Essential marketing features a
Essential marketing features aThe Oxford English Dictionary defines Marketing as the action or business of brining or sending to market. According to Kotler (1994) marketing is a process which 'consists of analysis market opportunities, researching and selecting target markets, developing marketing strategies, planning marketing tactics, and implementing and controlling the marketing effort'.
Marketing was born in the 1950s and can be characterised as the new psychological approach of making profit. Before Marketing, the supplier was selling goods or services directly to the customer and in return he was paying in money or exchange goods. Marketing does not start after production but it starts long before the goods or services go into production.
Then new Marketing approach goes deeper into the customer's importance, trying to offer the product, I the right place, at the right price and at the right time . Nowadays most of the companies do not start producing goods or offer services before they meet customer's objectives. Therefore companies can be divided into two categories, the Market-driven and the internally oriented business. Market driven businesses focus on the customer. They define the markets that fall within firms' business. All the departments of the company have in mind that the success of the business is depended entirely on the customer's satisfaction. They know exactly how the customers' criteria are set, trying to match their Marketing Mix with these criteria. Market driven businesses acknowledge the important role of marketing and they invest in market research and track market changes. Most of the companies nowadays employ people that will contribute to a Marketing success. The main job of those people is to forecast changes within the market and concentrate their strategies in understanding competitive strategies and forestall competitors' actions. Market driven companies try to find markets that no other company had discovered. They act very fast to these new markets and they are able to manufacture and distribute their products before anyone else.
On the other hand internally driven companies' view Marketing expenditure as a luxury, which is not essential in making profit. The convenience of the company comes before the customer needs. They see the price as the main factor for making more sales. Such businesses ignore competition, are very vulnerable when the customers' needs changes and they are forced to go out of business quickly.
The companies that understand customers (market-driven) can move a step forward by developing an effective Marketing Mix. Because Marketing is much more than advertising and selling, it encompasses everything from what products or services you sell to how you get them to the consumer, most people find it more convenient to define Marketing in terms of the Marketing Mix or the 4 Ps. Jerome McCarthy in 1960 first list the four Ps as the Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The Marketing Mix is the business overall offer or value to the customer. The four Ps can be separated into two groups. Product, Price and Place as...
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