The Importance of Marketing in Organizational Success - Essay Example

Marketing
The growing competition among the companies has increased the importance of marketing in businesses. Following are the two definitions of marketing.
Kotler (2008, pp.5) defines marketing as “the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return”.

Marketing is an“organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”. (Kurtz, MacKenzie & Snow, 2009)

Moreover, the marketing efforts of a company help the people to recognize the product options available in the market and the features and qualities f the products. Therefore, marketing plays a very important role in the success of a company and its products and services. Three examples have been quoted here to explain how marketing concepts help companies to operate in a particular market.

IKEA is a prominent international player in the furniture industry. The company has been offering well-designed, functional home and furnishing products to its customers for more than 60 years. The effective marketing strategies of IKEA have helped the company to develop a strong image in the markets where it is operating. The graph shows that the number of visitors to IKEA stores is expanding significantly. The company considers every customer as a member of the “IKEA Family”. The marketing function of the company has helped the company to establish an image in the market. Moreover, through marketing programs IKEA develops relationships with its customers for example; IKEA has recently introduced IKEA mobile content which is a marketing strategy through which the company has developed a database of customers.

Source: Batista, 2009
These are the marketing efforts of a company that help the company to segment and target the market and position the product to reach the target audience. Red Bull was launched as an energy drink and today company is operating in many countries across the world. The company heavily relied on “buzz marketing” or word-of-mouth to establish a strong image in the market. In order to position the energy drink, attract customers, and increase the visibility of the product, the marketing strategies which the company adopted include sports marketing, event marketing, advertising, sales promotions free sampling, etc. By 2004, Red Bull was having a 70 percent market share of the worldwide energy drinks market (Ny Mafia, 2008). Various competitors also tried to adopt the marketing strategies of Red Bull however; these tactics could not help the competitors. Therefore, even the taste of the energy drink of Red Bull was not that very good however, these were the marketing efforts that communicated the purpose and features of the energy drink.

Various marketing efforts are pursued by companies to attract and retain customers. The following example of Lloyds Banking Group advocates, however, marketing efforts help a company to provide information related to products and services to the customers of the company. The company is focusing on an integrated marketing communication strategy to target its customers. In addition, the company also asks the people to join the network of the company through which the company keeps on updating the customers via phone or email about the new products or services. This strategy not only provides a way for the company to reach its potential customers but also helps the interested people to get updated regularly (Lloydstsb).

Therefore, based on the above discussion, I have presented the following definition of marketing. In my opinion, marketing is the process through which a company explores the market for a particular product or service, develops plans to make the product or service visible in the market, and builds strong relationships with customers.