DON'T MAKE THEM REGRET BUYING WHAT YOU'RE SELLING! (An Introduction To What Marketing REALLY Is)
by David Russ
Most people don't know what the real definition of marketing is. In general, they mistake marketing as being synonymous with advertising, sales, or promotion.
Marketing is a highly evolved science of making a profit from transactions. It is, in fact, a very broad term. Whether you work for a business, a nonprofit organization, a services organization, or an organization that sells goods, the definition of marketing is the same: It's the process of identifying consumer wants or needs and then identifying ways of meeting those wants or needs at a profit to the marketer.
MARKETING ISN'T JUST PROMOTING AND SELLING! Why is it important to understand the definition of marketing? It's because we often think that all we have to do is promote a product and it will sell.
However, as what the definition of marketing points out, marketing involves first finding out what people need before figuring out how to get them to buy a product.
THE 4Ps OF MARKETING! In order to fully understand the definition of marketing, marketers often break down its definition into what is known as the "4 Ps of Marketing."
The 4Ps are:
- Product - Place - Promotion - Price
It's the marketer's job to find or invent the product to be sold, plan ways to get it to a particular place (distribution or logistics), promote it to its target audience, and determine the price it should be sold at.
IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF THE CUSTOMERS! Why do marketers take the 4P approach? This is because marketing is based on the concept of customer retention. This concept states that customers who are happy with the product they receive will come back again and or tell their friends about the product. This is very important because estimates for most industries state that it costs at least five times as much to find new customers as it does to retain current customers.
...AND MAKING THEM HAPPY! How do we make customers happy? We start by finding a product that a group of people or businesses want or need. Then we find the most convenient way for them to receive the product. Next, we promote the product to them in a way that will make it look most attractive. We want them to feel good about their purchase.
We want to make sure too that we can sell the product at a price that will bring them satisfaction. How often have you bought something and later decided you paid too much or didn't really want it? Perhaps the most important thing in satisfying customers is reinforcing in their minds the idea that they made the right decision of purchasing our product.
HOW TO MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEIR DECISION! In the case of large or expensive product purchases, we can make customers feel good about their purchase by sending them a personal thank you note, letting them know what a good decision they made when they bought the product.
With smaller items, you can reinforce the purchase decision of customers with means such as continued advertising about the quality and good image of your product. Another thing to do is to reassure them by the providing good support for the product and a good return policy, if possible.
As you can see, if marketing is done properly, it will improve the lives of both the customer and the seller.
It is the marketer's goal to deliver something the customer wants or needs. If you sell things to people that they regret purchasing it will probably be the last thing you sell to people. So don't make your customers regret having bought from you!
© 2000, David Russ
mailto:davin@mail.InternetMusketeers.com
David Russ is a member of the Internet Musketeers, Incorporated corporate team. His official position is Assistant Deputy Director of Marketing, in charge of Website and Search Engine Promotion, Internet Musketeers Incorporated. He has a BBA in marketing and is an expert on search engine positioning.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Website Marketing Articles
More By Developer Shed  developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
<a href="http://zeus.developershed.com/shonuff.php?blackbird=3853&zoneid=442&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibm.com%2Fdeveloperworks%2Fspaces%2Fjazz%3FS_TACT%3D105AGY31%26S_CMP%3DDEVSHED&ismap="><img src="http://images.devshed.com/corp/img/news/jazz01.gif" alt="developerWorks Jazz space" align="left"></a>You've heard the buzz about Jazz... want to know more about it from a developer's perspective? Check out the Jazz space on developerWorks. This space is an up-to-date resource for developers, including technical information about Jazz and products built on Jazz, like Rational Team Concert Express. The Jazz space includes content from a wide variety of sources, including links, feeds, and comments from experts.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, featuring Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich, to speak to the experts about becoming a Rational ClearCase power user. Get a chance to ask your questions and learn tips and tricks for using Rational ClearCase in Agile development
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Attend this launch webcast with Scott Hebner, Vice President of IBM Rational Marketing and Strategy, for an overview of Rational’s new software offerings and resources to help modernize and accelerate software innovation on i on Power Systems – while ensuring past application investments are protected and continue to grow. Learn how these solutions are helping customers extend their core i5/OS solutions toward modern architectures such as SOA and web technologies to deliver business improvements that stand the test of time.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this webcast to see how IBM Data Studio Developer and pureQuery can take the pain out of Java data access. uApplications developed using both Java and SQL have become a common requirement. Database connectivity using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) to create an application is a multi-step tedious process, and tooling that covers both SQL and Java has been unavailable, until now. IBM Data Studio introduces the pureQuery platform: a high-performance, Java data access platform focused on simplifying the tasks of developing, managing, and optimizing database applications and services.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions help organizations evolve core IT systems towards modern architectures and technologies—reducing the burden of maintenance and freeing up resources to develop new business requirements and capabilities. With the IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z you can evaluate IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions focused on five key areas: Assets, Architectures, Skills, Processes and Infrastructures, and Investment. Each solution is based upon real customer experiences and offers a proven path to get you started with your modernization projects.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference on December 11 at 1:00 pm ET to get tips on building your own plugins with Rational Method Composer. Get your questions answered!
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
This paper is about the critical role that a discipline called integrated requirements management can play in helping to ensure that your business goals and IT investments are continuously aligned—whether you are sourcing, integrating, building or maintaining software. It also looks at ways that automated IBM Rational® products can work together to help you use requirements in the very best way.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Get a free trial download of the latest version of IBM Rational Method Composer V7.2 which helps you deliver customized yet consistent process guidance to your project teams and IT organization, and includes the latest version of IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP), which has provided process guidance to teams since 1996.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Get a free trial download of the latest version of IBM Rational Tester for SOA Quality V7.0.1, a functional and regression testing tool that enables the creation, comprehension, modification and execution of testing GUI-less Web services.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
In this webcast, IBM Rational will discuss the importance of Web application security and will share techniques and best practices to introduce application security testing into current QA processes including: understanding common security vulnerabilities and techniques to integrate security testing with defect tracking and remediation systems in an effort to safeguard sensitive online information.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
| |
