Introduction
Marketing involves several set of processes which includes communicating, creating, and delivering gods and services to customers and consumers and manage customer relation for the benefits of the stakeholders. Maintaining positive relationships with customers is vital and requires understanding of buying behaviors and keeping a focus on the most profitable customers. The combination of average value of purchases, purchase frequency and brand switching pattern in the span of customer relationship span defines Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). In the form of utility, marketing adds value, or the power of a product or service to satisfy a need.
Customer relations, target market and marketing mix.
During the industrial revolution people in business mainly focused on goods production. Between 1920s and 1950s focus shifted and looked on production, selling and most importantly customer satisfaction. This was the beginning of market concept implementation where the business philosophy was to achieve organization goals and meet the customers need. . Markets are categorized as consumer and business-to-business or industrial, which includes governmental, producer, reseller, and institutional markets. There are two major components of a market strategy which includes target market and marketing mix. During the development of a marketing strategy, it involves the analyzing and selecting of the target market and the marketing mix to satisfy the target. The 4 elements of an organization or firm marketing mix are product, price, distribution, and promotion.
Marketing environment
marketing environment affects strategic market planning of a firm in various ways. The various external forces that affects the marketing environment includes economic, social-cultural, political, competitive, legal and regulatory, and technological forces. Economics forces affects the buyer willingness, while social-cultural affects the lifestyle, beliefs of a customer. Moreover political forces affects competition regulations, consumer protection while technological forces cause a product to become obsolete or create new market. The marketing plan of a firm gives its current position, marketing objectives establishment, and specifies the methods the firm will implement to achieve these objectives. Strategies of a market are done through marketing information system and marketing research. Consumer buying decision is affected by various factors that includes situational, psychological and social influences.
Products
Everything that a one receives in an exchange is a product. This includes expected benefits and all attributes. Products are categorized in accordance to their final use and this affects the promotion, distribution, and pricing of the product. Consumer products includes specialty products and shopping while business products includes the raw materials. There are four stages that a new product moves through. This includes introduction, growth, maturity, and decline which makes up the product life cycle. Marketers keep track record of the product life cycle to determine when to bring a new product for replacing a declining one.
Creating and Pricing products
All the products that a firm offers for sale is the product mix while a group of similar products marketed by a firm is the product line. The firm may improve a product mix by altering existing products, deleting products, and developing new products. To develop new products a series of steps are followed. This includes idea generation, screening of the product, exposure to potential buyers, business analysis on the product, and plans for full scale production and marketing of the product is implemented. Branding the product gives it its design and name, packaging helps in protecting the product while labeling provides customers with product information.
In pricing, price competition happen when a marketer emphasizes a product’s low price and sets a price that equals or beats competitors’ prices. Buyers’ perceptions of prices are affected by the value of the product to them, the range of prices they regard acceptable, their perceptions of competing products, and their association of quality with price. Pricing objectives of a firm include survival, profit maximization, target return on investment, achieving market goals, and maintaining the status quo. There are three major pricing methods that includes cost-based pricing, demand-based pricing, and competition-based pricing. New-product pricing, differential pricing, psychological pricing, product-line pricing, and promotional pricing are the different pricing strategies available to a firm for setting prices of a product. Geographic pricing, transfer pricing, and discounting are the three types of pricing associated with business products.
Product Distribution and promotion
Sequence of marketing organizations that directs a product from producer to ultimate user is the marketing channel. The direct channel from producer to consumer, the channel from producer to retailer to consumer, the channel from producer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer, and the channel from producer to agent to wholesaler to retailer to consumer are the channels used for consumer products. producer to user and producer to agent middleman to user are the two major channels for industrial products. The long-term partnership among channel members working together to create a distribution system that trim down inefficiencies, overheads, and superfluity, while creating a competitive advantage and satisfying consumers is Supply-chain management.
Wholesalers perform many another functions in a distribution channel and are intermediaries that purchase from producers or other intermediaries and sell to industrial users, retailers, or other wholesalers. On the other hand Non-store retailers use direct marketing, direct selling, and automatic vending, instead of conventional stores. lifestyle, neighborhood, community, and regional are the four major types of shopping centers. Inventory management, order processing, warehousing, materials handling, and transportation are the functions done through physical distribution. Moreover, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations are the major ingredients of the promotion mix. In advertisement of a product, the goal of the campaign must be clearly defined then the firm develops the platform and determines the budget of advertisement. Moreover, the firm develop a media plan, to create the advertising message and finally evaluates the impact made by the advert.
Conclusion
In marketing, Personal communication is aimed at informing customers and persuading them to purchase a firm’s products is referred to personal selling. Prospecting, approaching the prospect, making the presentation, answering objections, closing the sale, and following up are the steps in a personal selling process. Sales promotions enhance and supplement other promotional methods. Rebates, coupons, samples, premiums, frequent-user incentives and point-of-purchase are some methods of sale promotion. Finally, public relations creates and maintain pleasing relationships between an organization and various public groups, both internal and external.