Marketing refers to various activities that a business undertakes in order to promote the sale or acquisition of a particular product, service, or even good. A lot of companies employ marketing strategies in order to acquire new customers and/or generate new interest for existing customers of a certain company. The process of marketing is usually carried out by professionals who have a vast amount of experience and knowledge in this particular area.
Marketing, as discussed earlier, involves various activities, which include advertising, awareness-building, sales, and customer loyalty. These four Ps are perhaps the most important aspects in marketing. The process of marketing is known to have evolved from the “term” approaches used by marketers in the past. These “term” approaches included such methods as word of mouth, television advertisements, trade shows, and distributing pamphlets or press releases to potential customers. With the advent of the electronic era, marketing became more interactive and focused on the Web. As a result, the method of marketing has also undergone significant changes.
In fact, the modern marketing professional is now an expert on all types of online media. The modern marketing professional uses online research tools such as search engines, social media sites, and emails as well as traditional forms of advertising such as newspapers, radio, and television to market his or her product development or business. Internet marketing is very competitive and requires the use of all available resources including email marketing, search engine marketing, viral marketing, and social media marketing. However, the most important aspect in modern marketing is advertising.
Advertising can be either a single-word advertisement or a multi-million pound campaign. Generally, the more money that is spent on advertising, the more widespread the marketing campaign will become. The effectiveness of marketing is measured by the success of the product development and the market research. Successful marketing will not only attract new customers but also increase brand loyalty and track the success of existing customers.
The marketing process includes defining the target market, formulating a marketing strategy, collecting the needed information from the customers, designing the marketing materials, tracking the results, and testing the market. In addition, the marketing process also involves evaluating the results of the marketing strategy and assessing the effectiveness of the marketing efforts. The marketing process also involves building relationships with other businesses and organizations, evaluating the results of the marketing efforts of other businesses and organizations, and continuously finding new ways of reaching out to the target market. All these activities will help the company to improve its profitability.
The 4Ps are quite different from one another. However, they share a common concept which is to identify the need of the target audience, to design the right marketing strategy, conduct the right marketing research, and evaluate the results of the marketing strategy. In fact, these 4Ps are interrelated. When a marketing plan is implemented, it is usually based on these 4Ps. These steps are important in the marketing process and play a crucial role in the overall success of the business.