Marketing Process Overview

Marketing Process

• The marketing process begins with understanding the customer, company, and competition.
• Defining marketing goals and developing the right marketing strategy for success.
• Designing the optimal marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) to reach goals.

Understanding the Environment

• This step involves understanding the customer, company, and competition.
• The customer is analyzed to determine their needs, wants, and demands.
• The company analyzes it's own capabilities in order to leverage strengths.
• Competition is analyzed to evaluate the market landscape and understand the competitive advantage.

Setting the Strategy

• This step involves segmenting, targeting, and positioning.
• Segmentation: Dividing customers into groups based on shared characteristics.
• Targeting: Selecting the most profitable customer groups to focus on.
• Positioning: Creating a unique and memorable image of the product or service in the minds of the target customers.

Designing the Marketing Mix

• This step involves the four Ps of marketing:
  • Product: The goods or services offered to customers.
  • Price: The value exchanged for the product.
  • Place: How and where the product is made available.
  • Promotion: Activities to communicate the value proposition and build awareness of the product.

Needs, Wants, and Demands

• Needs: States of felt deprivation that are essential to survival.
• Wants: The form taken by needs when influenced by culture and personality.
• Demands: Wants that are backed by buying power, resulting in customers choosing specific products and paying for them.

Marketing Myopia

• Avoid focusing solely on products, instead focus on how they satisfy consumer needs.
• Focus on the underlying benefits and experiences provided to customers.
• Sony produces video games for entertainment, Nokia produces cell phones to facilitate communication, Facebook connects its users to satisfy a sense of belongingness.

Marketing Management Orientations

• Production Concept: Focuses on producing the most affordable and available products.
• Product Concept: Emphasis on product innovation, quality, and performance to attract customers.
• Selling Concept: Emphasizes sales and promotion to create demand for the product.
• Marketing Concept: Focuses on understanding and meeting customer needs and wants effectively and efficiently.
• Societal Marketing Concept: Considers the needs of consumers, the company's requirements, and long-term societal well-being.

Selling Concept vs. Marketing Concept

• Selling Concept: Starts with the factory, focuses on existing products, and relies on heavy selling and promotion to achieve sales.
• Marketing Concept: Starts with the market, focuses on satisfying customer needs, and seeks long-term customer relationships based on customer value.

Building Customer Relationships

• Frequency Marketing Programs: Rewards repeat customers with benefits based on purchase frequency or volume.
• Club Marketing Programs: Offers exclusive benefits and fosters community by creating groups for members.
• New Marketing (Customer-Engagement Marketing): Fosters direct customer involvement in brand development and customer experiences.

Capturing Value from Customers

• Selective Relationship Management: Targets fewer, but more profitable customers.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Focuses on retaining current customers and building long-term relationships.
• Direct Marketing: Directly connects with customers through channels like telephone, mail, kiosks, or the internet.

This quiz covers the essential stages of the marketing process, including understanding the environment, defining strategies, and designing the marketing mix. It highlights key concepts such as customer analysis, segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Test your knowledge of these fundamental marketing principles.