ITM UNIT 1

Fundamentals of Marketing

• Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing
  • Marketing's aim is to understand the customer so well that the product or service sells itself. (Drucker, P.)
  • Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (American Marketing Association, 2017)
  • Marketing involves creating, communicating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs and desires of a group of people for the benefit of all.
  • Desire is more specific than need, providing a way to satisfy a need.
  • Marketing creates value for customers; this includes knowing the customer, communicating with the target market, and managing customer expectations to ensure satisfaction.
  • Marketing involves delivering value by facilitating purchases.
  • Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return. Marketing fosters desirable exchange relationships.
  • Building relationships involves informing, customizing, asking for permission, creating experiences, showing loyalty, and differentiating, encompassing medium and long-term strategies.
  • Marketing is not a series of dubious activities, such as buying advertising, sending unsolicited emails, or door-to-door sales; these are not legitimate marketing strategies. These can be considered unethical.
  • Some authors argue that merchants should act with honesty, integrity, and due diligence, considering the customer's interests.

Marketing Management in Companies

• Marketing Management Orientations
  • Production: Focuses on product availability and low cost; producing goods to meet consumer demand based on existing production.
  • Product: Emphasizes improving the technical quality of the product.
  • Selling: Aims to sell what's already produced.
  • Market: Prioritizes satisfying customer needs better than competitors.
  • Societal: Focuses on satisfying the needs of stakeholders and customers better than competitors.

Marketing as a Philosophy and a Function

• Marketing as a Function: The specific way of executing or carrying out the exchange process, employing strategic marketing analysis and operational execution plans.
  • Strategic Marketing: Observation, analysis, selection of potential buyers, and design of solutions.
  • Operational Marketing: Short-term objectives, action plans (marketing mix), budget schedules, and implementation and control via KPIs.

Marketing Plan Steps

• Internal and external analysis -> Define and establish objectives -> Propose strategies -> Develop action plan -> Measurement and evaluation of results (KPIs)

Marketing and Other Functional Areas

• Market research (identifying unmet needs)
• Cross-functional coordination (collaboration amongst departments).
• R&D activities (new product ideas, investment programs, and need assessment)
• Production and planning (manufacturing and distribution)
• Financial management (resource allocation).
  • Strategic marketing involves targeting and segmentation to identify suitable markets.
  • Operational marketing focuses on short-term activities like implementing marketing plans and budget scheduling.

Marketing Applications

• Political marketing: Focuses on promoting a society project for voter consideration.

• Social marketing: Aims to encourage change through a proposed plan.

• Public marketing: Concerned with public services and taxation

• Generative AI in Marketing: Utilization of AI for product design decision-making, and CRM systems.

  • Key challenges include data security, privacy concerns, ethical considerations, technical integration, and ongoing improvement.

• From 4 Ps to 4 Es of Marketing: The shift from product, place, promotion, and price to consumer wants/needs, convenience, conversation/communication, experience, and emotions, expanding from the product to experience and emotion. This transitions how customers see the product.