- What is marketing?
- Marketing characteristics
- Marketing objectives and functions
- Types of marketing
- Importance of marketing
- Marketing and publicity
We explain what marketing is, its phases, objectives and other characteristics. Also, the types of marketing that exist.
What is marketing?
Marketing or marketing (borrowed from English), is the set of techniques and business procedures whose objective is to stimulate the demand of a good or a service. Among them is the advertising, the design, the market study and other conceptual tools that help tailor the offering to the needs or aspirations of your target consumers.
Initially, the mass marketing of the 1950s targeted the bulk of the consumer population without distinction. Later, between the years 1960 and 1980, he classified it by strata or niches. From 1990 on, he began to personalize and directly observe the behavior of the consumer, thanks to technological advances in the field of communications Y data.
In addition to these many changes, there are many approaches and ways of understanding marketing. The American economist Phillip Kotler (1931-) is considered as the father of marketing, and as one of the most important thinkers in this branch of economic knowledge.
Marketing characteristics
Marketing is characterized by the following:
- It aims to facilitate the flow of production from producers to consumers, thus increasing the commercial performance of a specific sector of the economy.
- Its object of study is the society whole, but especially to customers and consumers, as well as workers in the business.
- It has a mix of tools and commercial perspectives to address its object of study, which is traditionally defined in the "four Ps": Price, Positioning, Promotion and Product.
On the other hand, it understands its work as a process that encompasses four different phases:
- Market research and economic environment, equivalent to the diagnosis and understanding of the panorama.
- Definition of the target market, that is, defining the target audience to which the marketing efforts will be directed.
- Establishment of a strategy, which will be determined by the target audience and by the properties of the product, within the framework of society and the historical moment.
- Application of a marketing “mix”, that is, of a series of tools and utilities to increase the exposure of the product to its target audience and improve the latter's receptivity to the offer.
- Control of the marketing plan, which means establishing a feedback Y take decisions corrective measures based on the steps already taken.
Marketing objectives and functions
Marketing objectives can be summarized in one: take the potential consumer to the limit of the purchase decision, or what is the same, facilitate the exchange of goods and capital between producers and consumers in a certain commercial niche. For this to happen, according to Phillip Kotler himself, the following conditions must be met:
- There must be two instances interested in carrying out the exchange.
- Each party must extract a value from the exchange transaction.
- Each party must be able to deliver and communicate value.
- Each party must be free to accept or reject the offer made to it.
- Each party must understand how convenient or desirable to carry out the exchange.
Therefore, the functions of marketing are those that tend to fulfill these objectives, through different orientations: to production and to the product, or to sales (to the market and to the brand).
Types of marketing
More than types or classifications, marketing has different trends, since the same set of functions are applied in each of them, but from different points of view or following paradigms and in contexts different. Thus, we can talk about:
- Social marketing. Or “responsible” marketing, when you have a clear interest in the affairs of the corporate social responsibility, which is the name given to the secondary objectives (that is, those faced when the market is settled) of the organizations: the environment, social progress, the diffusion of culture, etc.
- Attraction marketing. Call inbound marketing in English, specializes in attracting the interest of potential consumers towards a certain brand, through social marketing techniques, management of SEO positioning in Internet, and others strategies persuasive or "positioning" in the market.
- Street marketing. In English street marketing, specializes in the urban environment and how to impact passersby for the benefit of the brand, using methods not controlled by traditional advertising.
- Relational marketing. One that focuses on the development and strengthening of producer-consumer relationships, through methods of loyalty and market segmentation.
- Holistic Marketing. One that addresses the commercial exercise in a global, integrated way, as a whole whose processes are interrelated and cannot be analyzed separately, but require global perspectives.
- Neuromarketing.When it relies on advances and discoveries in neuronal and brain, if not psychological, to design more effective strategies for product and brand placement.
- Geomarketing. Communion of the geography and marketing, is a recent trend that explores the ideal geographic locations for a certain type of product, thus incorporating cartographic or geostrategic tools to commercial activity.
Importance of marketing
Marketing has grown in importance over time, becoming one of the most active and fundamental areas of business and commercial competition. It was already important in the last century, to highlight industrial products above the competition. Today it is essential, as it is better able to "know" the target audience and shorten the gap between producers and consumers.
Its role is vital in a hypercompetitive global society, such as that of the capitalism globalized of the 21st century. Visibility, loyalty and positioning are key concepts in contemporary commercial dynamics, driven to new horizons thanks to Internet and the so-called "culture 2.0".
Marketing and publicity
Although these are close disciplines, we should not confuse advertising with marketing, mainly because the former is just an instrument available to the latter. In other words, marketing covers the area of study of advertising and surpasses it, also penetrating the productive, the social and the corporate.
Advertising, however, understood as the set of strategies that seek to highlight a product or convince the consumer of a purchase, is among the main pillars of marketing.