Marketing Concepts

Title: Marketing Concepts for Marketing Students. Marketing is a mode of communication that exists between an individual or a company and their clients with the intention of selling them their products and services. Being able to communicate the value of a company or an individual’s product or service is a significant aspect or element of marketing. As such, various marketing concepts that including advertisement, promotion, marketing mix, marketing research, pricing, packaging, personal selling, brands, business markets, buying behaviors of customers, retailing, sales management, distribution channels, global markets, innovations, and trends in marketing, among others exist. In particular, this research paper presents an evaluation of marketing mix, market research, and pricing with an intention of creating a further understanding of the concepts. The general understanding is that marketing defines everything under the management process via which merchants and services provided move from being mere concepts to the point where they reach the end users or customers.

Marketing Mix

This concept defines a planned or scheduled mix of the controllable fundamentals of the marketing plan of a product commonly referred to as 4Ps: promotion, product, place, and price. These elements are continuously attuned until the correct recipe that meets the desires of the customers purchasing the product is established, while yielding optimum profit.

In some cases the ‘P’ of product is replaced with presentation. With a combination of the 4Ps, business managers have to avail the right products in the right location or place, at the right timing and price. Essentially, a business is compelled to develop a product that a specific segment or group of personalities want, avail it for sale at a location that those personalities regularly visit, and tag a cost on it or price it such that its value matches the actual value that they feel they obtain from it; and actually implement all this within a duration or time when they are in demand. This whole concept defines marketing mix.

Luan and Sudhir (2010) argue that the 4Ps act as the parameters that an organization’s marketing manager regulate or control, based on the external and internal constraints of the business or marketing surrounding (environment). The objective is to come up with decisions that focus the 4Ps on the clients in the market that is targeted with an intention of creating a perceived product value and give a positive feedback.

In their discussions, Luan and Sudhir (2010) define a product as tangible objects, including services, which are offered by a company or an individual. Decisions that marketing managers can make on products include, but are not limited to choosing a brand name, packaging, warranty, functionality, accessories, services, styling, repairs, quality, support, safety and styling of the product.

Place defines where buyers obtain a good or service from. Under the element of ‘place,’ a variety of questions can be asked to meet the quest or need of customers (Luan & Sudhir, 2010). For instance, a marketing manager may want to know how to access the right and best distribution channel, determine whether to use sales force, or may be become part of a trade fair, make online product submissions, or better yet still mail product samples to catalogue organizations or companies. Imperative to note under this concept is equally determining what one’s competitors are doing, how they do it, the lessons that can be learnt from their actions, and finally determine a differentiation formula.

Pricing or the cost charged for a service obtained or a product purchased is equally a significant element of the 4Ps. According to O’Cass and Heirati (2015), one requires to work extra hard to determine what customers really want, in addition to identifying where a majority of them do their routinely shopping. Important to note is that getting just one of this elements wrong could be a recipe for disaster. For instance, a product might be priced too high or too low with an intention of attracting clients, but if the target group have no capacity to afford the costly product or its too much cheap or below their standard, then the product might not be bought or assumed to be of low quality respectively (O’Cass & Heirati, 2015). Essentially, getting right the marketing mix acts as a leading edge where any marketing manager should begin when thinking through their plans to offer a particular service or product, and it majorly helps them evade simple mistakes.

Within the context of marketing mix, the element of ‘promotion’ takes into consideration the numerous dimensions of marketing communication, and specifically the communication of the details of the product or service with the intention of achieving a positive response from the customers (Powers & Loyka, 2010). Decisions that can be made under marketing promotion or communication include whether to use a push, pull, or other forms of promotional scheme, identifying the modes of doing adverts, sales improvements and promotions, publicity works and public relations, the budget for marketing communication, in addition to making use of individual selling strategies or a sales team (Powers & Loyka, 2010).

Generally, the elements of marketing mix are used to help marketing managers to successfully position their goods and services, or what could be referred to as market offers. The aforementioned elements or the 4Ps of marketing are used by marketing managers to define their marketing options based on their product, place, price, and promotion (4Ps). This kind of model can be used when an individual is making plans for a completely new business venture, in the evaluation of an already existing business offer or product, and finally in the optimization of the effect or impact of a venture in regard to a targeted market.

Product; the product refers to the physical commodity that is sold to the market by the seller. The product forms an important element in the marketing mix because it gives different products the require matrix. The product might occur both in physical and invisible form. Products which are visible might be categorized further on the basis of service, warranty, packaging and stature. Product differentiation is based on increased level of appearance and product formation.

Price; price is the amount of money which is paid as an exchange of the products. Prices vary due to the quality and quantity of commodities and services. The major reason why price forms an extensive aspect of marketing is because of the relationship between the price levels and the movement of goods from one location to the next. Price includes discounts, leases, promotion, and profits. Marketing mix has been related to the number of companies which operate within the designated places. This is the most significant element among the 4Ps of marketing mix because it is the only one that generates an income for the company. The other three elements actually have impacting costs when implemented. For instance, it will cost the business money to design and develop or produce a new product, distribute it, and finally promote it in the market.

Promotion; Promotion refers to the marketing of products to the designated buyers and sellers. Since prices could be extremely large, marketing is an important concept because it helps to eliminate any disadvantages related to the product. The major role of promotion is to reduce competition between different products. Promotion also helps in determination of the worth of other customers in relation to the to the promotion and advertising decisions.

Marketing Concepts Research

Marketing managers are in need of data or information so that they successfully introduce a service or product that would create a lasting value in the mind of clienteles (McDaniel & Gates, 2005). However, the opinion of value is personal, and whatever clients attach so much value to this year may be completely different from what they would attach value in the coming years or years. In this manner, the attributes that create a perception of value cannot merely be deduced from ordinary information.

Rather, a marketing manager must collect and analyze data. The objective of the concept of marketing research is to provide managers with the facts in addition to informing their direction or decisions, more specifically those that involve marketing choices. In order to fully benefit from the concept of marketing research, the individuals that make use of the collected data have to understand the process of carrying out the research in addition to considering its limitations (Malhotra, 2010).

Burns and Bush (2000) describe the process of marketing research to include the collection, analyzing and interpreting data or information as regards a market, and in regard to the services or products to be offered for sale in that market, plus about the history, current and possible clients for the service or product ; research delving into the desires of the targeted market of business, characteristics, location, and needs of the targeted business market, the overall industry, in addition to the specific competitors that the business has (Burns & Bush, 2000).

The foundation of all the successful business ventures is accurate and detailed information since it issues a wealth of data or information as regards prospective and existing clients, the competitors, and the general industry. It gives business owners the freedom to determine the viability of a business before committing considerable amounts of money or resources to the business venture.

Marketing research provides a marketing manager or the overall company with the relevant information that would help them solve their likely future challenges, more so in the marketing segment, which makes it a critical aspect in the process or managing and planning a business venture (Burns & Bush, 2000). In actual sense, business strategies that include market segmentation (spotting particular groups within a target market) in addition to product differentiation, which simply means identifying the distinguishing factors of a business’ products or services as compared to those offered by competitors, are completely impossible to establish or develop minus doing a marketing research (Zarrella & Zarrella, 2010).

Marketing research entails two major forms of data, namely primary and secondary information. Primary data refers to the results of a research that a business owner decides to compile in person, or perhaps indirectly hire a different individual to perform the action of collecting information. Contrarily, secondary data makes reference to the information that is already compiled and organized in a specific format minus the researcher’s involvement. Sample secondary sources include reports from trade unions or associations, government agency studies, in addition to other business ventures within the same industry. Secondary data is commonly used in this process.

For marketing managers, the significance of research is not only limited to learning but also a vital element when making good managerial decisions. Essentially, marketing research provides individuals with a general picture of what is taking place or likely to happen. If implemented well, marketing research avails offers as regards the alternative choices or decisions that can possibly be made within a company. For example, a properly done research can offer managers alternative methods on how to enter new markets and as well help them introduce new products. Marketing decisions are known to be less risky, more so when the marketing manager has a variety of options to choose from.

Marketing research is considered as the foundation of business marketing. Marketing decisions require to be substantiated through research so that the customers view the business as favorable. In addition, marketing research can help a business stand up to other external pressures in addition to competition. The general understanding is that all the areas covered under marketing, in addition to making marketing decisions, ought to be supported with some degree of research.

Even though marketing research is significant in making marketing decisions, it does not require any further elaboration to attain its purpose. Many a time, taking time to do a quick search via the internet will avail the required data or information. However, there comes a time when more complex processes of research are requisite, in addition to understanding the correct method of conducting a research, whether they are doing the work at a personal level or have hired someone to do it can make the projects much more successful.

Trends in Marketing

The current decade has seen an increased number of innovations. The innovations in marketing have seen increased incorporation of technology and marketing. Several trends have developed for the past five years and their impact on marketing has been massive. The trends include;

Virtual reality; virtual reality emerged in the late 2000. Virtual reality incorporates online marketing of products with virtual content. Virtual reality encourages each firm to provide its customers with a 360 immersive story. The engagement between the commercials provides a call to action procedure in each firm. Increased online marketing has resulted in increased use of apps like Facebook to make sales. Facebook has been at the forefront in provision of marketing for various products.

Social media marketing; Google has revolutionized marketing strategies for the past three years. Increased level of functionality and presence of Facebook and twitter in the search engines has increased the marketing probabilities of different companies. The major revolution accompanied by these marketing strategies is the increased level of procedural sales that have increased the sales in different companies. Digital migrations and increased connectivity of social media sites has been the major reason why social media marketing has gained much more ground.

In a recent study, Facebook has been voted as the most appreciated social site among the other sites. Incorporation of advertising portals in Facebook has helped many business advertisements to receive much more attention. The conversion portal on Facebook includes the dominant pictures that could be included when making promotion on Facebook. The attribution model on twitter and Facebook is shown by the existence of both the website and an email which is used to log in. The attribution panel provides an extensive channel that is important for the formation of correct provisions. Twitter and Facebook have been the foremost media sites to embrace development of an expensive direct channel. The direct provision of advertisement is an essential strategy developed by Facebook in order to achieve this.

Green marketing; Global warming is a major topic in 21^st century. Increased demand for proper products has seen increased embrace of for green products. Green products mean that the world is resolving to use products that don’t emit much carbon or excessive methane. The target audience for green products revolves around increased appreciation for products that use less energy and don’t emit any poisonous gases to the environment. The concept of green energy has been used in marketing especially for products that use power. Increased appreciation for clean energy has led to reduced number of products that use black energy. Green energy has been used by majority of firms to increase the level of marketing (Blick, 2008).

Marketing automation; marketing automation is mostly based on the production of content based advertisement methods in the markets. The current market systems have been based on the increased level of competition that has been witnessed in production procedures. Marketing automation is a new concept because it has based its advertisement modes on content reproduction and analysis. Increased level of production has increased the number of sales per production unit. Improved marketing choices have increased the level of sales funnel within certain regions. Sales automation has led to increased sales in different firms because of the increased level of segmented customer levels (In, 2015).

Better relationship marketing; relationship marketing refers to the relationship between the buyers and the sellers in the appropriate way. Over the past years, increased level of relationship marketing has led to increased number of sales. In the past five years, better relationship marketing has been revolutionized through better marketing. Marketing dynamics for a long time have been based on the relationship between consumer surpluses and producer surpluses. Producer surplus means that there is a sale of an extra unit of production. Better relationship management limits the number of sales per unit to a specified number only.

The dynamics of marketing have been improved through better relationship management. Better relationship management has been enhanced by the adoption of smartphone technology. Smart phones possess apps which have been utilized by different companies in order to make increased sales per unit. A consumer who possesses a strong internet connection is likely to access more services. Dynamic trends in the marketing field have led to increased sales. The marketing of concepts through automation could be altered through the use of increased investment in content management and analysis. The concepts on marketing have been enhanced through the development of extensive development.

Marketing Concepts References

Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., & Sinha, N. (2000). Marketing research (pp. 599-602). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: O’Reilly.

Blick, D. (2011). The ultimate small business marketing concepts book. Surrey: Filament Publishing.

O’Cass A, Heirati N. (2015) Mastering the complementarily between marketing mix and Customer-Focused capabilities to enhance new product performance. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.

In Tsiakis, T. (2015). Trends and innovations in marketing concepts and information systems.

Luan, Y. J., and Sudhir, K. 2010. “Forecasting Marketing-Mix Responsiveness for New Products,” Journal of Marketing Research (47:3), pp. 444-457.

Powers, T. L., & Loyka, J. J. (2010). Adaptation of marketing mix elements in international markets. Journal of global marketing, 23(1), 65-79.

Zarrella, D., & Zarrella, A. (2010). The Facebook marketing book. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”.

Malhotra, N. K. (2010). Marketing research: An applied orientation (Vol. 834).

McDaniel, C., & Gates, R. (2005). Marketing Research.

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