Blog 2: What is Marketing?

Considering this is a class based blog and also focused mainly on the Marketing end of
Business, it would be good to sum up and explain exactly what marketing is. According to McGraw Hill, by definition marketing is:

            “…the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit its customers, the organization, its stakeholders, and society at large.” (Kerin, 5 )

Marketing is how a business, organization or company gets the word out and publicizes their name to not only benefit themselves but those who support them. In relation to this definition, there is similar definition that explains the main goal of marketing well. This definition comes from the American Marketing Association (AMA) which I will cover in future blog posts, so stay tuned! The AMA states,

“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.”(AMA)

There are many different ways that companies go about marketing their product, service or brand. There are four things that marketing requires:

•   Two or more parties with unsatisfied needs
•   A desire and ability on their part to be satisfied
•   A way for the parties to communicate
•    Something to exchange

A way to satisfy these requirements is to follow a set of guidelines that help direct what specific areas to focus marketing on. These are called the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. The 4 P’s are a staple in the marketing world that is the basis for the activity to be successful.

Product:

This refers to the actual physical product or service that the company is trying to sell to their target market. This is by making the product what the community and target market wants while trying to figure out how to have that product fit the consumer’s needs. For example, in class we talked about Post It© Highlighter Pens, which satisfied the needs of multiple target markets that could use the convenience of having both a highlighter and post it page markers tied into one product. Target markets could be office workers, students of all ages, and teachers. 

(via Shopping Square)

Price:

The pricing is what is in exchange for the product, which varies on both the quality of the product and the amount a customer would be willing to pay. The pricing of this could be people’s investment in Apple products and computers because their protection against viruses has been known to be better quality than that of competitors.

(via idh-wallpapers)

Promotion:

This is how the buyer communicates with consumers, getting the word out there and promoting their product to their target market. This can be seen from ads, commercials, branding, and even product placement such as people in a movie drinking Coca Cola or wearing a certain brand.

(via Geek Tryant)

Fun Fact: The image above is of Will Ferrell as his role as Buddy the Elf in "Elf". The link located underneath the image where it was taken from actually gives a history of Coca Cola in movies which is a quick but interesting read!

Place:

Place refers to where and by what means a product is getting to consumers. This is through what stores a particular product is placed in or location such as a particular area compared to the country as a whole.

(via wmschwartz)

These are all components of marketing strategies that different companies and organizations use to market their product or service. Each piece plays a role in what could overall be a successful way to market to the particular target market or community as a whole.