Marketing is the process of planning and executing conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals." American Marketing Association. See also pricing, distribution, and promotion. Price--59. ... Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. ... Promotion may mean: Promotion (chess), a term used in the game of chess Promotion (marketing), a marketing term Promotion (rank), an increase in position in a hierarchy Promotion (academic), German academic degree that is roughly equivalent to the Ph. ...

In the past, many companies were product-focused, employing teams of salespeople to push their products into or onto the market, regardless of market desire. A market-focused, or customer-focused, organization instead first determines what its potential customers desire, and then builds the product. Marketing theory and practice rely on the understanding that customers use a product or service because they have a need, or because of perceived value. A marketing oriented firm (also called the marketing concept, or consumer focus, or customer focus) is one that allows the wants and needs of customers and potential customers to drive all the firms strategic decisions. ... A customer is someone who purchases or rents something from an individual or organisation. ...

Two major aspects of marketing are the recruitment of new customers (acquisition) and the retention and expansion of relationships with existing customers (base management).

Acquisition marketing is a four-step process (see AIDA) that begins with analyzing and defining a qualified universe of potential users or buyers (called a target market). After this first phase in the marketing process, a true marketing effort succeeds in capturing the attention of the intended buyers within the targeted universe. Third, systematic effort must be put into getting the prospects to accept the concepts or propositions being offered via the marketing effort. Finally, with all three of the previous steps achieved, the marketer must convert prospective buyers into an actual buyers by getting them to take the desired action (purchase, rent, call, download, subscribe, refer, sell, follow the law, become a member, etc.). Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a story by Auguste Mariette. ... A target market is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. ...

Once a marketer has converted the prospective buyer, base management marketing takes over. The process for base management shifts the marketer to building a relationship, nuturing the links, enhancing the benefits that sold the buyer in the first place and improving the products/service continuously to protect her business from competitive encroachments.

Marketing methods are informed by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Marketing research underpins these activities. Through advertising, it is also related to many of the creative arts. Terms like SOSE (Studies of Society & the Environment) not only refer to social sciences but also studies of the environment. ... Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of behaviour, mind and thought and the neurological bases of behaviour. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau of Economic Research (USA) - Economics material from the organization... Research Research covers the search for and retrieval of information for a specific purpose. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Types of markets

The word market originally meant the place where the exchange between seller and buyer took place. Today we speak of a market as either a region where goods are sold and bought or particular types of buyer (summarized from Wells, Burnett, Moriarty, pg. 65–66). When strategizing specialists in marketing comment about markets they are usually referring to the different groups of people and/or organizations. The four major market groups are 1) consumer, 2) business to business, 3) institutional, and 4) reseller. Street markets such as this one in Rue Mouffetard, Paris are still common in France. ...

Product, price, promotion, and placement

In popular usage, the term "marketing" refers to the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning that recognizes that marketing is customer centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. McCarthy divided marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language. Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... This article is about the concept in marketing. ...

The Four Ps are:

• Product: The Product management aspect of marketing deals with the specifications of the actual good or service, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants.
• Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts.
• Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
• Placement or distribution refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing.

These four elements are often referred to as the marketing mix. A marketer will use these variables to craft a marketing plan. The four Ps model is most useful when marketing low value consumer products. Industrial products, services, high value consumer products require adjustments to this model. Services marketing must account for the unique nature of services. Industrial or b2b marketing must account for the long term contractual agreements that are typical in supply chain transactions. Relationship marketing attempts to do this by looking at marketing from a long term relationship perspective rather than individual transactions. Product Management is one of the four areas of marketing. ... Economics and commerce define an end-user as the person who uses a product. ... Price--59. ... In economics and business, the price is the assigned numerical monetary value of a good, service or asset. ... Promotion is one of the four aspects of marketing. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... In marketing, sales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotion. ... Publicity is one of the variables that comprise the promotional mix. ... Sales, or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial activity. ... This article is about the concept in marketing. ... Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. ... Retailing services consist of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location (e. ... The marketing mix approach to marketing is one model of crafting and implementing marketing strategies. ... A Marketing Plan is a written document that details the actions necessary to achieve a specified marketing objective(s). ... In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. ... Services marketing is marketing based on relationship and value. ... A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these material into intermediate and finished products, and distribution of these finished products to customers. ... Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that emerged in the 1980s, in which emphasis is placed on building longer term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. ...

Technique

For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of the four "p's" must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don't want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process. In economics, consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. ... A target market is the market segment which a particular product is marketed to. ... Market segmentation is the process of grouping a market into smaller subgroups. ... Research covers the search for and retrieval of information for a specific purpose. ... In marketing and strategic management, sustainable competitive advantage is an advantage that one firm has relative to competing firms. ... Marketing management is the practical application of marketing techniques. ...

Most companies today have a customer orientation (also called customer focus). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on customer needs. Generally there are two ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach and the product innovation approach. A marketing oriented firm (also called the marketing concept, or consumer focus, or customer focus) is one that allows the wants and needs of customers and potential customers to drive all the firms strategic decisions. ...

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures inspite of being technological breakthroughs.

In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that a profitable market segment(s) exists for the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. It is claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing. Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. ...

Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas. The study of the diffusion of innovation is the study of how, why, and at what rate new ideas spread through cultures. ...

A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing or online marketing. It typically tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. E-marketing is a type of e-commerce that can be defined as achieving marketing objectives through the use of electronic communications technology such as Internet, e-mail, Ebooks, database, and mobile phone. ... Affiliate Marketing is a widespread method of promoting a website, in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. ... Online Marketing is marketing on the Internet. ... Market segmentation is the process of grouping a market into smaller subgroups. ... Personalized marketing (also called personalization, and sometimes called one-to-one marketing) is an extreme form of product differentiation. ...

Criticism of marketing

Some aspects of marketing, especially promotion, are the subject of criticism. See the main article Criticism of marketing. Promotion may mean: Promotion (chess), a term used in the game of chess Promotion (marketing), a marketing term Promotion (rank), an increase in position in a hierarchy Promotion (academic), German academic degree that is roughly equivalent to the Ph. ... The thing being marketed is usually a product, service, brand, organization or ideal. ...

Related lists

See List of marketing topics for an extensive list of the marketing articles on Wikipedia. This is a list of over 200 articles on marketing topics. ...

• list of management topics
• list of human resource management topics
• list of economics topics
• list of finance topics
• list of accounting topics
• list of information technology management topics
• list of production topics
• list of business law topics
• list of international trade topics
• list of business ethics, political economy, and philosophy of business topics
• list of business theorists
• list of economists
• list of corporate leaders
• list of companies

This is a list of articles on general management and strategic management topics. ... Organizational studies - an overview Organizational development Management development Mentoring Coaching Job rotation Professional development Upward feedback Executive education Supervisory training leadership development leadership talent identification and management individual development planning 360 degree feedback succession planning Skills management performance improvement process improvement job enrichment Training & Development managing change and also change... This aims to be a complete list of the articles on economics. ... What follows is a list of over 250 Wikipedia articles on finance topics. ... This is a list of topics which are relevant to Accountancy. ... Management information systems an overview E-business Intranet strategies Database management system Data warehousing Data mining Document warehousing Customer relationship management (CRM) Sales force management system Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) Business performance management Project management software Integration management Middleware Groupware and collaborative systems RSA Computer... Manufacturing and manufacturing systems manufacturing factory Craft system English system of manufacturing American system of manufacturing Mass production Batch production Just in time manufacturing Toyota Production System Lean manufacturing Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) Mass customization Theories of production Taylorism Fordism Theory of constraints Productivity Productivity benchmarking cost accounting experience curve... Commercial law an overview Adhesion contract Blue law Civil law notary Contracts Consideration Duress Breach of contract Remedy Lien Legal entity Corporate law Corporation Incorporation Delaware corporation (US) Limited liability company Fiduciary Partnership Agency Escrow Trustee of a trust or executor of an estate; see also trusts and estates Charitable... International trade - an overview Absolute advantage Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) APEC Autarky Balance of trade barter Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) Bimetallism branch plant Bretton Woods system British timber trade Cash crop Comparative advantage Continental trading bloc Cost, insurance and freight Currency Customs union CAFTA... See business ethics or political economy for an overview. ... This is an annotated list of important business theorists. ... This is an alphabetical list of well-known economists. ... Set out below is an annotated listing of corporate leaders, who are or have been the head of large or successful business enterprises, or who are otherwise well known for their commercial acumen, listed alphabetically by last name. ... This is an incomplete list of companies. ...

External links

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• KnowThis.com - Marketing Virtual Library – an extensive marketing reference site
• SOSIG Marketing directory – a directory of marketing topics available on the web
• Media and Advertising Directory
• Affiliate Marketing Forum
• Marketing, a free e-book by Gemmy Allen
• Online Marketing, an extensive gathering of online marketing resources