Essentials of Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Essentials of Marketing - Essay Example Enlightened customers no longer buy into the old strategy that believes a good product sells itself. Marketing has become a well-balanced mix of concepts and techniques, research and sales, promotion and production. Marketing has been described as "[...] the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives" (Lancaster & Reynolds, 1999, p. 1). It is not so much a single task as it is a concept of visualizing your customer through their eyes, and creating a profit by understanding and satisfying their needs by providing something of value (Forsyth, 1999, p.124). Marketing is the companys interface between the customer and other key elements of the organization such as finance, production, and design. This concept remains constant and is unaffected by the product type or market sector. It is a continual process of scanning the environment to glean information about the customer in terms of age, politics, economics, culture, and technology. Todays customer driven company relies less on market manipulation and more on researching the customers desires and buying habits. In the end, it does not matter what you market, where you market it, whether it is a tangible good or a service, domestic or global, the basic marketing processes remain the same (Sandhusen, 2000, p.15). Thomas Eberling, CEO of pharmaceutical giant Novartis, insists that selling medicine is no different than selling soft drinks, and in his words, "[...] both require an in-depth knowledge of consumer behavior" (as cited in Capell, 2001). Understanding customer and market segment behavior is one of the most important elements of marketing. It requires understanding the segment as well as how they react as individuals. Behavior impacts profits and marketers employ extensive research to predict customer reaction to a product. Products that fail are often