Marketing

Marketing and sales

Marketing is the process of identifying, anticipating and then meeting the needs and requirements of consumers in order to make a profit. In contrast, selling involves persuading customers that your products or services provide the benefits that they are looking for.

You can therefore see that there is an important difference between marketing and sales. Marketing puts the needs of the customer first. Through market research, it is possible to find out about customer tastes and requirements.

In contrast, selling takes place after marketing has helped the business to identify those sorts of goods that customers are looking for. The sales person is convinced that theirs is the best in the market. It is their job to then convince customers that this is the case.

The marketing department of a firm that produces razors like BIC or Gillette carries out research to find out the sorts of shaving developments that their customers are looking for.

They ask customers to tell them what improvements they would like to see to existing products and what new products they would like to develop. They test market a range of possible products on customers. As a result of the marketing process, they are able to come up with the most suitable products.

Sales

Having invested so much in customer focused marketing they must then sell the benefits of the new product developments to customers. This involves advertising and promotion to communicate product benefits.

It involves providing the appropriate support literature and direct selling to retail outlets that will stock the new razors. The sales force is effectively selling the benefits of the new products. These benefits were developed as a result of market and product research. Marketing and sales, therefore, go hand in hand.

Marketing is all about finding out what the customer wants. Selling is all about showing the customer that you can please them by providing them with the products that they want.

Eco-Friendly Design

24/7 Support

Multilingual Functionality

Advanced Tech

Licensed Professionals

First-Rate Materials

International marketing
A useful definition of marketing is the anticipation and identification of customer needs and requirements so as to be able to meet them, make a profit or other key organisational objectives.

International marketing involves recognising that people all over the world have different needs. Companies like Gillette, Coca-Cola, BIC, and Cadbury Schweppes have brands that are recognised across the globe.

While many of the products that these businesses sell are targeted at a global audience using a consistent marketing mix, it is also necessary to understand regional differences, hence the importance of international marketing.

Organisations must accept that differences in values, customs, languages and currencies will mean that some products will only suit certain countries and that as well as there being global markets e.g. for BIC and Gillette razors, and for Coca-Cola drinks, there are important regional differences – for example, advertising in China and India need to focus on local languages.

Standardisation

If a company offers a product, which is undifferentiated between any of the markets to which it is offered, then standardisation is taking place.

The great benefit of standardisation is the ability to compete with low costs over a large output.

In most markets, however, there are many barriers to standardisation. It is not difficult to think about the standard marketing mix for a product and how this might vary from one country to another. For example:

product – tastes and habits differ between markets
price – consumers have different incomes
place – systems of distribution vary widely
promotion – Consumers’ media habits vary, as do language skills and levels of literacy.
With differentiated marketing, on the other hand, an organisation will segment its overseas markets, and offer a marketing mix to meet the needs of each of its markets.
The great benefit of standardisation is that costs are lowered, profitability is increased and the task of supplying different markets becomes substantially easier.

Work Experience

Polycentrism

Ethnocentrism

Geocentrism

with this marketing approach, a business will establish subsidiaries, each with its own marketing objectives and policies, which are decentralised from the parent company. Adaptation takes place in every market using different mixes to satisfy customer requirements.

overseas operations are considered to be of little importance. Plans for overseas markets are developed at home. There is little research, the marketing mix is standardised and there is no real attention to different customer needs and requirements in each market.

standardisation takes place wherever possible and adaptation takes place where necessary. This is a pragmatic approach.

Our Signature Aesthetic of Marketing

Principles of marketing

When looking at the marketing model people often get confused between the marketing of a product and the selling of a product

Marketing strategy

marketing strategy with tactics to create a totally customer facing organization.

product life cycle

The product life cycle is the period over which it appeals to customers.

The impact of eCommerce on business activity

Demand and supply for goods and services

The demand for a product is the quantity that buyers will be willing to purchase at a given price. The supply of a good is the quantity that suppliers will be willing to bring to the market at given prices.

Market Planning

featuring topics like how to start your own business, small business trends, marketing tips and practical advice for business owners, trading and cryptocurrency.