Marketing: An overview from the very beginning.

Marketing is an enigma, in a way as a force of good by its practitioners; while others see it as a force of evil; in reality, it might be either or none, depending on how people put it into practice. Marketing is not just making strategies to grow the sales of a company. It involves understanding the audience's needs and meeting them. The satisfactory scale is the marketing agenda that one marketer or a company needs to excel at.

The beginning:

Marketing terms were first-chaired in the late ’80s in the American universities. Marketing concepts have their roots in the aftermath of World War II. History claims that successful entrepreneurs or businesses were well versed in the principles of efficacious marketing though they failed to put the same into words. Before the industrial revolution, buyers and sellers had close contact with each other, which favored them in being satisfied with their respective businesses. As there was a development in the revolution, their approaches had to change and there appeared a psychological distance between them. To overcome this distance, new approaches to satisfy the consumers' needs, to let them know about the availability of the goods and services or need of any goods or services that they were in need, to reach the numerous potential customers had to be figured out and put into practice.

But the question is, is marketing philosophy or an activity? "Marketing is a concept or a way of thinking about how organizations should interact with their customers" versus the statement that "Marketing is a practice", which has been proven bald since the establishment of the term "marketing". The term marketing has existed since time immemorial, but today's time of exchanges, standards, and the quality of living does not fully describe this practice.

Marketers are thought to be unnecessary or trapping. They land up in such a misconception because similar to an iceberg, the seen part of marketing represents just the tiny portion of the complete marketing activity.

The reality of this is summarized in a quotation by “Marketing is essential to the long-term success of an organization” by “Peter Drucker”. I.e., making it clear that, if one does not get the product right, then all the cost that one would go wasted, and no amount of advertising and promotions will make it right. Promotions are important for a successful business, but if the awareness of the product is a downfall, nothing makes it a success. It is recommended to change the consumer product to change the consumer mindset.

After the industrial revolution that calved contemporary marketing approaches, it introduced people to terms of division of labor, entrepreneurial management, and the applications of new technology and innovation to production and distribution.

Division of labor quoted by “Adam Smith”,

“One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pins is another, it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper.”

Explained,

“Two points are of particular significance in this step forward. First, the organization is required to bring together the men, provide a workplace, and source raw materials. Second, the enormous increase in output reduces the price of the product, necessitates the development of channels of distribution to make it available to those with a demand for it, and leads to the exploitation of a much larger market. It also means that the factory tends to produce standardized products and no longer makes the order of individual customers.”

But with industrialization, the connection that the consumer and the buyer had was broken, as time passes, customers do prefer those who match their needs in affordability, this helps those who are in close contact with their customers, others lose their customers as they lack in the customs and traditions of new-age marketing. To retain their customers and their competitiveness, a new approach is based on making assumptions on what the consumer wants and producing the same, which is termed as marketing orientation.

Defining the term, marketing:

Though the accurate definition of marketing does not exist and is trying to be put into words, by “Peter Drucker”, who is widely recognized as one of the most influential management thinkers. In 1954 he wrote:

“Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise... Marketing is the distinguishing, the unique function of the business.”

In 1972 “Philip Kotler”, author of the world's bestselling marketing textbook and generally regarded as the father of the marketing management school of thought, observed, 'Marketing is the set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges.

In 1976, as one of the first professors of marketing in the UK, ‘Marketing is concerned with the creation and maintenance of mutually satisfying exchange relationships.

In 1983 Ted Levitt also suggested a succinct definition when he said. “The purpose of the business is to create and keep a customer”.

Finally, the definitions proposed by the two major professional marketing bodies are as follows:

“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.” (Approved October 2007 AMA Board of Directors)

“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” (Chartered Institute of Marketing)

Marketing is everywhere. If one ought to be good in their business, they have to be a good marketer. If it fails, either they think that they know out and out of the business marketing activities or they do not know anything! An unpopular opinion. The new-age marketing began in 1950, the time when the entertainment media had just risen and people were being aware of the available products that could be consumed. As and when the internet era began to charge, marketing was on floors everywhere. From pamphlets to billboards, literally every nook and corner.

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” David Packard

Types of marketing:

There are several ways in which one’s product can be promoted. Be it from billboards to a post on social media platforms, from early to till today, there are varied approaches evolved, they are:

Digital marketing:

Digital marketing is rising globally at a fast pace. As the world becomes more dependent on the internet, digital marketing enables businesses to connect with and reach out to more people. More and More employment for the youth as this field is just growing and the number of professionals is less. As per business requirements, campaigns can be easily customized and made more targeted. Digital media is the best way to turn a product into a brand. Marketers can use it because it is cost-effective and provides a lot of touchpoints. Digital marketing encompasses the use of digital media, including the internet, mobile phones, display advertising, or any other digital medium. Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and Content Writing constitute the most popular and demanded areas of digital marketing.

Internet marketing: Putting the products online and promoting them on the internet. This was inspired by an online campaign, whose whole idea was promoting their online and increasing the reach of their products among the customers.

Search engine optimization: shortly termed as SEO, it is a strategic move in marketing where one optimizes the web search in a way where their products appear as their search engine result when they require any product from their lineup. This is attracting a particular customer to their products amidst an ocean of products on the web. A better understanding of SEO, No matter what sector you are in, SEO must be the key to excel in the digital marketing era. Most of the marketers are not aware of the same and that's a reason for their lack among the fellow competitors.

Blog marketing: Blogging has been in fashion forever now. It is a marketing platform too! And they are no longer just aesthetically written articles but business promoting mediums.

Social media marketing: Business promotions using leading social media platforms.

Email marketing: Subscription to any brand's newsletters is something most of us do in recent times. This is a type of marketing strategy where one keeps updating about their products and the new launches, so the customers are likely to buy them.

Influencer marketing: Every other individual on Instagram having a certain amount of followers is termed be an influencer. This is promoting a particular business’ product via Instagram through these influencers.

Pay per click: PPC is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time their ads are clicked. It allows advertisers to bid for placement in a search engine's sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword related to their business.

Electronic billboards: Electronic billboards: Electronic billboards are large (or even giant!) screens made up of LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, whose lights are arranged and timed to produce static, changing, or full-motion text and images. It can also go by these names:

⦁ Digital billboard

⦁ Digital, electronic, or video display

⦁ Electronic message sign or board

Viral marketing: Viral marketing is a sales technique that involves organic or word-of-mouth information about a product or service to spread at an ever-increasing rate. The internet and the advent of social media have greatly increased the number of viral messages in the form of memes, shares, likes, and forwards.

Affiliate marketing: The affiliate marketing model involves paying third parties to promote a company's products and services. The publishers receive a commission fee for generating traffic.

The 5Cs of marketing:

The marketing depends on nf 5Cs’s, which are:

Customers: Analyzing what the consumer needs and being able to satisfy the needs.

Company skills: What are the skills of one’s company that show their potential in satisfying the consumers?

Competition: What are the competitions or the challenges that the company will need to face? While satisfying the customers.

Collaborators: Whom should the producer be entitled to? Predicting the collaborators.

Context: Analyzing that, what are the factors such as technologically, economically that might affect the company’s marketing activities.

The 4’Ps of marketing:

The 4p’s of marketing are the basic formulae that need to be understood to work and identify the marketing approaches:

Product: Decision on what product that one’s business sells to consumers has to be made depending on the needs of the customers. This includes the physical product, brand name, brand reputation, presale, post-sale services, etc.

Place: Also termed as marketing channels, after deciding on what the customer needs are, and one is sure of what their business’ product is, choosing the right place is the next decision to be made. Place matters a lot in the whole strategy-making of marketing. If one chooses the right place for their product, they are already halfway to their good marketing practice. To decide a place, one must consider these assets, the stock or the lot size, quality assurance, product assortment, after-sale services, logistics.

Price: How one price their products matters the most, depending on the target audience that might consume their products, the price has to be decided. The very first thing that needs to be considered while setting up a price of a product is the marketing objective. The perceived value of the product differs from customer to customer. Thus, the higher the price, the lower the sales, or the other way around. Since customers place different values for different products, the business should reconsider their prices depending on their perceptions. This is termed price customization.

Developing a product depending on the consumer's needs, controlling the varying perceived prices, varying the prices based on observed buyer characteristics, customizing the prices based on consumers' perceived transactions are the terms to look at while handling price customization.

Promotions: Deciding the set of ways that the product line is set up to reach its designated consumers. To communicate with customers, to be aware of the presence of the product to the customers, educate customers about the features, uses of the product, likelihood to encourage them to try the line-up and or repeat purchasing it. Impactful marketing does require both selling and purchasing techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, and maintaining public relations. To ensure that the product stays as a word of mouth, all these promotional strategies have to be met.

Closure:

There’s no definite meaning to marketing, every individual defines it in their way if they are someone who has been practicing it! And the definition has changed over time. As it adapts to changes. Perspectives and disciplines from other fields should be embraced. In the beginning, it was about using products and satisfying the economy. Economists assumed that this would be possible with maximization of efficiency and producing line up in a larger quantity at low prices. The assumption of the demand was the hero of the whole strategy. The greater the marketing was, the greater the product was! As technological innovation is evolving day by day, the variety of the goods, consumers' needs, quantity, quality of the goods, and mostly the pricing of the product, have to be improved too. The overall satisfaction can be improved only through the provision of varied products at the right time and in the right place.

Marketing can transform all types of exchange relationships and has the potential to be applied in many contexts beyond that of business or commercial exchange where it originated. Adapting the marketing strategies, considering the P's of marketing, considering expertise suggestions, making way for the new technologies, evaluating the possible limitations, evolving as and when the digitalization happens are the aspects for better development of retail marketing. Just practicing and understanding the needs of consumers, helps in becoming the best in the business. When we better understand and meet consumers' needs, we grow as a company.

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” ~ Milan Kundera