Marketing Research and Marketing Activities
Marketing is one of the most important aspects of any business. It is one of the main ways by which organizations separate themselves from the competition and helps to establish their brand in the market. Marketing therefore, refers to the process that an organization undertakes in order to engage with its target audience so as to generate tangible value to give the customer a reason to buy, a reason to recommend your brand and a reason to develop a relationship with you. The essence of marketing lies in identifying and creating a unique selling proposition (USP) for your products or services and marketing effectively using the tools available to you.
A variety of marketing theories are available and these include traditional marketing management principles, such as segmentation, targeting of audiences, advertising and selling through mass media channels, and other techniques such as consumer behavior marketing, social marketing, and societal marketing. Social marketing is very much related to the marketing management principles, but in a different way. It involves developing a specific campaign that is aimed at influencing the buying behavior of a group of people instead of just a single customer. These marketing concepts are used widely in all kinds of businesses ranging from companies to retailers to non-profit organizations and even governments.
In this article, we will discuss four points on how marketing refers to this process of influencing consumers. When we talk about marketing, first of all, what are the four Ps of marketing? These are also called the four P’s: Presentation, Personal Selling, Persuasion and Protection. According to the marketing experts, these four aspects of marketing refer to different aspects in the marketing mix of a company. Let us see them one by one.
First of all, marketing includes the design and creation of campaigns and the way they are managed. It starts with the creation of the campaigns themselves where companies must set out their objectives and goals and determine the kind of consumers they want to attract. They need to understand what kind of products or services they should be offering to their customers, what kind of prices they should be charging, what language and media needs to be used and who their target market should be. The next step is to develop a message for their campaigns which should be clearly stated, consistent and clear-cut. Moreover, competitors can make use of the same message if they find something of value that they want to include in their campaigns.
Second, the promotion of the products and services is marketing. After the creation of the campaign itself, it will be followed by the promotion, which involves various kinds of communication and selling techniques. A well-thought marketing research can actually help in promoting the products of a company to a large extent. Furthermore, consumers’ awareness regarding the concepts of marketing, selling and purchasing may help them make decisions regarding buying or not.
Third, there is the implementation of the strategies involved in the marketing research and the marketing activities. This includes various activities like advertising, selling and promotional activities. Proper implementation of these steps is crucial in achieving success. In addition, there are many companies that have established themselves as major players in their respective markets by taking advantage of the opportunities available through the marketing activities of other companies. They have been able to achieve this by creating a niche for themselves within their respective markets.