How much do you know about marketing?
I come across so many business owners who simply confuse marketing with sales and focus solely on “selling”. Yes, I know that the end result is to make a sale but there’s more to selling your product or service than making a sale.
Let’s start with a definition of marketing that I have used for more years than I can remember:
Marketing is “A management activity that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements, efficiently and profitably”.
Note the words: “identifies” “anticipates”; “satisfies”; “efficiently”; and “profitably”.
Customers’ needs are anticipated and identified by undertaking marketing research and segmentation and then a marketing mix is developed to satisfy customers - efficiently and profitably.
Businesses that adopt this marketing concept, centre its activities on the needs of its potential customers. Its financial success will depend on satisfying those needs.
A marketing orientated business will develop a structure designed to identify and interpret customer needs; to create goods and services appropriate to those needs; and to persuade potential customers to purchase those goods and services.
This involves integrated marketing, i.e., using different marketing variables in a balanced and co-ordinated manner.
Additionally, all parts of the business will need to appreciate that they have an impact on the customer, and are therefore an essential part of a marketing process.
Are you ready to focus on your customers? I hope so.
Marketing definition - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Gwilliam's Website.
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Mark Gwilliam
(Visit Mark's Website)
Mark Gwilliam, FCCA, uses his
international experience to coach small
business owners on how to run successful
businesses. He combines his natural
enthusiasm for sharing his knowledge with
his proven ability to provide practical
down-to-earth solutions for his clients.
He has written several books and owns
several companies which offer small
business owners integrated business
solutions. He writes several business
articles in his weekly newsletters “The
Bizness” and “Successful Marketing
Strategies”. To read these and to have
access to more tools and resources to
turbo charge your business, visit his
sites at www.thema
rketingdude.com and www.mark-gwi
lliam.com
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