Marketing

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a process of creating, communicating and delivering the value of a product or service to customers, organizations, stakeholders and society. Marketing seeks to discover the needs and wants of prospective customers and to satisfy those needs by way of an exchange. The exchange is usually a trade of something of value, resulting in both buyer and seller being better off after the trade has occurred.

To define ‘needs and wants’ in terms of marketing, a ‘need’ can be physical, emotional and or social, without it we feel deprived, for example, food, love or being part of a community. A ‘want’ is influenced by our personality, and our culture, like a diamond ring, or our religious beliefs’.

For marketing to occur several factors need to be present, they are:

• Two or more parties (usually a buyer and a seller) with unsatisfied needs.

• The desire and the ability to satisfy both parties needs.

• A way for both parties to communicate their ‘wants & needs’ enabling an exchange to occur.

• Each party has something to exchange, for example, and in most cases, the buyer exchanges money with the seller in return for a product or a service.

The Market

The first objective in marketing is to discover the prospective consumers’ needs. This may or may not be known by the consumer, for example, when a completely new product is launched the consumer needs to be educated on the product, and as to why they need or want it. Marketing then attempts to satisfy the needs of the consumer, with an organization focusing its efforts on a specific group of customers, who share a similar need. This is known as the target market. Author Malcolm Gladwell gives an interesting TED talk (Gladwell) on consumer choice and happ...

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...ness will face, and that is the reason marketing is so important to a business; if an effective marketing strategy is put in place, customers will follow.

Knowing the market and whom you are targeting are crucial parts of that marketing strategy. With today’s saturated marketing culture, consumers are overwhelmed with messages from advertising, info-graphics, video, and social media, all in an attempt to get their attention. That is why marketers must speak the language of their target market, and convey the message succinctly. This strategy will save time, effort and most of all MONEY, which is fundamentally why a business exists.

Reference Material

Marketing:The Core (Roger A. Kerin)

British Airways Ad (M (Gladwell)arketing Week)

VALS – Strategic Business Insight (VALS)

Survey Monkey (Survey Monkey)

Malcolm Gladwell TED Talk (Gladwell)

(Roger A. Kerin)