Most people have a very vague understanding of the marketing process and often confuse it with advertising which is merely a branch of marketing. In order to learn what is marketing, you need to analyze its basic principles. In simple words, marketing is a process that contains all the methods and strategies that a company uses in order to communicate the value of its products or services to the market. It targets both existing customers as well as potential ones.
Contrary to popular beliefs, marketing doesn’t just imply promoting the qualities of a product or service. A successful marketing strategy consist of a deep psychological understanding of the customers and their needs in order to help you provide the best services at the best costs. Once you accomplish this, you will be able to deliver the right products to the ideal customers at the best price. The result of this process is of course profit.
If you want to understand what is marketing the best thing to do is study the six Ps of the marketing mix. The first one is Product and it refers to all of the characteristics of the product or service that your company is offering such as design, quality, packaging and so on. The second P is Place and it refers to the location where the customers can access your products. Price is, as the name suggests, the nominal value of your product. Promotion is the fourth P and it involves all the means that a company uses in order to communicate with the customers. People is the fifth element of the marketing mix and it consists of your staff and the benefits that they bring to your business. Last but not least, Process represents all the events that define the way you run your business.
There are two steps that need to be taken before developing a marketing campaign and in order to understand what is marketing you need to invest some time and effort into these two steps. The first one is market research and it is perhaps the most important step. Most small business often skip this step which is why they are having such a hard time competing with big corporations. Market research allows you to gather all the proper information that will help you sell your products. Once you have done your research it is time to move to the next step which is planning. Before investing any money in a marketing campaign you need to develop an organized plan which involves all the steps you will take in order to sell your product as well as the budget allocated for each step.
