MARKETING

The Marketing Mix and Target Marketing

What is MARKETING?

There are many definitions of Marketing, but I like the following:

Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer’s requirements profitably.

--Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK

Simply put, marketing deals with some basic ideas –

a)      What do people want, and can we make one?

b)      Can we make one that will sell at a price that is both attractive to customers and profitable for us? 

c)       Can we use advertising, personal sales, and other promotions to help us sell our product, even if it is higher priced than competitors? 

d)      Are there channels of distribution (places we can offer our product for sale to customers) that will help us get our product to customers cheaper or more efficiently than competitors?

“Nothing happens until the sale gets made.” (Anon)

This well-known quote says it all.  In essence, Marketing is the primary function in a business.  Even with a great product to sell (or a service to offer), a sale must occur for the business to exist.  No business survives solely because it has a great accounting or finance department!  All other functions in the business SUPPORT the marketing effort; to lose focus on this is to begin to fail.  That’s why a Mission Statement must be clear about what is being sold in the business.  Without something to sell, you aren’t in business.

The Marketing Mix

When we looked at the development of a Business Plan, we discussed how a Marketing Plan, as a component of the overall Business Plan, is a key element.  The Marketing Plan must cover four main areas – often referred to as the “Marketing Mix”.

These are also referred to as “the Four Ps” :

·          PRODUCT (or service)—what’s being offered for sale

·          PRICE—the price being asked, OR the price being offered by customers

·          PROMOTION—how potential customers are being informed of the offering’s existence

·          PLACE (distribution)—the route the product takes from the producer to the final consumer.

In the lessons to follow this week and next we will go into detail in each of these areas, and we will see how they “mix” or interact with each other.