At the
center of all business is the concept of exchange. Just like when early
American traders provided fish in exchange for imported supplies the process of
exchanging a value-laden thing (i.e. product or service) for another
value-laden thing (i.e. money) still continues on today. It is the process of exchanging
something of value for something else of value. Each product or service
represents a component of effort, often measured in terms of money, to
determine the value of this exchange. The
goal of any company should be to sell additional products or services by ensuring
the awareness of its perceived and tangible value to the customer. Marketing is
all about the selling of value.
The
American Marketing Association clarifies the value exchange of marketing
management as “a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering
value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit
the organization and its stakeholders” (2011). Marketing is a process of
understanding the needs of one’s customers and offering products and services
that fulfill the need of those customers. Firms that do well in managing such
customer needs often generate higher sales and more shareholder value that
allows the entity to find a sustainable position in the market.
To achieve
their objectives companies often use a marketing concept. A marketing concept
is a customer-oriented philosophy of how the business can achieve its
objectives through the analysis and satisfaction of customer’s wants and needs
(Finch, 2012). For example, understanding what customers want through polling
and proper customer feedback allows companies to develop new products or
improve upon existing products to maintain customer interest and value
perceptions. It is a philosophy of how a company approaches the market.
To effectively manage marketing it is often
necessary to understand both the market and the unique segments of that market.
The market is any potential purchaser of products and services as represented
through the economic value chain. In other words, anyone who purchases a
product or service through commercial activity is part of the market. Within
this wider market are market segments that are made up of prospective and
current customers who would be naturally responsive to the company’s offerings.
Segments can be separated into groups based on wants, needs, behaviors,
locality, currency, nation, or any other differentiation.
A
marketing mix helps a firm understand and relate to their target market. The
marketing mix uses a variety of methods that follow the 4 P’s of marketing that
include price, product, promotion, and place.
As each demographic has their own unique interests and needs the marketing mix
is often specifically designed to reach these audiences through the four
conceptual vantage points.
In order to gauge the effectiveness of the marketing mix firms often
use financial metrics (Mintz, et. al. 2013). These metrics create benchmarks of
performance and response rates to determine the most effective use of financial
resources in drawing in business. For example, the use of promotions along with
text solicitations will have one response rate while newspaper advertising will
have another.
Most
companies have an entire department that work exclusively on marketing. Within
those departments, firms often opt to either retain in-house certain skills or
contract out certain skills in order to maintain their sales profitability.
Depending on the size of the firm the use of graphic designers, programmers,
artists, writers, psychologists, researchers, social media specialists,
database managers, marketing representatives, community outreach specialists
and a whole host of other talent may be used in the marketing process.
American
Marketing Association. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.marketingpower
.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx
Finch, J.
(2012). Managerial
marketing. San
Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Mintz, et.
al. (2011). What drives managerial use of marketing and financial metrics and
does metric use affect performance of marketing-mix activities? Journal of Marketing, 77 (2).
