Outline what the term marketing means and show your understanding of marketing principles, marketing activities and marketing functions.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Marketing

Marketing is basically the management process of identifying, anticipating and rewarding the needs and wants of existing and potential customers in order to achieve profit or other objectives that the business wants. Through marketing they are also finding ways of obtaining and encouraging customers to make further purchases and to recommend the products and services of the business. In marketing we have principles, activities and functions that all work hand in hand to get the benefit of achieving the marketing aims that the business wants to achieve.

Marketing principles

Understanding customer needs

The business has to understand and find out what customers needs are in order to make a targeted product that the customer will like and enjoy buying. Therefore a lot of marketing research is implemented in the process to target the needs of the customer with the product that the needs associate it with.

The business have many ways of finding out customer needs and wants by delivering them surveys or questionnaires which is one way of finding information another way would be discussions that they could have with potential customers to find out what they like and analysing groups with a sample of the product to test and see how they react and use it.

It is also important for the business to be able to anticipate future trends and developments, which could also influence the customer’s requirements.

So as we can see understanding the customer’s needs by reviewing all aspects of a product service in order to ensure that it continues to satisfy the potential customer’s requirements. Therefore with the convenience of having the right product or service available at the right price at the right time ensures to the customer satisfaction and reliability. Therefore a business with a customer-orientated position benefits them from having repeat purchases.

Understanding and keep a head of competition

Businesses have to clearly forecast and see what other competitors are doing for their customers, so that they are on top of the game and can benefit more customers and profit. Therefore the business will investigate the trends that their rivals have so they can set their objectives and activities better in order to gain more customers and build a better customer-orientated quality business with better goals and understanding of their needs.

Communicate effectively with customers to satisfy customer expectations

Effective communication involves the exchange of information it’s achieve mutual understanding and to promote ...

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Communicate effectively with customers to satisfy customer expectations

Effective communication involves the exchange of information it’s achieve mutual understanding and to promote action. A secondary aim is to obtain positive publicity for the business to enhance its public image. The target audience needs different types of information before making a purchasing decision like these listed

That the product exists
Where it can be bought
Details about product and service, its price and features
Information to evaluate whether it meets the customer needs

This information has to pass through a number of stages of communication like initiation by the business, what choice of communication format and channel it will be passed. The only disadvantage to this sequence of communication is that it is essentially one way: it offers little opportunity for potential customer to give feedback to the seller. Therefore this makes it difficult to measure the effectiveness of marketing communication.

More likely businesses have imprecise indicators such as comparisons of sales before and after an advertising campaign. Another source of problems is that businesses don’t have complete control of communication about products. Potential customers don’t just get product information form advertising and other marketing communications. They normally receive information about products and a range of sources including other consumers, critics and reviewers, television and radio, newspapers and specialist consumer magazines. These opinions from these sources and views can influence the public intensively by making recommendations and giving advice. For marketing communications to be effective, it must be received and accepted by these opinion formers. Businesses need to be aware that impartial consumer advice provided by the media and other agencies may support or damage its own marketing communications.

So as we can see communication is very essential in every business that is customer orientated they need to know exactly what their customer wants and needs are as I mentioned before by carrying out questionnaires, surveys and other strategies to get further insight into their potential customer’s minds. So effective communication is needed so that the business can put the ideas and needs of customers into the product. One best way to interact with customers is through meetings or by speaking to them by telephone; a lot of questionnaires can be asked an instant feedback of answers can be given. The business can then build up expectations and views by drawing up a statistical data so that further analysation can be done into this so that they know what the next step to do in order to achieve their customers needs. Direct mail is another alternative to communication as the customer will receive a sample of the product and fill out a survey identifying their views on it. Through direct selling the customer can obtain as much information about the product if it is linked to their needs then they will be satisfied and the product will have a good start of purchase as it has matched what they wanted in the first place.

Marketing Activities

This is the process of finding the right sources of elements towards the product so that it can be a success and want for the public. Therefore the business has to think in many ways of producing something that customers will buy and maintaining that focus of the product so it can continuously sell or make a difference like other famous products have.

Product

The product that the business makes has to be of quality and serve a good purpose for the customer to want. So the research and development about the product has to be realistic and interesting for it to work so that it will satisfy the needs of customers.

Price

The business has to come up with a price that will meet the product. Nowadays price means a lot, it is linked too much to the quality and value of the product. So we either get customers who are always looking for the cheapest price in a product or one who values the product if it is more expensive. So therefore the price of products are very important and have to be well thought of so that customers will believe the product has value and quality and also be satisfied with paying the price.

Promotion

The way in which the product is communicated to potential customers is very essential in the way that the customer perceives it and how important and interesting the product becomes to them. Promotion can be shown in many way through media contacts like advertising on TV making the product have real life effect, radio where it is emphasised by the tone of voice, choice of words and the mood it brings. Billboards are effective for travellers and direct mail and personal selling is for a more informative educational background of the product.

Place

Where the product is being distributed has much importance there is no point of making the product and the place where it is meant to sell does not sell good due to the lack of interest of customers or the type of area the product it is situated in. Another important factor to the place is that the product is being situated there at the right time. Like for example Wall ice cream is popular all year round but especially it is brought more likely in the summer season. As there are full guarantees of the want and need of the product at that time in that place.

Be aware of constraints on marketing activities

To achieve the marketing objectives the business has to put the customers needs first. However by putting the customer first can risk the business and can pu strain on their strategic objectives. As they will have to think about having low prices which can increase their running costs, high quality goods and services have to be applied which can also have a consequence on their costs, the way how the product is imaginatively presented and detailed also has a lot of time consuming and thought into it so it can attract the potential customer. The latest technology used is also an issue especially if the business is not using it competitors already using it can have an advantage on businesses that do not. The business also has to find an efficient way of distributing the product so that costs will be saved rather than the business suffering high costs in order to satisfy the customer’s needs as they will face later consequences of not being able to maintain their needs and their customers as well.

Therefore if these constraints come on the surface then the business will not be able to achieve target sales that they make as there is not the right balance, achievement of profit level will not be met as to high running costs. Keeping ahead of customers will not be an issue survival will be important, as they need to at least keep the business going on until they get back on track.

Marketing Functions

Co-ordinate its functions to achieve marketing aims

In a business the communication and functioning of all departments helps the achievement and ongoing daily activities keep running in the business efficiently. So when it comes to the marketing department achieving their aims marketing has to co-ordinate other functions so that what they want will happen with the help and action of other departments to fulfil the objectives they want. For example if the company wanted to launch a new product they will need the research of their own team, a forecast of how much capital will be invested into the product by the finance team and the material and actual production process of the product from the design or production team.

The marketing functions have to be organised so that well co-ordination and clear lines of communication with other departments are available so that activities get done. If marketing is badly co-ordinated or lines of communication are poor, there is always danger that problems will arise in production, purchasing and finance.