WHAT IS MARKETING ?
The term marketing refers to the place where buyers and sellers meet to involve purchase and sales. It consists of all the potential customers showing their need and willing to exchange to satisfy their need. A market refers to any region where buyers and sellers are in free interaction for the prices of goods and services tend to equalize easily. Meeting of buyers and sellers can take place through means of communication i.e. telephone, fax, e-mail, internet etc.
Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. Some marketing is done by affiliates on behalf of a company.
Read the complete article with PK Halder and explore more information about Marketing.
7Ps of marketing are :
PRODUCT
To begin with, develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it’s in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, “Is your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate and suitable for the market and the customers of today?”
PRICE
Develop the habit of continually examining and re-examining the prices of the products and services you sell to make sure they’re still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices.
Many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or services doesn’t justify the amount of effort and resources that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you?
PROMOTION
Marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time. Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or services and how you then market and sell to them.
PLACE
Place in marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold. Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid increase in sales.
You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogues or mail order. Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments
PACKAGING
Fifth element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or service through the eyes of a critical prospect.
Remember, people form their first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different reactions from your customers.
POSITIONING
You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think and talk about you when you’re not present? How do people think and talk about your company?
What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the specific words people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?
PEOPLE
The final P of the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every element of your sales and marketing strategy and activities.
It’s amazing how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to be carried out by a specific person, in a specific way.
SWOT ANALYSIS
INTERNAL SOURCES:
STRENGTH–
all the business activities of marketing involve production and consumption of goods and services for profitability and economic achievement through customer satisfaction. The survival and growth of marketing depends on large scale production, new technology, taste and preferences of customer.
WEAKNESS–
For the betterment of a developing business, a company needs to focus on adequate allocation of resources. The most important concern which decreases the profitability of a business is lack of quantitative goals, lack of adequacy, lack of involvement in developing new service. They should create more product availability and improvise service policies.
EXTERNAL SOURCES:
OPPORTUNITIES–
This is an external factor which can provide competitive appearance in the market with wide variety of quality products and services at reasonable prices. An organization can fulfil this responsibility by improving standard of living and generating more employment opportunities.
THREATS –
risk-taking can be a threat to an organization as it creates uncertainty of profits or loss due to unavoidable future events. Risk may also take place due to change in demand, storage, price, transportation, thefts and other natural calamities like flood, earthquake etc.
References
https://healthcaresuccess.com/blog/medical-advertising-agency/the-7-ps-of-marketing.html
