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WHAT IS MARKETING
Marketing is an often misunderstood activity that is vital to the success of any business.Marketing is very comprehensive - concerned with every aspect of your product or service from inception, design, pricing, distribution, selling and promotion through to after sales service and measurement of customer satisfaction.
Marketing is not just a matter of selling. It addresses what is to be sold, how it is to be sold, when and where it is to be sold, at what price.
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THE MARKETING FUNCTION
The scope of the marketing function is extensive. Among the most important aspects are discovering where potential consumers of the product or service are to be found, how many there are and whether this potential market is growing or in decline.
Whilst the sales function is largely involved in working for the present, ie selling what is currently available, the marketing function is mainly looking to the future, anticipating changes in the marketplace and researching, developing and producing new products or services to meet those changes.
Tt is the function of marketing to identify the consumer, establish the needs and, by coordinating the efforts of all sections of the business, to bring about sales.
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MARKET SEGMENTATION
Consumers place differeing degrees of importance on the individual elements of the marketing mix. They differ not only in the price they will pay, but in a wide range of benefits they expect from the product and its method of delivery. As a result, the market becomes split into several segments.
For example, the market for electronic calculators is made up of a number of segments including a "scientific users" segment, an "office" segment and a "general public" segment. Each segment will not only place a different emphasis on price when deciding what to buy but will also consider the features and benefits of differing products.
Understanding the concept of segmentation is central to marketing because each different customer group will require a different marketing mix strategy. Furthermore, each segment will offer differing growth and profit opportunities so the trick is to deliver the best offer to the best segment.
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DIFFERENCIAL ADVANTAGE
Market segmentation is not enough in its own right to bring success as generally, other businesses will also be competing in any given target segment.
It is important to tailor an offer that will be seen by target customers as superior to that offered by the competition - this is known as providing a differential advantage. Creating differential advantage will ensure higher profits for the business for without it, customers will make their buying decision based solely on price.
Differential advantage can be obtained via almost any element of the marketing mix - creating a superior product, more attractive designs, better service, more effective distribution, better advertising and so on. The key is to understand that the advantage must be based on research into what customers really value and that the differential is developed after due consideration of competitive strategies and offers.
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