Marketing Overview: Definition, Types, Principles and Product -mix

What is Marketing?

Usually, marketing refers to showing or advertising activities to fascinate the targeting audience who can purchase company’s goods & services through its high-quality message. But according to Professor Barbara Khan from Wharton Business School, marketing can be understood as the “study of Market”.

Marketing Explained

What is Market?

A market can be defined as the “Platform where people use to trade (Buy & Sell both)”. So, there are mainly two sides or participants in a market, and we can find out two perspectives here

1. Seller’s Side (Product-oriented)
2. Buyer’s Side (Customer-focussed)

Companies can make their products in terms of two perspectives, product oriented or customer focussed.

Product & Customer Focussed Marketing

Seller’s Side (Product-oriented)

• Focusses on its product
• Think about product-oriented factors: quality, cost and innovation
• Build strategies from the seller’s perspective: Market Share, Innovation, Low Cost, Rich-quality

Buyer’s Side (Customer-Focussed)

• Focusses on Customers & Competition in industry
• Think about customer-centric factors: Who is the Customer? Customers’ Problems & Wants, Solution
• Build strategies on the basis of customers: Customer Wallet, Positioning, Competitiveness in Market & Premium Price theory
• They make sure that customer should get great experience, otherwise a negative image can be created

3 Principles of Marketing

There are mainly 3 principles of Marketing on which marketing freaks can think out, through which companies can enhance their marketing quality, or can increase their sells:

1. Principle of Customer-Value
2. Principles of Differentiation
3. Principle of Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Principles of Customer-Value

Instead of providing the value with compare to competitors, this principle refers the value benchmark as customers. And this value can be created or given through increasing the expanding or bringing improvement, or reducing the cost within the product or service, or by combination of these several cost.

It can vary with industry to industry, or company to company, or product to product, because each product’s brand is sold out on the basis of certain factors or uniqueness, which stands apart it from other brands.

On the basis of price, customers can decide what they should buy. Within some industries, price decides which coming is going to acquire customer-wallet or market share.

Combination of innovation and creativity can be indeed great factors, which can lead the User-Experience with the demanding product or service by customers.

Principle of Differentiation or Competitive Edge

Competitive edge is second great principle of marketing, which can bring a company at the top. It is one of the factors which fascinates customer for its product or service. And this edge or advantage could exist within any element of the company, it can be:

• Product
• Price
• User-Ex
• Advertising techniques
• Point-of-Sale
• Promotion or Distribution

Principle of STP or Concentration of Customers need

Last but not least, Principle of STP (Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning), or the concentration of customer’s attention. From Unicorns to small-cap start-ups, all companies have understood the requirement of focus on their customer’ attention.

IBM got success, because the company was more clearly focussed on its customers’ wants or needs with compare to other emerging data processing companies within their industry. But in 1990s, IBM founded itself in a crisis because DELL and Compaq were offering more computing power at lower prices with compare to IBM’s offering.

Today, IBM cannot be seen at a good place within maturing computer market like Dell. That’s why it is an essential part of any company to stay aware of customers’ demands with innovation and scalability.

4 Ps of Marketing

One of well-known model, 4ps of Marketing or also known as (AKA) marketing-mix, which tell us about the four basic foundations of marketing strategies.

4 Ps of Marketing

And these 4 Ps of Marketing are:

1. Product: Product is all about what do you sell, it can be goods, services, and consulting etc.
2. Place: Place is the platform where you promote your product or service, or where do our targeted customer find information about us?
3. Promotion: Promotion is all about those strategies through which your customers find your product or service at a place.
4. Price: Price is the value of the product or service, which is given by customers in exchange of product or service.

Summary

In this section, you studied

• What the marketing is?
• Its approach type: product oriented and customer-centric
• The 3 Principles of Marketing: Customer Value, Differentiation and Competitive Edge
• And, the marketing-mix or 4 Ps of Marketing

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