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Posted by Lucille Brits

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With the surge of social networking portals, multifunctional cell phones, and gadgets, the face of marketing has undergone a major makeover in the past decade. It has in fact become an imperative practice for companies to follow the latest marketing trends to not just get new customers, but also to retain the existing ones. Aggressive, competitive, and innovative marketing strategies are the precept today. Technological advancement has become a blessing for consumers and given them a sense of empowerment. Product information is available at the click of a finger and there are more competitors than ever in the market. Hence, every company aspiring to rule the roost has had to embrace the metamorphosis of its marketing functions. In fact, this evolution has been a global affair. However, if Internet and technology has benefited the consumers, it has also created new media for marketing around the globe in the virtual world. Within this decade, new non-traditional marketing concepts have emerged, such as viral marketing, social media marketing, undercover marketing, and attraction marketing.

Out with the Old, In with the New
In the beginning of the 21 st century, companies were armed with human resources to build personal relationships with their customers to boost sales through one-on-one interaction in a controlled environment. Consumers believed the information dished out to them by sales professionals. The tables have turned around and it is now the consumers that have an expanse of verifiable information available at hand at the click of a finger. The past decade has also seen a change in the consumer attitude. They now expect more features for a lower price. According to the statistics given by Pew Internet & American life Project, as of May 2010, almost 80% Internet users conduct an online background research on a product before making a purchase decision. Customization and segmentation have emerged as the new indispensable marketing tools. Although, the objective of marketing remains the same, its approach has changed. The need for this development stemmed from the demand of consumers as witnessed with the commencement of this decade. The new-age consumers became more demanding, adventurous, and enthusiastic to try out different market offerings. Marketers exploited this behavior as an opportunity to steer consumers in their favor. This gave rise to greater emphasis on creating a brand value. A brilliant marketing strategy can even convince its prospective customers that the product will satisfy their needs and persuade them to overlook the product's shortcomings.

The New Age: Internet Marketing
You can buy almost everything online today. The internet has drastically changed the face of trade and commerce in the past decade. Hence, it is not surprising to note that it has also been responsible for marketing as it is au courant. The massive online presence of consumers prompted a revolution in the way of advertising and marketing. More companies have stretched these functions to the realms of the virtual world to influence consumer behavior in their favor. They are attempting to build a strong network that allows them to get closer to their clients. While online advertising began in the form of banner ads on websites, it has now taken the forms of viral videos, blogging, promotional campaigns on social networking websites, and consumer discussion forums. Marketers are beating their brains out to keep themselves abreast with the changing trends in consumer needs and tastes. In fact, internet has proved to be a reliable source for gathering data for the same. A marketer can research on the target market through surveys, polls, and interaction with focus groups through online media. This has enabled the consumers to contribute in the decisions pertaining to product offering. Nevertheless, the whole process can now be conducted much more speedily than ever before. It would be absolutely unfair to skip the subject of search engines here. They were the propellers of these changes in marketing. A product that has no mention in any of the domineering search engines, has instantly lost its reputation amongst prospective customers. An example of this trend in internet network marketing is the fundamental - "If Google doesn't know, nobody does."

Thanks be given to the world wide web, it is now possible for the marketing to facilitate instant sales through the option of mail order shopping, instant access to product information and subsequently, acceleration in the time taken to make a sale. Companies have transposed their focus to garnering online traffic to their websites, blogs, ads, and social networking accounts through search engine optimization of keywords, publishing extensive content, purchasing customer database from other companies, and establishing consumer-friendly interfaces to solve queries. The size of the company's scale of operations is no longer a factor for consideration to plan a fruitful marketing strategy. Ten years ago, companies could afford to rely on consumer loyalty to maintain a stake in the market. However, if a company does not make its market presence felt through adequate marketing, its position will be quickly taken over by its competitors.
Internet Marketing Statistics
According to HubSpot.com:

Twitter has assisted 42% companies present on its portal to bring a new customer.

66% marketers rank blogs as an important source of increasing online traffic to company website.

57% company blogs are credited for acquiring new customers.

Facebook has helped 67% B2C companies and 41% B2B companies to generate business.

Inbound Marketing costs as much 62% less than outbound marketing.

According to Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies:

51% fans of a company's Facebook page will make a purchase.

79% followers of a company's Twitter account will recommend its products to others.

The Evolution of Marketing
Looking back at the past decade, the forms of marketing that nobody had ever heard about, are now into play and they are being employed with noteworthy results. Take the instance of electronic marketing. In the start of the millennium, e-mail marketing was the greenhorn. Today, it is an essential part of nearly every marketer's PoA. In the field of marketing, it initially gained recognition as a means to reach many customers through a single source of communication. Now, it is the medium of marketing that is used to send personalized messages to different target groups segmented into smaller sizes. And, this trend seems to be present in all other forms of marketing. Marketers have come to realize that each consumer has a varied psychology and in order to get more customers, they must reach each one discretely. While this knowledge was established during this decade, it was not until recently that the marketing strategies designed specifically concentrated on manifesting it. The concept of 'mass marketing' and 'high economy of scale' is now passé. A visionary company now spends a considerable portion of its budget to distinguish the consumers' needs and offer products that satisfy each one. This has resulted in horizontal diversification of the product line. Such an approach is less likely to culminate into the total failure of the marketing plan.
This is just a brief insight on how marketing has changed over the past 10 years. Not to miss out, the global recession crises and unfavorable employment rates in most economies has also prompted companies, big or small, to devise more riveting marketing strategies. The world population may be growing, but how many people can they really sell to? Marketing is the medium of stimulating sales in the future and subsequently, it's one of the most important functions of the management of a company. In the present consumer-driven market, companies cannot afford to let their competition have access to any window of opportunity to take the lead. Marketing is the solution to that. Take a closer look, marketing is not limited to just profit-driven companies anymore. Almost every person, organization of our commercialism-driven society is marketing itself today.

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How Marketing Functions have Changed Over the Years

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If you retrospect the past decade, there are many significant changes that can be easily pointed out. These changes have touched almost all spheres of human civilization. In fact, management practices then and now seem to have a tremendous difference between them. Companies no longer operate the way they did in the start of the 21st century.

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Importance of Marketing and its processes

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Importance of Marketing and its processes

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Posted by Raeanna Kirk

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Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work produced by our Essay Writing Service. You can view samples of our professional work here.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.

'Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably' According of Charted Institute Of Marketing

'The right product, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price'

Adcock et al.

'Marketing is the human activity directed at satisfying human needs and wants through an exchange process'Kotler 1980

'Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they want and need through creating, offering and exchanging products of value with others'

Kotler 1991

Marketing is everywhere. Formally and informally people and organizations engage in a vast number of activities that could be called marketing. Good marketing effects our day -to-day lives .it is embedded in all we do - from the clothes we wear, to the web sites we click on. Good marketing is no accident, but a result of careful planning and execution. It is both an "art" and "science"

A "market" was a physical place where buyers and sellers gathered to buy and sell goods. Economists describe a market as a collection of buyers and sellers who transact over a particular product or product class (e.g., grain market, phone4u).

Marketing is the societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with others. It is the process whereby a business seeks to identify and access the needs of its customers and find ways of meeting those needs profitably .Market people are included 10 types of entities: goods, services .experiences, events places, persons, properties, organizations, information and ideas.

Importance of marketing:

Marketing is a very important aspect in business since it contributes greatly to the success of the organization. Production and distribution depend largely on marketing. Sales and marketing are basically not same. These two concepts are different in many aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, public relations, and sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the product or service into the market and encourages sales from the buying public. Sales refer to the act of buying or the actual transaction of customers purchasing the product or service. Selling is the only tip of marketing iceberg. Companies of all kinds e.g. Product manufacturers, health insurers, car manufacturers, banks non-profit organizations, industrial product manufacturers- all have to use marketing to understand thier core customers and grow thier business.Marketing is a complex set of tasks as well as a philosophy of business. Marketing promotes product awareness to the public.

getting the product or service recognized by the market is the primary goal of marketing

Marketing builds company reputation

E.g. McDonalds is known for its arch design which attracts people and identifies the image as McDonalds.

For some companies, building a reputation to the public may take time but there are those who easily attract the people

Processes of marketing strategies:

Marketing strategy consists of the analysis, strategy development, and implementation activities in: "Developing a vision about the market(s) of interest to the organization, selecting market target strategies, setting objectives, and developing, implementing, and managing the marketing program positioning strategies designed to meet the value requirements of the customers in each market target".

Strategic marketing is a market-driven process of strategy development, taking into account a constantly changing business environment and the need to deliver superior customer value. The focus of strategic marketing is on organizational performance rather than a primary concern about increasing sales. Marketing strategy seeks to deliver superior customer value by combining the customer-influencing strategies of the business into a coordinated set of market-driven actions. Strategic marketing links the organization with the environment and views marketing as a responsibility of the entire business rather than a specialized function.

Because of marketing's boundary orientation between the organization and its customers, channel members, and competition, marketing processes are central to the business strategy planning process. Strategic marketing provides the expertise for environmental monitoring, for deciding what customer groups to serve, for guiding product specifications, and for choosing which competitors to position against. Successfully integrating cross-functional strategies is critical to providing superior customer value. Customer value requirements must be transformed into product design and production guidelines. Success in achieving high-quality goods and services require finding out which attributes of goods and service quality drive customer value.

Marketing Strategy Process

The marketing strategy analysis, planning, implementation and management process is described below. The strategic situation analysis considers market and competitor analysis, market segmentation, and continuous learning about markets. Designing marketing strategy examines customer targeting and positioning strategies, marketing relationship strategies and planning for new products. Marketing program development consists of product, distribution, price, and promotion strategies designed and implemented to meet the value requirements of targeted buyers. Strategy implementation and management consider organizational design and marketing strategy implementation and control.

Strategic Situation Analysis

Marketing management uses the information provided by the situation analysis to guide the design of a new strategy or change an existing strategy. The situation analysis is conducted on a regular basis after the strategy is under way to evaluate strategy performance and identify needed strategy changes.

Market Vision, Structure, and Analysis. Markets need to be defined so that buyers and competition can be analyzed. For a market to exist, there must be (1) people with particular needs and wants and one or more products that can satisfy buyers' needs, and (2) buyers willing and able to purchase a product that satisfies their needs and wants. A product-market consists of a specific product (or line of related products) that can satisfy a set of needs and wants for the people (or organizations) willing and able to purchase it. The term product is used to indicate either a physical good or an intangible service.

Analyzing product-markets and forecasting how they will change in the future are vital to business and marketing planning. Decisions to enter new product-markets, how to serve existing product-markets, and when to exist in unattractive product-markets are critical strategic choices. The objective is to identify and describe the buyers, understand their preferences for products, estimate the size and rate of growth of the market, and find out what companies and products are competing in the market.

Evaluation of competitiors' strategies, strengths, limitations and plans is also a key aspect of the situation analysis. It is important to identify both existing and potential competitors. Competitor analysis includes evaluating each key competitor. The analyses highlight the competition's important strengths and weaknesses. A key issue is trying to figure out what each competitor is likely to do in future.

Segmenting Markets. Market segmentation looks at the nature and extent of diversity of buyers' needs and wants in a market. It offers an opportunity for an organization to focus in business capabilities on the requirements of one or more groups of buyers. The objective of segmentation is to examine differences in needs and wants and to identify the segments (sub-groups) within the product-market of interest. Each segment contains buyers with similar needs and wants for the product category of interest to management. The segments are described using the various characteristics of people, the reasons that they buy or use certain products, and their preferences for certain brands of products. Likewise, segments of industrial product-markets may be formed according to the type of industry, the uses for the product, frequency of product purchase, and various other factors.

Each segment may vary quite a bit from the average characteristics of the entire product-market. The similarities of buyers' needs within a segment enable better targeting of the organization's capabilities to buyers with corresponding value requirements.

Continuous Learning about Markets. One of the major realities of achieving business success today is the necessity of understanding markets and competition. Sensing what is happening and is likely to occur in the future is complicated by competitive threats that may exist beyond traditional industry boundaries. For example, CD-ROMs compete with books.

Stage 2: Designing Market-Driven Strategies

The strategic situation analysis phase of the marketing strategy process identifies market opportunities, defines market segments, evaluates competition, and assesses the organization's strengths and weaknesses. Market sensing information plays a key role in designing marketing strategy, which includes market targeting and positioning strategies, building marketing relationships, and developing and introducing new products.

Market Targeting and Strategic Positioning. Marketing advantage is influenced by several situational factors including industry characteristics, type of firm (e.g., size), extent of differentiation in buyers' needs, and the specific competitive advantage(s) of the company designing the marketing strategy. The core issue is deciding how, when, and where to compete, given a firm's market and competitive environment.

The purpose of the marketing targeting strategy is to select the people (or organizations) that management wishes to serve in the product-market. When buyers' needs and wants vary, the market target is usually one or more segments of the product-market. Once the segments are identified and their relative importance to the firm determined, the targeting strategy is selected. The objective is to find the best match between the value requirements of each segment and the organization's distinctive capabilities. The targeting decision is the focal point of marketing strategy since targeting guides the setting of objectives and developing a positioning strategy. The options range from targeting most of the segments to targeting one or few segments in a product-market. The targeting strategy may be influenced by the market's maturity , the diversity of buyers' needs and preferences, the firm's size compared to competition, corporate resources and priorities, and the volume of sales required to achieve favorable financial results. Deciding the objectives for each market target spells out the results expected by management. Examples of market target objectives are desired levels of sales, market share, customer retention, profit contribution, and customer satisfaction. Marketing objectives may also be set for the entire business unit and for specific marketing activities such as advertising.

The marketing program positioning strategy is the combination of product, value-chain, price, and promotion strategies a firm uses to position itself against its key competitors in meeting the needs and wants of the market target, the strategies and tactics used to gain a favorable position are called the marketing mix or the marketing program.

Marketing Relationship Strategies. Marketing relationship partners may include end user customers, marketing channel members, suppliers, competitor alliances, and internal teams. The driving force underlying these relationships is that a company may enhance its ability to satisfy customers and cope with a rapidly changing business environment through collaboration of the parties involved. Relationship strategies gained new importance in the last decade as customers became more demanding and competition became more intense. Building long-term relationships with customers and value-chain partners offers companies a way to provide superior customer value. Although building collaborative relationships may not always be the best course of action, this avenue for gaining a competitive edge is increasing in popularity.

Strategic partnering has become an important strategic initiative for many well known companies and brands. Many firms outsource the manufacturing of their products. Examples include Motorola cell phones, Calvin Klein jeans, Pepsi beverages, and Nike footwear. Strong relationships with outsourcing partners are vital to the success of these powerful brands. The trend of the 21st century is partnering rather than vertical integration.

Planning for New Products. New products are needed to replace old products because of declining sales and profits. Strategies for developing and positioning new market entries involve all functions of the business. Closely coordinated new-product planning is essential to satisfy customer requirements and produce products with high quality at competitive prices. New-product decisions include finding and evaluating ideas, selecting the most promising for development, designing the products, developing marketing programs, use and market testing the products, and introducing them to the market.

The new-product planning process starts by identifying gaps in customer satisfaction. The differences between existing product attributes and those desired by customers offer opportunities for new and improved products.

Stage 3: Market-Driven Program Development

Market targeting and positioning strategies for new and existing products guide the choice of strategies for the marketing program components. Product, distribution, price, and promotion strategies are combined to form the positioning strategy selected for each market target.

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The marketing program (mix) strategies implement the positioning strategy. The objective is to achieve favorable positioning while allocating financial, human, and production resources to markets, customers, and products as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Strategic Brand Management. Products (goods and services) often are the focal point of positioning strategy, particularly when companies or business adopt organizational approaches emphasizing product or brand management. Product strategy includes: (1) developing plans for new products, (2) managing programs for successful products, and (3) deciding what to do about problem products (e.g., reduce costs or improve the product). Strategic brand management consists of building brand value (equity) and managing the organization's portfolio for overall performance.

Value-Chain, Price, and Promotion Strategies. One of the major issues in managing program is deciding how to integrate the components of the mix. Product, distribution, price, and promotion strategies are shaped into a coordinated plan of action. Each component helps to influence buyers in their positioning of products. If the activities of these mix components are not coordinated, the actions may conflict and resources may be wasted. For example, if the advertising messages for a company's brand stress quality and performance, but salesperson emphasize low price, buyers will be confused and brand damage may occur.

Market target buyers may be contacted on a direct basis using the firm's sales force or by direct marketing contact (e.g., Internet), or instead, through a value-added chain (distribution channel) of marketing intermediaries (e.g., wholesalers, retailers, or dealers). Distribution channels are often used in linking procedures with end user household and business markets. Decisions that need to be made include the type of channel organization to use, the extent of channel management performed by the firm, and the intensity of distribution appropriate for the product or service. The choice of distribution channels influences buyers' positioning of the brand.

Price also plays an important role in positioning a product or service. Customer reaction to alternative prices, the cost of the product, the prices of the competition and various legal and ethical factors establish the extent of flexibility management has in setting prices. Price strategy involves choosing the role of price in the positioning strategy, including the desired positioning of the product or brand as well as the margins necessary to satisfy and motivate distribution channel participants. Price may be used as an active (visible) component of marketing strategy, or, instead, marketing emphasis may be on other marketing mix components (e.g., product quality).

Advertising, sales promotion, the sales force, direct marketing, and public relations help the organization to communicate with its customers, value-chain partners, the public, and other target audiences. These activities make up the promotion strategy, which performs an essential role in communicating the positioning strategy to buyers and other relevant influences. Promotion informs, reminds, and persuades buyers and others who influence the purchasing process.

Stage 4: Implementing and Managing Market-Driven Strategy

Selecting customers to target and the positioning strategy for each target moves marketing strategy development to the action stage. This stage considers designing the marketing organization and implementing and managing the strategy.

Designing Effective Market-Driven Organizations. An effective organization design matches people and work responsibilities in a way that is best for accomplishing the firm's marketing strategy. Deciding how to assemble people into organizational units and assign responsibility to the various mix components that make up the marketing strategy are important influences on performance. Organizational structures and processes must be matched to the business and marketing strategies that are developed and implemented. Organizational design needs to be evaluated on a regular basis to assess its adequacy and to identify necessary changes.

Strategy Implementation and Control. Marketing strategy implementation and control consist of: (1) preparing the marketing plan and budget; (2) implementing the plan; and (3) using the plan in managing and controlling the strategy on an ongoing basis. The marketing plan includes details concerning targeting, positioning, and marketing mix activities. The plan spells out what is going to happen over the planning period, who is responsible, how much it will cost, and the expected results (e.g., sales forecasts).

The marketing plan includes action guidelines for the activities to be implemented, who does what, the dates and location of implementation, and how implementation will be accomplished. Several factors contribute to implementation effectiveness including the skills and commitment of the people involved, organizational design, incentives, and the effectiveness of communication within the organization and externally.

Marketing strategy is an ongoing process of making decisions, implementing them, and tracking their effectiveness over time. In terms of its time requirements, strategic evaluation is far more demanding than planning. Evaluation and control are concerned with tracking performance and, when necessary, altering plans to keep performance on track. Evaluation also includes looking for new opportunities and potential threats in the future. It is the concerning link in the strategic marketing planning process. By serving as both the last stage and the first stage (evaluation before taking action) in the planning process, strategic evaluation assures that strategy is an ongoing activity.

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Importance of marketing and its processes

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Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work produced by our Essay Writing Service. You can view samples of our professional work here. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.

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Shared by J. Marurai

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The marketing department is the face of the company & most importantly promotes the business. It is the Marketing Department's job to reach out to prospects, customers, investors and/or the community Here are the duties of the Marketing department.

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https://marketingwit.com/functions-of-marketing-explained-with-examples