Marketing analyzes consumer behavior.
Marketing is an English concept, translated into Spanish as marketing or marketing . It is the discipline dedicated to the analysis of the behavior of markets and consumers.
Marketing studies the commercial management of companies with the aim of attracting, retaining and building customer loyalty by satisfying their needs.
The Four P's
Marketing specialists usually focus their activities on the set of the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Advertising (promotion). Marketing appeals to different techniques and methodologies with the intention of conquering the market and achieving other objectives of a commercial company.
Marketing has been invented to satisfy the needs of the market in exchange for benefits for the companies that use it to develop. It is a tool that without a doubt is strictly necessary to achieve commercial success.
Some phrases where the term is used are: "We are going to hire a marketing expert to help us in the company", "Lowering prices during the World Cup was a great marketing strategy" and "I am reading a new marketing book." .
Market research is common in marketing.
Marketing experts
According to Philip Kotler , marketing consists of an administrative and social process thanks to which certain groups or individuals obtain what they need or want through the exchange of products or services.
Jerome McCarthy believes that it is the performance of activities that can help a company achieve the goals it has set, being able to anticipate consumer desires and develop products or services suitable for the market.
For his part, John A. Howard , who works at Columbia University , assures that marketing consists of a process in which it is necessary to understand the needs of consumers and find what the company can produce to satisfy them.
Al Ries y Jack Trout, por su parte, sostienen que marketing es sinónimo de "war" donde las empresas deben examinar a cada participante del mercado mediante un SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), comprendiendo así sus características o cualidades para luego trazar un plan a fin de explotarlas y defenderse.
According to the American Marketing Association ( AMA ), finally, marketing is a way of organizing a set of actions and processes when generating a product "to create, communicate and deliver value to customers and to manage relationships." Its purpose, in this framework, is to benefit the organization by satisfying customers.
One of the objectives of marketing is customer loyalty.
Administration and society
It is said that marketing is a social and administrative process because a group of people intervene with their concerns and needs and because it requires a certain number of elements such as organization, implementation and control for the efficient development of activities.
The only function it must fulfill is to contribute to achieving the goals that the company sets in regards to sales and distribution so that it remains current. That is why it is so important not only to have a solid knowledge of the market, but also to know what things the company is able to develop that may interest customers.
What marketing does is consider a customer need and, based on it, design, implement and verify how the marketing of the company 's products or services works. Various strategies and tools allow marketing to position a brand or a product in the buyer's mind .
Marketing actions can have a vision of short- or long-term profitability , since their management also involves making investments in the company's relationship with customers, suppliers and even its own employees, as well as advertising in the media. It is important not to confuse marketing and advertising , since marketing encompasses advertising and other issues.
Types of marketing
It is said that marketing can have different orientations: to the product (when the company has a monopoly on the market but, in any case, intends to improve the production process), to sales (aimed at increasing the entity's participation in the segment ) or to the market (the adaptation of the product to the consumer's tastes is sought).
Today there are many types of marketing . Some of the most studied are the following:
- Direct marketing : It consists of an interactive system that achieves followers and results in its transactions by making itself known through media that aim at a certain target (target audience), which requires market segmentation.
- Relationship marketing : It is usually included within direct marketing and is based on a fundamental principle that maintains that you do not have to sell, but rather "make friends" since they will be the ones who buy. In short, it is about achieving profit in exchange for customer satisfaction.
- Virtual marketing : It is also called cybermarketing or digital marketing and is what is applied to the Internet and is aimed at anyone in the world who has a computer or a telephone with a network connection. In this marketing there are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) tools that allow companies to achieve good visibility and sell their products or services better. Email marketing, online advertising and the use of social networks are part of this area.