What is Marketing, Why it’s so Important ?

What Is Marketing?

The term “Marketing” is variable and all-encompassing which always makes it hard for people to understand it. People might simply think marketing is sales, marketing is advertising, marketing is making money. 

That’s correct but not entirely correct. Marketing is made up of all these elements.

I have found some definitions of marketing from authorised organisations and resources, letting you have a basic understanding on what marketing is. 

• 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 (American Marketing Association, 2017).

• The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising (Dictionary.com).

• The business activity involves finding out what customers want, using that information to design products and services, and selling them effectively (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019).

Based on the definition, we can roughly understand that Marketing is to deliver and promote a company’s product to the public through creating some message. Advertising, Selling and market research is also involved in the marketing. 

From my perspective, I might said that : “Marketing is to promote company’s product to the customer through some business activity such as advertising, selling and communication.”

I graduated with a Bachelor of Marketing and worked as a marketer in the dusty for over 3 years, I still cannot fully understand what marketing is about.

Now, we might have a basic understanding of what marketing is. Let’s move to a fundamental and classic theory of marketing which is “4P’s”. 4P’s stand for product, price, place and promotion. Combination of the 4P’s called marketing mix.

What Are the 4 P’s of Marketing?

Product

Product is the root of marketing. It refers to the product or service that the company plans to offer its customer. An excellent product should differentiate itself from the competing product and seek to fulfil an absence in the market. Marketers need to have a deep understanding of the product before launching any campaign. 

For instance, are there any substitute products in the market, what the product features are, how it can be beneficial for the consumer and so forth.

Price

Price refers to the selling price of the product. Companies must consider some factors like unit cost price, distribution expenses and marketing costs when establishing the product’s price. Additionally, companies should have to ensure that the price can compete with the products in the marketplace and fix the consumer demand (price decisions will determine demand).

Place

Place refers to the distribution of the product. It is about making the products available in the right place at the right time. Major considerations involve whether the company will sell the product through a physical storefront, online, or through both distribution channels.

Promotion

Promotion is the integrated marketing communications campaign to make customers aware of what you are selling and how it is different. Promotion involves a series of activities like advertisement, selling, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotions, guerilla marketing, sponsorships etc.

Types Of Marketing Strategies

Traditional Marketing Strategies

• Outdoor Marketing: It refers to marketing that takes place outside. For example, car stickers (Grab car), billboards at the highway, vehicle wraps, transit advertising (typically on bus and train), posters, guerrillas, point of sale displays, street furniture, kiosks and so on. 

• Print Marketing: It refers to using advertising tools published in printed formats. For examples, newspapers, magazines, brochures, or flyers for marketing purposes

• Direct Marketing: It refers to marketing that lets businesses interact with potential customers directly. For example, direct selling, phone calling, Text (SMS), mail.

• Electronic Marketing: It refers to marketing that uses TV and radio for advertising. The company can deliver information to customers through a more effective way (mixed of visual and auditory media) than print marketing.

• Event Marketing: It refers to a promotional strategy that involves face-to-face contact between brands and their customers at events. For example, seminars, trade shows, virtual events, auctions or raffles, appreciation events, conferences, VIP events and so on.

Digital Marketing Strategies

• Search Engine Optimization: Abbreviated “SEO”. It refers to a process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website from search engines. For example, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review optimise its website to rank higher at Google, Yahoo.

• Social Media Marketing: It refers to the use of social media platforms to promote a product. For example, Apple created some posts at Facebook and Instagram to promote its iPhone 14 launching. 

• Content Marketing: It refers to a marketing strategy that attracts, engages, and retains an audience by creating and sharing relevant, valuable articles. For example, Wall Street Journal creates valuable content or news to attract our attention, then stay on its website. 

• Email Marketing: It refers to an action of sending a commercial or product message by using email to a group of people. For example, Apple sends some email about promoting its new iPhone 14 launching to your personal Gmail account. 

• Influencer Marketing: It refers to a form of marketing that enables businesses to collaborate with individuals (a lot of followers on social media platforms for increased brand exposure). For example, Samsung hired Back Pink to be its brand ambassador, then posted some Samsung product messages on its social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Why is Marketing Important for Businesses?

Marketing is a highly valuable tools and bring lots of benefits to business, as shown below.

• Effective consumer engagement
• Building and maintaining reputation
• Building relationships between customers and business
• Boosting sales:
• Staying relevant
• Making informed decisions

Marketing is fundamental of a business. Whenever you start a business, you must the issues of how to promoting your product to the public, how to know what customer needs, what price you should set, and so on

All these questions, Marketing is helping you to solve by a scientific and proven way. “What is marketing”, this is a required course for every Entrepreneurship, Business manager to learn.

Additional Reading:

Marketing vs Advertising

Marketing vs Sales