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Introduction to Marketing

One of the greatest needs of managers of business is to understand and develop marketing programs for their products and services. Business success is based on the ability to build a growing body of satisfied customers. Modern marketing programs are built around the "marketing concept," which directs managers to focus their efforts on identifying and satisfying customer needs - at a profit.

Marketing continues to be a mystery . . . to those who create it and to those who sponsor it. Often, the ad that generates record-breaking volume for a retail store one month is repeated the following month and bombs. A campaign designed by the best ad agency may elicit a mediocre response. The same item sells like hotcakes after a 30-word classified ad, with abominable grammar, appears on page 35 of an all-advertising shopper tossed on the front stoops of homes during a rainstorm! The mystery eludes solution but demands attention.

Your marketing results can be improved through a better understanding of your customers. This approach usually is referred to as the marketing concept.

Putting the customer first is probably the most popular phrase used by firms ranging from giant conglomerates to the corner barber shop, but the sloganizing is often just lip service. The business continues to operate under the classic approach - "Come buy this great product we have created or this fantastic service we are offering." The giveaway, of course, is the word we. In other words, most business activities, including advertising, are dedicated to solving the firm's problems. Success, however, is more likely if you dedicate your activities exclusively to solving your customer's problems.

Any marketing program has a better chance of being productive if it is timed, designed and written to solve a problem for potential customers and is carried out in a way that the customer understands and trusts. The pages that follow will present the marketing concept of putting the customer first. Marketing is a very complex subject; it deals with all the steps between determining customer needs and supplying them at a profit.

The Marketing Concept

The marketing concept rests on the importance of customers to a firm and states that:

All company policies and activities should be aimed at satisfying customer needs, and
Profitable sales volume is a better company goal than maximum sales volume.

To use the marketing concept, businesses should:

Determine the needs of their customers (Market Research);

Analyze their competitive advantages (Market Strategy);

Select specific markets to serve (Target Marketing), and;

Determine how to satisfy those needs (Market Mix).

Market Research

In order to manage the marketing function successfully, good information about the market is necessary. Frequently, a small market research program, based on a questionnaire given to present customers and/or prospective customers, can disclose problems and areas of dissatisfaction that can be easily remedied, or new products or services that could be offered successfully.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy encompasses identifying customer groups (Target Markets), which a small business can serve better than its larger competitors, and tailoring its product offerings, prices, distribution, promotional efforts and services towards that particular market segment (Managing the Market Mix). A good strategy implies that a business cannot be all things to all people and must analyze its markets and its own capabilities so as to focus on a target market it can serve best.

Target Marketing

Owners of small businesses have limited resources to spend on marketing activities. Concentrating their marketing efforts on one or a few key market segments is the basis of target marketing. The major ways to segment a market are:

Geographical segmentation - developing a loyal group of consumers in the home geographical territory before expanding into new territories.

Product segmentation - extensively promoting existing best-selling products and services before introducing a lot of new products.

Customer segmentation - identifying and promoting to those groups of people most likely to buy the product. In other words, selling to heavy users before trying to develop new users.

Managing the Market Mix

There are four key marketing decision areas in a marketing program. They are:

Products and Services,
Promotion,
Distribution, and
Pricing.

The marketing mix is used to describe how owner-managers combine these four areas into an overall marketing program.

Products and Services

Effective product strategies for a business may include concentrating on a narrow product line, developing a highly specialized product containing an unusual amount of service.

Promotion

This marketing decision area includes advertising, salesmanship and other promotional activities. In general, high quality salesmanship is a must for small businesses due to their limited ability to advertise heavily. Good yellow-page advertising is a must for small retailers. Direct mail is an effective, low-cost medium of advertising available to small businesses.

price

Determining price levels and/or pricing policies (including credit policy) is the major factor affecting total revenue. Generally, higher prices mean lower volume and vice-versa, however, small businesses can often command higher prices due to the personalized service they can offer.

Distribution

The manufacturer and wholesaler must decide how to distribute their products. Working through established distributors or manufacturers' agents generally is most feasible for small manufacturers. retailers should consider cost and traffic flow as two major factors in location site selection, especially since advertising and rent can be reciprocal. In other words, low-cost, low-traffic location means you must spend more on advertising to build traffic.

Marketing Performance

After marketing program decisions are made, owner-managers need to evaluate how well decisions have turned out. Standards of performance need to be set up so results can be evaluated against them. Sound data on industry norms and past performance provide the basis for comparing against present performance.

Owner-managers should audit their company's performance at least quarterly. The key questions to ask are:

Is the company doing all it can to be customer-orientated?

Do the employees make sure the customer's needs are truly satisfied and leave them with the feeling that they would enjoy coming back?

Is it easy for the customer to find what he or she wants and at a competitive price?

Food For Thought
Imagine for a moment that time is an illusion, and you have touched eternity.
Time is an extremely useful tool that we have devised in order to explain and to organize the world around us. But it is only a tool. It does not define us. Our essence transcends the limiting concept of time.

If we allow ourselves to be defined by time, then we get bogged down by anger or resentment about the past, anxiety and worry about the future, and the limitations imposed by how "old" or "young" we are.

Now is the only thing we have. In that sense, there really is no such thing as time. The past and the future, while useful concepts, do not currently exist. When we become too dependent upon the past or the future, we deny ourselves the joy of the now. When we ignore the now, it escapes and does not return.

Life must be lived now. You simply cannot be successful by doing things in the future. Plan for the future, yes, but live in the present. And no matter how great your accomplishments have been in the past, it is only by continuing to grow and seek new challenges that you remain full of life.

Treasure the past, welcome the future, and live your life in the precious moment that is now.
The words you are reading were written just a few hours ago in a home on a quiet street in Austin, Texas, and then transmitted to a computer in Florida for distribution around the world. As you read this message, it is also being read by people throughout North America, in Australia, South Africa, Norway, Germany, Malaysia, Russia and other places around the world.
The amazing thing is not so much the technology with which this is accomplished -- the technology itself has been around for decades. The amazing thing is that this technology, the ability to communicate instantaneously with thousands of people who share an interest in personal development (or any subject), is available to just about anyone. It doesn't take specialized equipment, a large investment, or highly technical skills -- any person of reasonable means and average intelligence can do it.

The implications of this are enormous. We are witnessing the emergence of a global conciousness of sorts. Information, ideas and concepts can evolve in a way that has never before been possible, at an unprecedented pace. Collaboration and discussion on a very intimate and detailed level can occur outside the limitations of time and space.

What does this mean for us as individual human beings? To a large extent, it frees us to become the people we were meant to be. It allows us to easily connect with others who value what we have to offer, be it an expertise in hockey, an understanding of sub-atomic physics, a skill in architectural photography or a consuming interest in Wagnerian opera.

Success in life used to depend largely upon "fitting in" to the physical and societal environment that you found yourself in. If you lived in a tiny West Texas town, or in the Australian Outback, you were relatively limited in the diversity of social interactions that you could pursue. The global information network has changed all that.

In the old paradigm of the Industrial Age, society rewarded those who designed and produced products for the masses, products which were targeted for the "lowest common denominator" in order to have the greatest mass appeal. This inevitably led to compromise on the part of creators and producers.

Now, as individuals become more interconnected, society is beginning to reward true creativity, innovation and passion.

How do you thrive in the Information Age, when traditional industry is downsizing your job out of existance? By following your heart, by doing what you love, and by becoming the best at it. Never has the time been more right for becoming the person you were meant to be.

Life is a continual learning experience. Make the commitment to never stop learning, and you'll live a vibrant, fulfilling life.
During our formal education we get the mistaken impression that we need someone else -- a teacher -- in order to learn. And there are many excellent teachers who have devoted their lives to educating others.

However, your best teacher is YOU. Life is always presenting you with learning experiences. You can choose to learn from them or not. It's all in your attitude. Everything that happens to you, both "good" and "bad" -- especially "bad" -- is an opportunity to learn.

When you encounter a setback, you have basically two choices. You can choose to be angry and resentful and depressed about it, or you can choose to learn from it. The way you react is completely up to you. If you're angry and resentful, what will that get you? How will it add value and accomplishment to your life?

When you choose to learn from every experience, you focus your attention on constant self-improvement and positive enrichment. Life presents lessons to you every day. It's up to you to do the learning.