: Items essential for survivant (Ex: food, water, shelter) and maintaining your standard of living
• Wants: Items that add comfort or pleasure to our lives (iPad, convert tickets)
• Consumer: person who uses a product
• Customer: person who buys a product
• A consumer is not always a customer
• Ex: Barbie Dolls- parents are the customer and kids are the consumer
• Gatekeeper: a person who takes care of another (i.e. parent to child)

The Product Life Cycle

• The demand for a G&S can never last forever
• The PLC describes the changes in consumer demand of a G&S over time
• The PLC helps marketers determine how to promote their G&S

Introduction Phase

• Launching a new G&S is very expensive (design costs, training personnel, advertising, distribution, packaging, etc..)
• Thus the initial price of a product when it enters the market is usually very high
• Early adopters: adventurous consumer who like to be first to own new products
• Example: DVD players cost $600 in 1997

Growth Phase

• Growing sales as a product becomes more familiar from advertising and word of mouth
• This is a critical time for the product- there's a risk of busting
• Competitors entering the market= price falling
• Market share: how much of the market you control compared to your competitor (example, electric cars)

Maturity Phase

• Sales growth slows= profits remain
• Costs have been recovered for research, production and distribution, sales and advertising
• Market is full of competitors, market share is stable and price of product is low (examples, toilet paper, ketchup, milk, fridge)

Declines Phase

• Sales and profits begin to decrease
• Marketers try to adjust/improve/modify product or reduce price to reverse decline (add features)
• Eventually product is removed from market

Other Definitions:

• Fad: a product or service that is VERY popular for a SHORT time then disappears (i.e. Rubiks Cubes, Pokemon)
• Trends: more lasting effects on the market than a fad (ex: move towards healthier lifestyles, reality tv)
• Niche Market: firms that control and dominate a very small, specific section of the market (ex: pet hotel)
• Seasonal Market: G&S only popular during particular seasons (ex: ice cream- summer, skiing- winter)

The Consumer Market

• Consumer profiles:
• The more you understand your target market (T.M) the better marketing decisions you can make in:
• How will understanding the T.M help plan the 4 p’s:
• PRODUCT- use the most appealing colours, materials, and other features for the target market
• PLACE- how to best deliver the G&S
• PRICE- how much they are willing to spend
• PROMOTION- how to create meaningful messages
• Knowing which media is used (i.e TV station EX: BABY BOOMERS (born after WW1)

Demographics

• Study of obvious characteristics that categorize people
• Age (tweens)
• Gender
• Family life cycle (student/married/retired)
• Income level (below $20 000/$100 000+)
• Ethnicity & cultures (white vs red wedding gowns in China)

Geographics

Urban

• Apartment or condo dwellers (DINKS- Double Income No Kids)
• Go to cultural events, restaurants and public transport
• Live close to work and dress well

Suburban

• Own cars and drive to work
• Spend money on gardens BBQ’s
• Have children

Rural

• Probably own truck/SUV
• Own a large piece of land
• Enjoy outdoors and have pets

Psychographics

• Study of measuring consumers interests, opinions and beliefs (more difficult to measure than demographics):
• Religious beliefs
• Lifestyle (i.e exercise lovers also eat healthy)
• Preferences
• Attitudes
• Personality traits
• Hobbies
• Political beliefs

Competition

• Perfect competition:
• Market is dominated by many many smaller companies
• None of the companies have any market control
• Prices offered largely based on demand and supply
• Ex, Dentists, realtors, lawyers

Oligopoly

• Market is controlled by a small number if large companies
• EX: banks, cell phone companies, grocery stores, video game systems

Monopoly

• Market controlled by one company
• EX: LCBO, Canada post, Ambulance

Is competition good?

• Competition provides many benefits for consumers such as:
• Better prices
• More selection/variety
• Better quality/increased features/innovation

Direct competition

• Consumer choose to spend $ between very similar G&S
• Ex: Movie theaters

Indirect competition

• Consumers choose to spend $ on less similar G&S but within same industry
• EX: Entertainment industry, movies, sporting events, bowling alley, night club

Competitive advantage

• “Anything that gives a company an edge over its competitors”

Marketing involves planning, pricing, distributing, and selling products/services. Marketers focus on research to understand consumer preferences. They also focus on product development, branding, sales strategies, and efficient distribution to meet consumer demands.