Understanding Marketing: Techniques, Functions, and 4 Ps

Marketing

Marketing is the activities of a company associated with the purchase and sale of a product or service. In addition, marketing is a set of techniques and studies aimed at improving the marketing of a product.

Marketing includes:

• advertising
• the study of market behavior
• business management
• Consumer needs
• Selling and delivering products to people.

What is not marketing?

• Advertising (it is a marketing tool)
• Sales (it is one of the objectives of marketing)
• Promotions (it is a marketing tool)

What is marketing divided into?

The first function of marketing is to search, identify and analyze business opportunities that may exist in the market.

The second function of marketing is to select markets. A company invests large amounts of time and capital to define and control its target market. Target market testing usually occurs at a stage prior to product launch. At this stage, a company may use limited product launches and focus groups, allowing product managers to get a sense of which aspects of the product are the strongest.

Once the product is launched, the company can continue to monitor the demographics of its target market by tracking sales, customer surveys and various other activities that allow the company to understand what its customers demand.

4 Ps of marketing

• Product→ refers to an item or items a business intends to sell.
• Price→ refers to how much the product is likely to cost. When establishing price, considerations need to be given to cost the unit cost price, marketing costs and distribution expenses.
• Place→ refers to distribution of the product.
• Promotion→ refers to the integrated marketing communications campaign. Promotional activities may include advertising, personal selling, sales promotions...

Competitive advantages provide an edge over rivals and the ability to generate greater value for a company and its shareholders. The more sustainable the competitive advantage, the more difficult it will be for competitors to neutralize. The two main types of competitive advantage are comparative advantage and differential advantage.