Introduction

There is a very tough competition in the market for every product and services; therefore, every company has a separate department of advertising. Advertising is a part of marketing and marketing departments invest a lot of money for advertising to increase the sales of the company. Advertising is a way to connect to customers and public.

Customers come to know about the products and services of different companies through advertising. Advertising plays a very vital role in promoting goods and services. Advertising is a way of sending a message to the public; it portrays your organization, your products, values and services.

The Basics

Marketing is a wide term in promotion of goods and services. Marketing simply means “Giving the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time”. Marketing is not only the promotion of goods and services, but it consists of knowing the needs of customers and then manufacturing the goods based on the customer demands, finding a place for promotion and distributing and transporting the goods to the required places.

That is why we are saying Marketing is a very big term and advertising is a part of marketing. Professor E. Jerome McCarthy has suggested the concept of marketing mix in 1960. Marketing mix is the key concept of advertising. Marketing mix consists of four “P” elements. Marketing mix includes the plans and ideas to bring the product into the market. Marketing mix consists of four elements: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Now we discuss four elements:-

1. Product: - This product element refers to the product to be manufactured. It is very important to know about the customer needs and demands in the product. The company has to know the requirements of customer in product size, color and quality. After knowing all the requirements of customers, the company starts developing the product as per the customer demand.

2. Price: - Price is the money paid by the consumer for the product. The company needs to fix the price of the product after knowing the competitor’s product prices and how much discount they can offer to attract the customers for goods and services.

3. Place: - Place refers to location to sell the products and services. The company has to find the place to market the products and services. Location should be easily reachable to customers and it should not be far from the customers. The market can be of different types, for example a physical market and or a virtual market. A physical market is where a customer interacts with the seller physically and buys the products as per the requirement. Virtual markets are those markets where buyers buy the product online and they do not meet physically.

4. Promotion: - This is the last element of the marketing mix. Promotion means branding of products and services. Promotion means strategies and plans for advertisement of product, so that the product reaches the masses. It is awareness among the public regarding the product.

The basics of marketing

Marketing is a very old term in the business but used by different names. In the 18th century, trade was the transfer of goods from one person to another person in exchange of goods. There has been a barter system where one person gives the goods in exchange for other goods. In simple meaning, we can say Exchange of surplus goods for the shortage goods.

The reasons for surplus goods can be geographical location, skill labor and amount of labor etc and it can be the reason for shortage of particular goods. Everyone has started to increase the production of goods and as the production of goods increases, limits and range of trade increased and so the distance between the traders. Because of this, it became difficult for every trader to locate other traders for business and exchange of goods.

Then middlemen and intermediaries came into existence and their motive was to locate the trader and producer. So the middlemen’s role was to bring together the two parties for business and these middlemen performed a lot of other roles and middlemen became a marketing department of the company.

What’s it about

As defined by American Marketing Association, marketing is the business activities directed towards the flow of goods and services from the producer to the end user. It is an accumulation of all operations of business. Marketing is the mixture of all physical activities such as production, transportation, storage, distribution, promotion.

Marketing is a very important component for success of any business. Marketing is the backbone of the organization and that is why companies are investing a lot of money in marketing. Marketing is the creation and maintenance of relationship between company and the customers. Marketing is the not only important for the company but also it is important for the customers because customers come to know about the products and services through the marketing.

If the company does not do the marketing of products and services then how will customers come to know about the market of distribution of products and services? Therefore, marketing is vital component for the company and for the customers also. Marketing’s main motive is to get to know about the needs of customers and based on needs of customers, companies start the production and then promotion and distribution of goods and services.

We can say it is planning, production, promotion and distribution of goods and services. If customers find the product at the right place, at right time and at right price than companies will make profits and it will be win-win situation for the company and for customers.

The success of marketing depends on the ability to communicate well with customers. Marketing needs effective planning, coordination of activities, directing of activities and review of operations. Marketing concepts hold the key to achieving the organizational goals, consisting of determining the needs and wants of the target customers and delivering the desired results more efficiently and effectively than competitors.

Under marketing concept, focus is on the selling satisfaction instead of selling the product. The objective of marketing is not the maximization of sales volume, but profit with the satisfaction of customers. The customer is the main point and all marketing activities work around the customer’s satisfaction.

It is essential for the entrepreneur to identify the customer’s needs and deliver the goods and services as per the customer requirement. Marketing begins with customer and ends with the customer. Since marketing is consumer oriented, it has a positive impact on the business firms. It enables the entrepreneurs to improve the quality of their goods and services.

Marketing helps in improving the standard of living of the people by offering a wide variety of goods and services with freedom of choice, and by treating the customer as the most important person. Marketing generates employment both in production and in distribution areas. Since a business firm generates revenue and earns profits by carrying out marketing functions, it will engage in exploiting more and more economic resources of the country to earn more profits.

A large-scale business can have its own formal marketing network, media campaigns, and sales force, but a small unit may have to depend totally on personal efforts and resources, making it informal and flexible. Marketing makes or breaks a small enterprise. An enterprise grows, stagnates, or perishes with the success or failure, as the case may be, of marketing.

Excerpted from the book The Quintessential Guide to Marketing Ads.

This excerpt has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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