Marketing 

is the process of getting potential clients or customers interested in your

products and services. The keyword in this definition is "process." Marketing involves

researching, promoting, selling, and distributing your products or services.

This discipline centers on the study of market and consumer behaviors and it analyzes the

commercial management of companies in order to attract, acquire, and retain customers by

satisfying their wants and needs and instilling brand loyalty.

Definition of Marketing

The definition of marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or

services, including market research and advertising. Today, marketing is something that

every company and organization must implement in its growth strategy . Many companies

use marketing techniques to achieve their goals without even realizing it, as they work

to promote themselves and increase sales of their product or service. These days,

marketing is one of the key aspects of businesses. 

People often do not know exactly what marketing is and, when asked, they define it as
selling or advertising. While these answers are not wrong, they are only a part of

marketing. There are many other aspects to marketing like product distribution, promotion,

designing and creating materials like landing pages and social media content, improving

customer experience, doing market research, establishing market segments, and much

more.

Marketing is very broad and encompasses all the strategies that help a company, brand, or

individual achieve its objectives.

What Does Marketing Do for Your Business?

Marketing can help your business in countless ways but let's take a look at a few of the

most impactful ones.

 
1. Raising Brand Awareness

This is important because it gets people acquainted with your brand and the products or

services you provide. It also makes you memorable to customers who can begin to trust

your brand, become loyal clients, and tell their network about you.

 
2. Generating Traffic

Growing the number of visitors to your site means getting more qualified leads (lead

scoring can help determine this) and ultimately increasing your sales. An effective

marketing strategy will help you through this process. 

 
3. Increasing Revenue

Every business wants to increase its sales and marketing can help achieve this goal

through a variety of strategies like optimizing your website and SEO, creating email

campaigns, performing A/B tests to pinpoint the best strategy for you, and much more.

 
4. Building Trust in Your Brand

Creating a high level of trust in your brand leads to customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

This not only increases revenue but also leads to great reviews both online and by word of

mouth, which is still one of the most effective types of promotion.

 
5. Tracking Your Metrics

Metrics are incredibly helpful when it comes to creating your marketing strategy. They not

only drive the strategy and help track its progress but also inform what can be adapted or

adjusted to continually optimize your campaigns. 

 
 Different Marketing Strategies 

Marketing is not just one single strategy, but rather a combination of many different

techniques and tactics. Below we've listed some essential marketing strategies that you

should know about. Click on the red links to learn more about each of these strategies. 

 Marketing Plan: Discover what a marketing plan is, why you need to design one, and

the keys to creating a strong plan. Without a marketing plan, a company or brand can’t

reach its goals.

 Digital Marketing:  Digital marketing is the discipline of marketing which focuses on

developing a strategy solely within the digital environment.

 Direct Marketing:  Direct marketing is a type of campaign based on direct, two-way

communication that seeks to trigger a result from a specific audience.

 Email Marketing:  Email marketing is one of the most profitable and effective

techniques in terms of return. Naturally, it consists of sending emails to your audience,

but make sure to define your segments well in order to be effective.

 Mobile Marketing:  Mobile marketing is a broad concept which brings together all

marketing campaigns and actions focused exclusively on mobile platforms and

applications  (i.e. smartphones and tablets).

 Viral Marketing:  Having something go viral is every company’s dream. Viral

Marketing spreads from one person to the next and is capable of going incredibly far

incredibly fast.

Nature of Marketing
The Nature of Marketing (or Modern marketing) may be studied under the following points:
1. Human activity: Originally, the term marketing is a human activity under which human needs
are satisfied by human efforts. It’s a human action for human satisfaction.
2. Consumer-oriented: A business exist to satisfy human needs, hence business must find out
what the desire of customer (or consumer) and thereby produce goods & services as per the
needs of the customer. Thus, only those goods should be produce that satisfy consumer needs
and at a reasonable profit to the manufacturer (or producer).
3. Art as well as science: In the technological arena, marketing is the art and science of
choosing target markets and satisfying customers through creating, delivering, and
 communicating superior customer value. It is a technique of making the goods available at
right time, right place, into right hands, right quality, in the right form and at right price.
4. Exchange Process: All marketing activities revolve around commercial exchange process.
The exchange process implies transactions between buyer and seller. It also involves
exchange of technology, exchange of information and exchange of ideas.
5. Starts and ends with customers: Marketing is consumer oriented and it is crucial to know
what the actual demand of consumer is. This is possible only when required information
related to the goods and services is collected from the customer. Thus, it is the starting of
marketing and the marketing end as soon as those goods and services reach into the safe
hands of the customer.
6. Creation of Utilities: Marketing creates four components of utilities viz. time, place,
possession and form. The form utility refers to the product or service a company offers to
their customers. The place utility refers to the availability of a product or service in a location
i.e. Easier for customers. By time utility, a company can ensure that products and services are
available when customers need them. The possession utility gives customers ownership of a
product or service and enables them to derive benefits in their own business.

Functions of Research
The modern marketing activities start with consumer research. It is referred with the analysis
of consumer attitudes, tastes, habits, reactions and preferences to the company’s product so
that the products may be produced according to the needs of the consumers. The major
functions of research are as follows:
Marketing Research: The marketing research is helpful in analyzing the customer’s
behavior, popularity of product, effectiveness of advertising, pricing policy, etc.  In other
words, it is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relating
to the marketing of goods and services. For making correct and timely decisions, the
marketing manager analyses all the available opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses
of the organization and determine the best opportunity to be pursue for it.
Product planning and development: Under modern marketing activities, product planning
is determined before the start of actual production. It is the process in which shape, size,
color, weight, design, packing, etc. of the product is determined on the basis of information
gathered with the help of market research. Product development involves decisions regarding
shape, size, color, weight, design, quality, brand, label, etc. as per the needs of the consumer,
which will give maximum satisfaction to the consumer and reasonable profit to the
manufacturer.

7. Goal oriented: Marketing seeks to achieve benefits for both buyers and sellers by satisfying
human needs. The ultimate goal of marketing is to generate profits through the satisfaction of
the customer.
8. Guiding element of business: Modern Marketing is the heart of industrial activity that tells
what, when, how to produce. It is capable of guiding and controlling business.
9. System of Interacting Business Activities: Marketing is the system through which a business
enterprise, institution or organization interacts with the customers with the objective to earn
profit, satisfy customers and manage relationship. It is the performance of business activities
that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user.
10. Marketing is a dynamic processe. series of interrelated functions: Marketing is a complex,
continuous and interrelated process. It involves continuous planning, implementation and
control.
Scope/Functions of Marketing
The term scope of marketing can be understood in terms of the functions of the marketing
manager. The major purpose of marketing manager is to generate revenue for the business by
selling goods and services to the consumers. It lies in insuring the customer needs and
converting them into product or services and moving the product and services to the final
user or customer, to satisfy the wants and needs of specific segment of customers with
emphasis on profitability and ensuring the optimum use of resources available with the
organization. The marketing manager has to perform the research functions and exchange
functions. They are discussed below:

Functions of Research
The modern marketing activities start with consumer research. It is referred with the analysis
of consumer attitudes, tastes, habits, reactions and preferences to the company’s product so
that the products may be produced according to the needs of the consumers. The major
functions of research are as follows:
Marketing Research: The marketing research is helpful in analyzing the customer’s
behavior, popularity of product, effectiveness of advertising, pricing policy, etc.  In other
words, it is the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relating
to the marketing of goods and services. For making correct and timely decisions, the
marketing manager analyses all the available opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses
of the organization and determine the best opportunity to be pursue for it.
Product planning and development: Under modern marketing activities, product planning
is determined before the start of actual production. It is the process in which shape, size,
color, weight, design, packing, etc. of the product is determined on the basis of information
gathered with the help of market research. Product development involves decisions regarding
shape, size, color, weight, design, quality, brand, label, etc. as per the needs of the consumer,
which will give maximum satisfaction to the consumer and reasonable profit to the
manufacturer.

CONCEPT OF MARKETING:

The Production Concept

The production concept is focused on operations and is based on the assumption
that customers will be more attracted to products that are readily available and can
be purchased for less than competing products of the same kind. This concept came
about as a result of the rise of early capitalism in the 1950s, at which time,
companies were focused on efficiency in manufacturing to ensure maximum profits
and scalability. 

This philosophy can be useful when a company markets in an industry experiencing

tremendous growth, but it also carries a risk. Businesses that are overly focused on
cheap production can easily lose touch with the needs of the customer and ultimately
lose business despite its cheap and accessible goods.

The Product Concept

The product concept is the opposite of the production concept in that it assumes that
availability and price don’t have a role in customer buying habits and that people
generally prefer quality, innovation, and performance over low cost. Thus, this
marketing strategy focuses on continuous product improvement and innovation. 

Apple Inc. is a prime example of this concept in action. Its target audience always
eagerly anticipates the company’s new releases. Even though there are off-brand
products that perform many of the same functions for a lower price, many folks will
not compromise just to save money. 

Working on this principle alone, however, a marketer could fail to attract those who
are also motivated by availability and price. 

The Selling Concept

Marketing on the selling concept entails a focus on getting the consumer to the
actual transaction without regard for the customer’s needs or the product quality — a
costly tactic. This concept frequently excludes customer satisfaction efforts and
doesn’t usually lead to repeat purchases. 

The selling concept is centered on the belief that you must convince a customer to
buy a product through aggressive marketing of the benefits of the product or service
because it isn’t a necessity. An example is soda pop. Ever wonder why you continue
to see ads for Coca Cola despite the prevalence of the brand? Everyone knows what
Coke has to offer, but it’s widely known that soda lacks nutrients and is bad for your
health. Coca Cola knows this, and that’s why they spend astonishing amounts of
money pushing their product. 
The Marketing Concept
The marketing concept is based on increasing a company’s ability to compete and
achieve maximum profits by marketing the ways in which it offers better value to
customers than its competitors. It’s all about knowing the target market, sensing its
needs, and meeting them most effectively. Many refer to this as the “customer-first
approach.”

Glossier is a recognizable example of this marketing concept. The company

understands that many women are unhappy with the way that makeup affects the
health of their skin. They also noticed that women are fed up with being told what
makeup products to use. With this in mind, Glossier introduced a line of skincare and
makeup products that not only nourish the skin but are also easy to use and promote
individualism and personal expression with makeup.

The Societal Concept

The societal marketing concept is an emerging one that emphasizes the welfare of
society. It’s based on the idea that marketers have a moral responsibility to market
conscientiously to promote what’s good for people over what people may want,
regardless of a company’s sales goals. Employees of a company live in the societies
they market to, and they should advertise with the best interests of their local
community in mind. 

The fast-food industry is an example of what the societal concept aims to address.
There’s a high societal demand for fast food, but this food is high in fat and sugar
and contributes to excess waste. Even though the industry is answering the desires
of the modern consumer, it’s hurting our health and detracting from our society’s goal
of environmental sustainability.