Marketing

Definition:

Total system of interacting activities that are designed to plan, price, promote and distribute products / services to current and potential customers. 

If marketing is done well, there is no need to make efforts to ‘sell’ the product (no convincing). 

Marketing’s objective is to be the eyes and ears of the firm; to engage in a two-way interaction with the customer to ensure needs are met. 

This will result in more sales, higher revenue levels, business growth, and higher profitability. 

The Marketing Concept:

Marketing is not a one-way process of making an item and then persuading customers to buy it.

Marketing undertakes research of a target market to better understand customer preferences prior to the creation of a product / service.

Marketing identifies needs that are pre-existing in the market, then designs solutions.

Each product / service is not for everyone; marketing targets their activities to ensure marketing resources are used efficiently (marketing is expensive—cost). Marketing teams calculate their ROI (Return on Investment) for every dollar spent on adverting - how much in sales in achieved?

Data is collected on business / product performance to determine if targets are achieved. 

Marketing strategies are then refined to influence customer choice to make improvements to product / service performance (higher sales / profitability)