To too many people marketing equates to one of two things:
– Selling: with all that entails such as the dreaded double-glazing or financial salesman.
– Advertising: with all that entails such as the slick young creative and smarmy account person.
Of course marketing also encompasses these functions though, hopefully not as in the stereotypes that are in so many minds but marketing is about a great deal more than just selling or advertising.
Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you’re continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting value in return.
It includes:
– Finding out what groups of potential customers or markets exist
– What groups of customers you prefer to serve your target markets
– What their needs are, what products or services you might develop to meet their needs
– How customers might prefer to use the products and services
– Who competitors are and what they are doing
– What pricing mechanism and approach you should use
– How each of target markets might choose to access the...