Marketing Fundamentals

Definition of Marketing

• Marketing encompasses all activities undertaken by a company to encourage the buying or selling of products or services.
• Key aspects include advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers and businesses.

Importance of Marketing

• For businesses: Helps stay relevant by adapting to changing consumer preferences and trends.
• For businesses: Contributes to a higher standard of living by providing better products and services.
• For businesses: Plays a vital role in economic growth by generating employment through marketing functions like advertising, packaging, and transportation.
• For businesses: Boosts sales volume, generates revenue, and ensures long-term success.
• For businesses: Helps companies effectively compete in their markets.
• For businesses: Builds brand reputation, which leads to better name recognition and product recall.
• For consumers: Raises awareness about products and services.
• For consumers: Creates a mutually beneficial relationship between customers and companies.
• For consumers: Empowers customers to identify their needs and find products to meet them.
• For consumers: Allows customers to compare products from different companies, enabling informed purchasing decisions.
• For consumers: Provides customers with additional benefits through promotional activities.
• For consumers: Beneficiaries of Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), companies focus on retaining existing customers.

Extended Marketing Mix

• Product: Must meet consumer needs, work effectively and be as expected by the consumer.
• Place: Should be available where the target consumer shops easily (High Street, Mail order, e-commerce).
• Price: Represents good value, not necessarily the cheapest option.
• Promotion: Utilizes various communication channels (advertising, public relations, sales promotion) to reach target audiences.
• People: Essential for company success as they represent the business to customers.
• Processes: Delivering the service to the customer is also part of their experience.
• Physical evidence: Tangible elements of the service, even if the service itself is intangible (e.g., a haircut, insurance documents).

Marketing Strategies and Promotions

• Traditional Marketing: Promotes brands through pre-internet channels like print, television ads, and billboards.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Ensures visibility of products/services on search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Content Marketing: Creates and distributes valuable content to target audiences through blogs, social media, visual content, ebooks, and webinars.
• Social Media Marketing: Utilizes social media platforms to promote brands and products through engaging content.
• Video Marketing: Uses video content to raise brand awareness, generate conversions, and close deals.
• Voice Marketing: Leverages smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home to educate users and answer questions.
• Email Marketing: Sends personalized educational and promotional content to subscribed audiences to build relationships and nurture leads.
• Conversational Marketing: Allows for personal conversations with customers across multiple channels, including chat, phone, email, and social media.
• Buzz Marketing: Generates word-of-mouth marketing and anticipation through interactive events and community influencers.
• Influencer Marketing: Leverages influencers with engaged followers to reach a specific audience.
• Acquisition Marketing: Focuses on acquiring customers, unlike other marketing strategies that have broader goals.
• Contextual Marketing: Targets users with ads based on their online browsing behavior.
• Brand Marketing: Shapes the brand's public perception and creates an emotional connection with the target audience.
• Native Marketing: Collaborates with reputable publishers to create sponsored articles and videos that blend seamlessly with their existing content.