When it comes to marketing, most businesses consider it all about the products and services they are trying to sell. While this is true to an extent, marketing goes beyond just throwing up a few posters and commercials. It involves the whole spectrum of marketing activities, from advertising to customer contact.
Marketing can be broken down into several sub-disciplines,
depending on how a firm or organization perceives the importance of each discipline to its overall market penetration strategy. These sub-disciplines are marketing research, advertising, and promotional activities, sales, and marketing, and product development. Marketing research seeks to understand what consumers actually want, what they are looking for and why. Research can also determine the competition’s current marketing strategies and whether there is a need for any new introduction or innovation. It helps decide what new products or services should be introduced into the marketplace.
Advertising and marketing are closely related but distinct. They go hand in hand, however, and marketing does not always consist of placing television or radio ads. Some marketers choose to create websites, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts in addition to traditional marketing activities. New businesses may opt to implement online marketing strategies that include search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) marketing, and viral marketing. This article will identify each of these sub-disciplines, explore their role in marketing, and examine how they can be applied to new product development.
Marketing research can be conducted through various methods. Surveys, focus groups, and consumer panel focus groups are some of the preferred methods. Panel focus groups allow marketers to get a direct view of the actual opinions of real consumers. These panels allow marketers to hear directly from actual consumers and accurately define their needs and wants. These panels make it possible for marketers to gain important insights on target markets.
Consumer panel focus groups offer a unique opportunity
for marketers to directly interact with consumers. In addition to gathering information about individual consumer experiences, they also provide marketers with the data necessary to develop a marketing strategy based on the responses from actual consumers. Through surveys and focus groups, marketers are able to observe and measure trends among specific demographics. These types of studies can help marketers determine what types of messages and offerings to resonate with consumers.
One of the four Ps for marketing success is creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging value. Marketers must first create an appealing offer that benefits consumers. Next, they must create a message that effectively communicates the benefits of the offer and why consumers should buy it. Lastly, they must quickly and efficiently communicate this value to consumers through a variety of communication channels. Lastly, marketers must exchange this value with customers in a manner that creates a sense of urgency. Once a customer has a sense of urgency, they are much more likely to act.
- Another key factor in successful marketing involves creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging value.
- By understanding and defining the process of marketing.
- Marketers can better define and create appropriate new offerings.
that will engage consumers and create a sense of urgency for action. Furthermore, they can use specific metrics to measure these new offerings and determine which marketing efforts are working and which are not.
One of the keys to marketing success is creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging value in an efficient and meaningful manner. Marketing executives may want to take a look at one of the examples noted above to get a better idea of how this concept fits into their overall marketing strategy. By combining these four Ps with traditional marketing tools like advertising, research, and focus groups, marketers can create campaigns that accurately identify opportunities and solutions that will be effective. With this information, they will have a deeper understanding of exactly what consumers need and want from their businesses and be able to successfully create new products and services that will be welcomed by existing customers and encourage new ones.
