Implement a Marketing Solution - Assignment Example

Implement a marketing solution of the of the Implement a marketing solution If you were to ask someone in the general population, "what is marketing", most f the people in the group would probably say that marketing involves advertising a product and then selling it. Marketing can be defined as the whole firm, taken from the customer's point f view. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is "planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution f ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives." Marketing is much more than selling or advertising. It involves almost every aspect f what is going on in a company. Production and marketing are both fundamental economic activities. Production involves making goods, such as manufacturing a product, and / or performing services, such as providing repair services for those products. In marketing, you must plan and coordinate a great many activities in order to reach customers and compel them to purchase, use and repurchase your product. While it is true for a business to be successful the product must sell, they do not sell themselves, and marketing is just as necessary as production. Marketing insures that the right goods and services are produced. Production and marketing work together to satisfy human needs. This strategy, if successful, will benefit your company. Marketing is an all-encompassing activity. It is something that eventually touches everyone and it dramatically affects peoples' daily lives. No one in America is untouched by some form f marketing. Marketing is important to every consumer. Everyone, at one time will buy or use a product or service. What does effective marketing do It links producers and consumers. Effective marketing makes available to consumers ways to meet their unique needs. Its purpose is to reach customers and compel them to purchase, use and reuse your products. Buying entails looking for and evaluating goods and services. Selling involves promoting the product to prospective buyers. Transporting is moving the goods from place to place. Storing involves holding an inventory f goods until needed by customers. Standardization and grading is sorting product by size and quality. Financing is providing necessary cash and credit to produce, transport, store, promote, sell, and buy products. Risk taking assumes responsibility for uncertain conditions. So what is the consumer's role in all f this Consumers are actively involved in performing marketing. Their needs drive the marketing responses f many organizations. Consumers also provide marketing information to organizations wishing to serve them better. What is a marketing mix and what are the four P's that form a marketing mix A marketing mix is the combination f marketing actions that make up a marketing program. The marketing mix principles are used by business as tools to assist them in pursuing their objectives. The marketing mix principles are controllable variables, which have to be carefully managed and must meet the needs f the defined target group. The four P's f marketing are: PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION Product The product is the heart and soul f any marketing program. If the product is good, the marketing program has a chance for success, but if the product is bad, no marketing program can make the product a winner. Product designing, developing, maintaining, and improving are all important aspect to be considered in your marketing mix. A company must always be on the lookout for new products, redesigning existing products, or killing existing ones. The goal must be to keep the customer seeing your product, as special, and to insure that they are champions for your product. The target customer's needs must be met. Naming the product, labeling and packaging all go into your product development. Life Cycle f a Product All products pass through a life cycle -- from introduction and growth to maturity and decline. All companies want to insure that once the product hits maturity, represented by a peak in sales, it stays there as long as possible. How do marketing managers help products become age defying, so they remain in the maturity stage f the product life cycle for decades or longer Part f it depends on continually re-inventing the product concept. Here are some examples: A magazine called Crayola Kids was launched as well as a web site with features for kids and advice to parents on topics such as reading skills and creativity. Price Pricing involves setting pricing objectives for your product that are profitable for your company and reasonable to your customers. Your price range must be defined. Your costs and profit requirements impose a lower limit on price, while your customer's perceptions impose an upper limit. Both f these limits must be defined in order to know what the possible price range is. Place Place or distribution is the location where your product is available to your customers when they want it. With this element, you develop a strategy to sell your products either directly to you customer, or indirectly through an intermediary. You must consider does your choice f distribution reach your target customers This can be the most difficult element to conquer f the four P's. Promotion Promotion allows you to tell your customers about your product and its benefits. Promotional methods can be newspaper, flyers, TV, radio, outdoor billboard signs, Internet advertising, and publicity events. Market Research Market research focuses on clarifying customer behavior. f course, marketers need to know so much and there is very little data readily available. Because f this lack f date, marketing depends heavily on many kinds f research efforts. All f this research will come together to help design a marketing strategy. We need to assess our customer's needs, and understand those needs and wants. Customer target groups will need to be selected, and be divided into segments. You can cut up the segments any way, by age, where people live, if they hate or love to shop, if they like big band music and the list can go on and on. You must determine the similarities f your target group. Once the target group has been selected, then your market strategy can be developed. In conclusion, marketing is everything, the lifeblood f a company. Next week we will examine market segmentation and it's impact on market selection, look at the importance f product and placement in developing a market strategy, and what factors influence consumers in their decisions to make a purchase. Read More