Marketing

Definition
Marketing concept

Management philosophy according to which a firm's goals can be best achieved through identification and satisfaction of
the customers' stated and unstated needs and wants.

Functions of marketing
1. Finding the Best Distribution Channels: Distribution is about deciding how you'll get the goods or services
you want to sell Distribution can be as easy as setting up shop in the part of a city where your target customers
are

2. Financing an Enterprise: It takes money to make money. As a business owner, an important function of
marketing a product is finding the money through investments, loans, or your personal capital to finance the
creation and advertising of your goods or services.

3. Deep Market Research: Market research is about gathering information concerning your target customers.
Who are the people you want to sell to? Why should they buy from you as opposed to a rival business? Answering
these questions requires that you do some on-the-ground observation of the market trends and competing products.

4. Setting Prices: This can be extremely difficult―if you set a low price, you are bound to get losses; if you set a higher
price, you may not get customers at all.

The "right" price normally comes through trial and error and doing some market research.

5. Product and Service Management: This involves listening to customers, responding to their wants and needs,
and keeping your products and services fresh and up to date.

6. Promotional Channels: Advertising your products and services is essential to attracting new customers and
keeping existing customers coming back. As the marketplace changes, the company will want to respond
appropriately by tailoring your promotion messages to social media, by sticking with more conventional outlets,
or by using a mix of the old and new.

7. Matching Products to Customers: Selling is last on the list of the seven functions of marketing. This is
because selling can happen only after you've determined the wants and needs of your customer base and are able
to respond with the right products at the right price point and time frame.

Marketing strategies
A good marketing strategy incorporates what you know about how your business fits into the market and the 5 Ps of
marketing to develop the tactics and actions that will achieve your marketing objectives.
A planned mix of the controllable elements of a product's marketing plan commonly termed as 4Ps: product, price, place,
and promotion.
These four elements are adjusted until the right combination is found that serves the needs of the product's customers, while
generating optimum income. Sometimes the first P (Product) is substituted by presentation.

Product: What you selling? What are the physical attributes of your product or the uniqueness of your service? How is
what you offer different from your competitors and what benefits does it provide your customer?

Price: What will it cost to get your product or service? How does it compare to your competition? What will your profit
margin be by selling at that price?

Place: Where will your products and services be available for purchase? This is beyond having a home office,
and instead are the places where consumers are able to buy. If you're in multiple places, you should work to
calculate the percentage of sales from each place.For example, what will your Internet marketing strategy be?
What is your sales strategy?

Promotion: How are you going to let the market know about your product or services? What marketing tactics
will you use and what do you anticipate will be the results of each method? Include information about any
incentives or coupons you'll use to attract business.

People: This is a newly added "P" to the marketing mix, and is important if other people are involved in helping
you create or deliver your product or service. Who are these people and what do they do? What is their level of
training or experience in providing help to your business?