MARKETING

Marketing



Marketing

This paper is based on the topic of marketing. In this paper, some of the basic concepts related to marketing are discussed.

Marketing

Marketing is a process by which we make and keep guests at a profit. This view confirms the marketing philosophy begun by the General Electric Company that became known as “the Marketing Concept.” The Marketing Concept views the consumer as the focal point of all marketing activities. In his classic article “Marketing Myopia”, Levitt reinforced this belief. Before this re-orientation was introduced, marketing focused on what the company could produce, promote, and sell, and it was called “the Selling Concept” (Stevens, 2008, 55).

Folklore of the day maintained that Henry Ford reflected this philosophy with his claim that you could have any colour of Ford, as long as it was black. This basic switch in how marketing was viewed reshaped the field of marketing to focus on the “customer is king” philosophy. From this reorientation came such concepts as the practice of segmentation, target or niche marketing, competitive advantage, product differentiation, positioning or brand building, and consumer research (Ries, 2006, 90).

Any basic marketing course teaches the “four P's of marketing”—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. This model served us well in the past, but now there is a more complex and competitive business environment, so it makes sense to expand the paradigm of the four P's and think of marketing in terms of eight P's. The eight P's are tools to be understood, used, manipulated, developed, and perfected in order to reach the ultimate marketing goal of making and keeping customers at a profit. Just as you would use a hammer, saw, and nails to fashion wood into a piece of fine furniture, you use these elements to fashion raw marketing information into a successful marketing plan (Porter, 2005, 33). You use them to influence consumers to come into your business and, once there, to influence what they buy.

People

The first “P” requires you to ask the question, Who are your customers and prospective customers? You need a clear understanding of their demographics, psychographics, and buying behaviours. Underlying the needs, wants, and expectations of these markets are changing lifestyle trends, which alter how consumers think about your products and brand. Just think of the healthy eating and fitness trend. Before we all started counting calories and fat grams, fried foods were good! Now, we may still eat them, but we think of them differently. In addition to trends, an important part of the People “P” is who customers “rub elbows with.” Being like other people—the right other people—is part of why consumers buy a certain brand of jeans, join a certain club, or eat at a certain restaurant. Market segmentation is heavily related to homogeneity (Porter, 2007, 69).

Product

Your product is the sum total of all the tangibles and intangibles of need or want-satisfying benefits; it includes the physical as well as the psychological product. This “P” asks what business you are in and what product you really ...