Marketing is everything

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING

I.What is marketing? Try to give your definition of this term.

II.Here are four definitions of marketing. Which do you prefer and why?

· Selling means you sell what you make; marketing means you make what you can sell.

· Marketing means the right product, in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time.

· Marketing means identifying customers, defining and developing the products or services they want, and making and distributing them.

· Marketing means anticipating and creating needs: producing useful things customers didn’t know they wanted until you produced them.

III.Look at these marketing terms. Try to guess their meaning.

IV.Read the following extracts from an article in the Harvard Business Review and answer the questions after the article.

Marketing is everything

Several decades ago, there were sales-driven companies. These organizations focused their energies on changing customers’ minds to fit the product – practicing the ‘any color as it’s black’ school of marketing.

As technology developed and competition increased, some companies became customer driven. These companies expressed a new willingness to change their product to fit customers’ requests – practicing the ‘tell us what color you want’ school of marketing.

Successful companies are becoming market driven, adapting their products to fit their customers’ strategies. These companies will practice ‘Let’s figure out together how and whether color matters to your larger goal marketing. It is marketing that is oriented toward creating rather than controlling a market.

The old approach – getting an idea, conducting traditional market research, developing a product, testing the market, and finally going to market – is slow and unresponsive.

Marketing today is a way of doing business. Marketing is not a new ad campaign or this month’s promotion. Marketing has to be part of everyone’s job description, from the receptionists to the board of directors. Its job is neither to fool the customer nor to falsify the company’s image. It is to integrate the customer into the design of the product.

The real goal of marketing is to own the market – not just to make or sell products. Smart marketing means defining the whole pie as yours. In marketing, what you lead you own. Leadership is ownership.

That is why marketing is everyone’s job, why marketing is everything and everything is marketing.

1. According to the article, what did sales-driven companies try to do?

2. Why did some companies become customer driven?

3. What do market-driven companies do?

4. Why is the old approach described as ‘unresponsive’?

5. What is marketing today? Is it only within marketers’ responsibilities?

6. What is smart marketing?

7. Explain in your own words the real goal of marketing.

V.Look at the following marketing and advertising activities. What are they aimed at?

VI.Below are some more basic marketing terms. Match up the words in the box to the definitions.

1. All the companies or individuals (‘middlemen’) involved in moving goods or services from producers to consumers

2. An intermediary that stocks manufacturers’ goods or merchandise, and sells it to retailers and professional buyers

3. Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different requirements or buying habits

4. Making a product (appear to be) different from similar products offered by other sellers, by product differences, advertising, packaging, etc.

5. Possibilities of filling unsatisfied needs in sectors in which a company can profitably produce goods or services

6. Setting a high price for a new product, to make maximum revenue before competing products appear on the market

7. Someone who contracts existing and potential customers, and tries to persuade them to buy goods or services

8. The attributes or characteristics of a product, such as size, shape, quality, price, reliability, etc.

9. The extent to which supply or demand (the quantity produced or bought) of a product responds to changes of price

10. The strategy of setting a low price to try to sell a large volume and increase market share

VII.Read this small passage about marketing and answer the questions below the text.

Marketing is the management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the four P's of marketing:

(1) identification, selection and development of a product,

(2) determination of its price,

(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and

(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction.

1. Explain in your own words ‘goods and services move from concept to the customer’.

2. Explain these four P’s of marketing by example of any company you know.

VIII.Does marketing mean selling and advertising?

IX.Read the following passage and check if you were right.

Marketing differs from selling because selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs. In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demand for that product and fulfilling the customer's needs.

Advertising and marketing are concepts that many people consider to describe the same thing, selling a product or service to the marketplace. However, they are distinct concepts and understanding the difference is important to ensure you give due attention to each.

Marketing refers to the strategies and preparation you do to get your product or service ready to sell and identifying the target customers for your product. Marketing is a long term forward looking process whereby you determine how you’re going to package and brand your product and design it to appeal to the target market you seek to capitalize on.

Successful marketing involves significant groundwork in terms of clearly studying your target market. What are the needs of your customers? How will you address them? What is most important to them in terms of how much emphasis you should put on different aspects of your product or service? The needs and drivers for individuals in their early 20’s differ greatly from individuals in their early 50’s, so taking the time to assess your target market comprehensively is important. The branding and messaging you’ll need to reach different groups will vary, and to ensure a successful advertising campaign you need to ensure you effectively communicate to these groups.

Advertising refers to the process of actually promoting your product or service to the marketplace. Ensuring that you are effectively getting your product known to your target customers and emphasizing the benefits to them is important when it comes to driving successful sales. So where marketing involves the ground work of branding and researching the needs of your target market, advertising is the process whereby you actually communicate with your target market.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 6830