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Marketing

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Marketing is the craft of linking the producers (or potential producers) of a product or service with customers, both existing and potential. Some form of marketing arises naturally in all capitalist societies but is not limited to capitalist societies. Marketing techniques are also applied in politics, religion, personal affairs, and many other aspects of life.

Marketing, as defined by marketing strategist Brian Norris, is a four-step process (4As) that ought to be followed in order:

The first step: Analysis. Time needs to be earmarked to determine the drivers, emotional and logical needs, and traditional and psycho graphic nuances of the intended audience. This step allows focus and micro-segmentation and a significant decrease in marketing cost.
The second step: Attention. Once you've identified who the core prospect for your products or services is, creative efforts must be taken to get and maintain their attention.
The third step: Accept. You must use the tools of copy, design, social networks, psychology and repetition to get the intended audience to accept that your solution is the best one to take. This acceptance must take place despite the fact that your solution is just one of many options available in an increasingly saturated marketplace.
Finally, the fourth step: Action. The prospect has to act on their acceptance of your proposition by doing whatever it is you want them to do. Generally, this might be making one or more purchases (be sure your marketing strategy includes opportunities for buyers to evangelize their positive purchasing experiences to others). It may also be picking up a phone or responding to a direct mail offer or fundraising effort or petition drive.

The 4As, used correctly and consistently, results in measurable, traceable return on marketing investment.

Marketing methods are informed by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Marketing research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related to many of the creative arts.

Overview

In popular usage, the term 'marketing' refers to the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning. It can be divided into four sections, often called the "four Ps," only one of which is promotion. They are:

These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix. A marketer will use these variables to craft a marketing plan. For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of the four "p's" must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don't want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process.

In marketing products, companies pursue a customer orientation or a product orientation. A market-oriented company focuses its activities and products on customer needs. A product-oriented company pursues product innovation, then tries to attract the market to the product. Although many people assume that a market-oriented approach is the most logical avenue, many firms successfully focus on product innovation, such as in research and development focused companies.

Some aspects of marketing, especially promotion, are the subject of criticisms.

A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing. It typically tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing.

See List of marketing topics for a list of the 200 marketing articles on Wikipedia.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Marketing.
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