Marketing

What is Marketing?

Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose your product or service over your competitors. If you are not doing that, you are not marketing. It’s that simple! The key is finding the right marketing method and defining the right marketing message to use to educate and influence your consumers.  

How Can You Identify Marketing?  

Marketing is best identified using what are called the 4 P's or a mix of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.

 Starting with products, companies have many procedures they must undertake to ensure their products are ready for selling. The first stage is called the "ideation stage," where the idea for the product is conceived. Then, marketing departments usually test new product concepts with focus groups and surveys to ascertain interest levels among potential buyers.

 PRODUCTS, companies have many procedures they must undertake to ensure their products are ready for selling. The first stage is called the "ideation stage," where the idea for the product is conceived. Then, marketing departments usually test new product concepts with focus groups and surveys to ascertain interest levels among potential buyers.

If the interest level is high, marketers may then sell products on a limited basis to track sales. If product sales are high, products are then rolled out on a national level. Before products go to the market, companies must decide what styles, sizes, flavors, and scents they should sell and the packaging designs they should use. Consumers have much input in these decisions.  
  
PRICE is also tested through focus groups and surveys. Companies must know the optimal price to sell their products to achieve maximum return. One way to determine price is to set it at a level comparable to competitors; that is if the company can recover all associated product expenses and still make a profit. If the company is introducing a new product that has never existed, they must determine how much the consumer is willing to pay for it. Customers will only pay so much for products. Price a product higher, and sales can drop off exponentially.  
  
PROMOTION pertains to brochures, ads, and information which companies use to generate interest in their products. For more complex concepts, like spas or computers, companies may promote their wares at trade shows. Promotions usually have two purposes: generate leads for sales reps or initiate actual purchases.

  
  
PLACE in marketing nomenclature is the distribution. It is how and where products are sold. Consumer product companies, for example, sell to wholesalers who, in turn, sell to retailers. In the industrial market, the buying process is longer and involves more decision makers. Some companies also sell products or services on a local level, while others sell nationally and even internationally. All distribution decisions are part of the overall marketing process.  

Why digital marketing is important

Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Gone are the days when the messages people got about your products or services came from you and consisted of only what you wanted them to know. Digital media is an ever-growing source of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences.

Marketing de Eduardo Cabrera