What is marketing?

Video: Introduction To Marketing | Marketing 101 2024, July

The fifties of the last century marked a significant milestone in the development of the economy of most industrialized countries - the transition to the "customer market". This type of market is characterized by a predominance of supply over demand, which opens up freedom of choice for the consumer, and for the manufacturer exacerbates the problem of sales. It is in this situation that a new "philosophy" is born, the concept of entrepreneurship - marketing, which is based on the effective satisfaction of the needs of the buyer.

The motto of marketing is simple and logical: to produce what will be successfully sold, and not to sell what is produced. Determine the optimal volume and structure of solvent needs and develop effective means of meeting them - the main thing in the marketing policy of any enterprise. Goods at the same time are a tool for satisfying needs. The main thing in the marketing approach to managing market activity is the complexity, purposeful impact on the market (of consumers). The marketing mix is called differently: the marketing mix, the 4p (four pi) function - from the first letter of the English alphabet. Product - "product", price - "price", sales (distribution) - "place" or "physical distribution", promotion - "promotion" (marketing communications: advertising, "public relations", sales promotion and personal sale).

All these elements are closely interconnected and interdependent. Market laws determine the basic functions of marketing. This is the study of demand for products (services), the identification of current needs, forecasting consumer requests; development of a new product or service, its range; pricing strategy development; organization of optimal distribution channels and the creation of a system for generating demand and sales promotion.

The founder of the theory of marketing (from the English. Marketing - selling, trading on the market) - the American scientist F. Kotler defined marketing as a type of human activity that is aimed at satisfying needs and needs through exchange (the act of sale).

The initial idea underlying marketing is the idea of human need, i.e. sensations of a person lacking anything (food, clothing, warmth, safety, knowledge, self-expression, spiritual intimacy, and so on). A need that becomes specific due to the characteristics of the cultural level and personality of an individual is a need. Needs and needs are met by goods. Any manufacturer is interested in the fact that, contrary to constantly changing consumer preferences and increasing competition, it is his product that is in demand. That's why marketing management is, first and foremost, demand management.

For an entrepreneur in a market economy, the main goal is to make a profit from his activities, his business. Its product or service must be such that it must necessarily be sold at a bargain price.

Marketing is always aimed at solving clear practical problems:

- substantiation of the production of precisely the products that are in demand by the market;

- coordination of production, financial and marketing activities of the company;

- improving the forms and methods of selling products (services);

- flexible restructuring, reorganization of the company in the event of a change in demand.

Market coverage determines the extent of marketing. Micromarketing - marketing activity in a single company or group of companies. Macromarketing is a marketing activity that encompasses a wide range of goods and services within entire industries, nationwide and even globally.

Marketing activities can be carried out with a focus on different approaches, depending on specific economic and social conditions. In conditions of shortage of goods, the concept of improving production (increasing its efficiency, increasing output) will be justified. In case of demand for quality, the concept of product development will be relevant. A positive, but, as a rule, short-term effect can be achieved by the concept of commercial efforts: a product will be sold only with forced and intensive stimulation. Attention deserves the concept of social and ethical marketing, in which the combination of the economic interests of producers, individual consumer demands and the interests of society (public morality, ecology, regional culture, etc.) are paramount.

How to emphasize the word "marketing"