We explain what marketing is, what it is for and what it consists of. In addition, the types of marketing and their main characteristics.
What is marketing?
It is known as marketing (from the Englishmarket, “Market”) ormarketing to the set of processes and institutions that allow the creation, communication and delivery of offers for the exchange of goods and services, which have a value for customers, Business and society in general.
In other words, it is a branch of the management which focuses on the communicative direction of the economic and commercial activities of a group or one person, that is, in how to identify and satisfy the needs of the target consumer market.
Marketing focuses on a two-way process: the exchange of goods and services between the different social and economic actors of a given region of the spectrum of consumption. This does not mean that it is equivalent to the advertising, although it does use it and other disciplines or techniques, such as models of business, to make your analysis and formulate your results.
The objectives Marketing can be summarized as taking the customer to the limit of the purchase decision, thus favoring the economic exchange between the parties (buyer and seller) so that both obtain a benefit or satisfaction.
Satisfaction in economic exchange (one thing for another, money for an object or service, for example) is the basis of the consumption system of modern society, since if it is not satisfactory for either party, it will not occur. again.
In this sense, marketing evaluates a series of key concepts for its approach, such as:
- Needs, wishes and demand. This is understood by the tension of searching for what we need (or feel that we need) that motivates consumption and economic exchange from the prehistory. Needs are linked to people's physical well-being; wishes to their specific aspirations (social, intellectual, cultural, etc.); and the demand is simply the desire to purchase a particular good or service from the offer.
- Value and satisfaction. Value is understood as the relationship established by the consumer between cost of product and the satisfaction that it provides, and exists based on four possibilities: expected value, received value, value of the competence and desired value.
- Exchange. It occurs when two or more parties are involved in an economic activity that involves giving something to receive something in return, thus managing to satisfy two needs or desires at the same time, in a relationship that, ideally, is long-term and mutually beneficial.
Marketing plan
A marketing plan helps you understand the rules of the game for your target market.
A marketing plan is the result of a market study carried out by a company (or for a company) with the aim of better understanding the dynamics of consumption specific to your economic niche, that is, the rules of the game of your target market.
Marketing plans are usually schematic, analytical documents that diagnose the market niche and subsequently offer solutions or recommendations to follow to maximize the financial year.
This includes four big points:
- Analysis market. A reading of the needs and requirements of the consuming public in a specific area, in which the positioning of the company that carries out the marketing plan is taken into consideration with respect to its competition and the image that consumers have of it.
- goals. A way to go, a specific goal linked to the improvement of the conditions of marketing of the company, which is always the result of analysis market preview.
- Strategies to follow.The set of recommendations or "solutions" that must be applied, in the opinion of those who prepare the plan, to improve the presence in the market or to maintain or consolidate it.
- Revision. A closure by way of conclusions and general recommendations.
Marketing mix
A marketing mix or commercial mix is the name given to a set of tools available for a company to move forward with its marketing plan.
Part of a sectoral understanding of the economic segments of the market: product or service (cycle of life, nature, etc.), price (payment methods, credit, discounts, etc.), distribution (distribution channels, timing, etc.) and promotion (advertising, public relations, effective communication, etc.).
Digital marketing
Digital marketing (MD) is characteristic of the era Internet (1.0 or 2.0), and therefore has to do with making the most of the advantages that this type of technologies information and communications They provide companies to position their products in the market.
This goes from usingCommunity Managers for their social networks, affectively approaching the client to the brand (loyalty), to presence in search engines (Search Engine Optmization, SEO) and use of the different multimedia resources offered by this platform.
Direct marketing
Direct marketing is understood as communication without intermediaries between the company and its clients or consumers, which occurs through a series of techniques and mechanisms whose purpose is to expand the customer base (capture new ones) and maintain the one already achieved (loyalty), guaranteeing the continuity of consumption of a specific product or simply adherence to a cause, a social organization or the sponsorship of a specific institution .