PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

Who Is A Marketer?

A marketer is some one who seeks a response, a purchase or, a donation from another party called the Prospect.

Marketers are responsible for demand creation and management. They seek to influence the level, timing and composition of demand to meet an organization's objectives.

The Scope of Marketing

Marketers are involved in marketing the following activities: Goods

• Services
• Places
• Properties
• Organizations
• Information
• Ideas
• Experience
• Events
• Personalities

Definition of Marketing

Marketing deals with identifying and meeting with human, social needs profitably. As a social process, marketing is the societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others (Kotler, 2003). Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably.

Managerial definition: Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

Marketing Management: The art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value (Kotler, 2003)

Marketing has almost become a guerrilla activity and main thrive for business organizations,it is therefore no longer enough to just seek to satisfy customers, you must as well seek to delight them. Marketing is no longer a company’s department charged with limited number of tasks such as; managing adverts, sending out direct mail, finding sales leads, providing customer service, etc. Marketing must be company wide undertaking and must drive the company’s mission, vision & strategic planning

Marketing is all about:

1. Deciding who the company wants as its customers;

2. What needs/wants to satisfy;

3. What products & services to offer;

4. What prices to set;

5. What communication to send and receive;

6. What channels of distribution to use;

7. What partnerships to develop.

Marketing deals with the whole process of entering markets, establishing profitable positions and building loyal customer relationships. Companies need to move rapidly into the new economy and employ internet, wireless and other technologies to achieve competitive advantage.

Core Marketing Concepts:

1. Needs, Wants & Demands

Needs arebasic human requirements-food, clothing, shelter, water, air, education, recreation, entertainment

Wants are desires, requirements or needs that are directed to specific objects that might satisfy a need. Wants are shaped by society.

Demands are wants for specific products backed by the ability to pay for them.

2. Target Markets, Positioning & Segmentation

Segmentationis the process whereby markets are divided through identification and profiling into distinct groups to merit separate marketing attention.

Target Markets are chosen segments that normally represent the greatest opportunity. It follows identification, profiling markets into distinct group of buyers who might prefer or require varying products and service mixes.

Positioning describes the process of designing a brand’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of target buyers using the unique central benefits a brand provides.

3. Offering and Brands

Offerings is the practice ofCompanies addressing needs through value propositions and asset of benefits (rational & emotional) they offer to customers to satisfy their needs

Brands are offerings from known sources, carrying many associations that constitute the brand image. A brand may also be said to be a set of mental associations and emotional effects held by the consumer, which add to the perceived value of the product or service.

4. Value and Satisfaction

Value reflects the perceived tangible and intangible benefits and costs a product or services offers to the customer. Value is primarily a combination of quality, service and price (QSP). Value is central to marketing concepts; hence marketing is seen as the identification, creation, communication, delivery, and monitoring of consumer value.

Satisfaction reflects a person’s comparative judgments resulting from a product’s perceived performance in relation to his or her expectations.

Marketing Channels

To reach a target market, the marketer uses three kinds of marketing channels:

Communication Channels deliver and receive messages from target buyers and include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards etc.

Distribution Channels display, sell, or deliver the physical product or services to the buyer or user. They include distributors, wholesalers, retailers and agents

Service Channels carry out transaction with potential buyers. Service channel include warehouses, transportation companies, banks etc

What is a Supply Chain?

Unlike the marketing channels that connect the marketer to the target buyers, the supply chain describes a longer channel stretching from raw materials to components to final products that are carried to final buyers. The supply chain for women’s purses starts with hides, and moves through tanning operations, cutting, manufacturing and marketing channels to customers.