Introduction To Marketing Foundations Course

Marketing, what does this word mean? Most people think of marketing as an act of selling, and it is limited to some extent. This is not true in terms of marketing. Marketing is a very broad field in which a lot of activities are included, like public relations, sales promotion, advertising, social media, pricing, distribution, and many other functions as well.

The concept of marketing is to simply identify the needs of the consumer and then produce the goods and services to satisfy the needs of the customer and, along with this making profit for the company or organization.

In today's modern time, all the companies have increased their budgets as compared to the previous time. Now, during the establishment of the companies, these companies keep a separate and handsome amount of money for marketing. And the approach of marketing is consumer-oriented.The companies keep an eye on the customers and their needs as well as their everyday needs and then create products and services for them to fulfill the needs of customers.

If we talk about the formal definition of marketing, then we would say that marketing is the activity, set of institutions as well as the processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and at last exchanging the offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Nowadays the companies are spending handsome money on marketing, the reason behind this is to bring success in our modern global economy.

The core concepts that you will learn in the introduction to marketing is as follows-

1. Market Research

2. Importance of market research

3. Importance to strategy

4. Brand strategy

5. Pricing

6. Integrated marketing communication

7. Social media strategy

8. To develop a basic customer segmentation system

9. To understand the psychology of the consumer decision making

10. To develop the pricing strategies that maximize profitability

11. To define the appropriate channel systems that go to market efforts.

12. To understand how marketing metrics can benefit your business or your organization.

Seven Ps of Marketing

The seven Ps of marketing are as follows-

1. Product

2. Price

3. Promotion

4. Place

5. People

6. Process

7. Physical evidence

Product- 

The product can be in the form of services and goods. The services and the goods which are made for the customers should always be the center of every element of the marketing mix. Your product should be able to answer all the questions related to it, like- how does your product solve the issues of the customer? Why is your product the best one?

Your product marketing should be done through SEO, blogs, articles, paid advertisements, etc.

Price-

One thing you should take into consideration is that while fixing the price of any product, it should be dependent on whether customers are willing to pay the amount for the product, or do they think it is worth paying for the product. Pricing of the product can be in the form of subscription, membership, retail markup, discounts, etc.

Promotion-

The strategies which had been successful in the recent past are now successful marketing strategies include all the promotional activities like an advertisement, direct marketing, in-store promotional activities.

These promotional activities are offline, but when it comes to online promotional activities that are your digital promotion, then it is limited to some extent like organizing the online events, chats, promotion on social media groups, and live streams.

Place-

This P in marketing includes where your product should be displayed and how it should be displayed so that it can be directly informed to your customer, as well as you can sell it directly to the customer.

The marketing experts should have a clear understanding of the purchase patterns so that they can target the right stage in the buying cycle of the product, and with this, the marketing experts should very well know where they should promote and sell their products so that they can directly fit into your online and real-world marketing mix. 

People-

One should have excellent customer service. It enhances the market of your product. Excellent customer service not only converts to sales but also increases your customer base by referrals. There should be artificial chatbots that could give clear and exact information regarding your product which will increase the trust and value of your product.

Process-

The process of delivering the product to the customer or the consumer should be designed in such a manner that it should have maximum efficiency and reliability.

As we all know that these days online shopping and digital marketing are in trend, so digital partnerships and logistics have now become an essential part of the marketing mix.

Physical Evidence-

Physical evidence means that your brand and your product physically exist, and the purchase of your products is taking place. Now the question that would strike your brain is how we will give proof to our consumers that our brand and its products exist physically so for this we can establish a physical store or office for your business as well as a website for your products, online printed cards, you can receipt for the purchases which have been done, invoices and all.

One thing you should keep in mind is that your marketing mix should also take into consideration that all the things your customer sees, hears, even smells should be about your product and service. 

You should include good packaging, branding, different and attractive ways of displaying your brands and products in physical stores.

You should post different offers for products and brands so that there should always be a trend that keeps on going amongst the different products.

Types of marketing

There are four types of market structures which are as follows-

1. Perfect competition

2. Monopolistic competition

3. Oligopoly 

4. Monopoly

Perfect Competition-

In this type of marketing, the supply and demand are determined by the number of goods and services produced as well as there is competition regarding the price of the product which is being set by the companies. Examples are as follows- foreign exchange markets, agricultural markets, internet-related industries, etc.

Monopolistic Competition-

It is totally the opposite of perfect competition. The monopolistic competition does not assume the lowest possible cost product. Examples are as follows- Restaurants, hairdressers, clothing, TV programs, etc.

Oligopoly-

These market structures will aim to collaborate or work together in order to limit competition and dominate different markets or industries. Examples are as the follows-Steel industry, aluminum, film, television, cell phone, gas, etc.

Monopoly-

These market structures are completely competitive markets; they just sit at either end of market structure extremes. Examples are as follows- Microsoft and Windows as well as Debeers and diamonds, and your local natural gas company.

Characteristics of Marketing- 

The characteristics of marketing are as follows-

1. The numbers are producers will always be huge in number and are examples of perfect and monopolistic competition.

2. There should be a degree of differentiation in the product.

3. The new producer's entry should be barred.

4. The pricing power of the producer.

5. There should be a level of non-price competition.

6. There should always be only a few in oligopoly.

7. There should always be one monopoly.

Conclusion

If we want to survive in today’s life, we all should know about marketing. Because these days if you want to start any business or work in a company you should keep a handsome amount of money for the promotion as well as for the marketing because it increases your brand value and increases your sales as well as your profits.