The marketing process is a process that is used to analyze the various opportunities that are available in the market place to exploit profitable gaps. It aims to select the target markets and then develop a smart marketing strategy and then contribute to the management of the efforts in marketing.
Understanding the Marketing Process
Marketing process involves of a series of steps by the help of which the organization is able to identify the problems of the customers, analysis the various market opportunities that are present in the market, and also is able to create materials that are used for the marketing purpose so that company can reach out to the desired audience.
Now four basic steps are involved in the marketing process which is as follow –
- Analyzing the various opportunities that are present in the market
- Selecting the targeted market
- Developing a proper plan for the marketing mix
- Managing the efforts of the marketing process
Now let us understand this in detail.
1) Analyzing the various opportunities that are present in the market
This is the first and foremost priority for beginning the marketing process. To jump into the field of marketing, one needs to analyze the market first of all.
The benefit of analyzing the market is that by doing this, the companies can find the right kind of opportunities that will help them in escalating their sales growth.
Theses opportunities mainly are related to the demands of the customers, focuses on what their needs and wants are! Mostly these needs and wants are so increased in number probably because these are not satisfied by the other competitors the market.
Now the company that is going to initiate this marketing process has to make sure that they formulate such strategies that mainly focus on the weaker aspect of the market.
They need to understand where the market is going strong and where it is not performing so well. Thus by starting the marketing process, the company ensures a long term success for themselves.
When carried out in the right manner, these marketing processes make sure that the company sees long term success. Here the success that is obtained by performing the marketing process is mostly in terms of increased sales and profit marketing.
Thus the opportunities for these companies in the market itself. All these companies have to do is to keep looking for it. The companies should try to reach out to even those people who live in a remote area. Here their demands are not satisfied by the local retailers.
As a result of which the companies should head towards that try to make a change. Also, by finding out these opportunities, the companies are able to improve their performance even more effectively.
Also, for the marketing process, the companies can approach to the MIS. The MIS stands for a marketing information system.
This is an organization that plays a significant role in providing these companies with some really useful information about the market place.
Thus the companies can take help for the IMA make the best use out of it.
2) Selecting The Targeted Market
Now once the opportunities have been found out by the companies, are able to understand on what segments of the market do they have to work on.
Thus once the opportunities of the markets have been analyzed, the companies move toward the second step of the marketing process. This step involves the function of selecting the targeted market.
This is also one of the most important steps of the entire marketing process as the future of the business relies on this step to a much greater extent. Now to perform this step, the companies analyze the markets they weren’t to target in the future.
Now once they have done all the analysis, they finally cut out the unnecessary customer base, and select that specific market in which they see the maximum potential.
This is also true for the fact that it is simply not possible for a single company to fulfill and satisfy all kinds of demands of the customers.
Therefore it becomes essential for the companies to determine what kind of products they want to sell and accordingly who their targeted customers are going to be. By analyzing this, they will also be able to understand what will the kind of market they will need to focus on.
Thus after conducting a careful market analysis, the companies are able to choose their final customers who they can eventually turn into potential buyers.
The companies can do this by dividing the market into segments depending upon the type of products that are being sold and also the type of customers that are being approached.
This way can choose that segment which will best meet their requirement and has ample strength and opportunities. Now to wisely select the targeted market, there are a few tips that must be considered-
3) Segmenting the market
In this, the whole market has to be split up into several units of customers. One must make sure that each of these units consists of a group of customers has got similar wants and needs.
Also, their characteristic and buying behaviors are also somewhat similar.
A) Market targeting
In this, the entire market is evaluated so that the attractiveness of each of the segment can be ascertained. By doing this, the companies will be able to choose one or two of the most potential segments which are more suitable than the others. Once selected, the companies can prepare to enter into these segments.
The main objective of selecting and then entering into these selected targets is that it proved the opportunities for the companies to create potential customer value for a longer duration of time. This helps the companies to survive in the long run.
Also, these small segments are usually called niches, each of which is divided by considering certain aspects in mind.
Also one should make sure is that although the companies have many options for splitting their market and focus on many more segments, initially it is advised that the companies should only focus on two and then expand their reachability.
B) Market positioning
After the segmentation has been done, comes the positioning of the product.
But before specifying a product in the market, the companies first need to make the competitive edge a little more specific, which would then offer a lot of competitive advantage to their targeted customers.
C) Developing a proper plan for the marketing mix
Now once the marketing strategy of the company has been set, the next important step is to initiate the planning of these marketing.
The marketing mix consists of many different types of variables which the company mixes up to obtain the desired result from their targeted segments.
Here certain activities influence the demand for the marketing mix. The marketing mix generally consists of four things. These areas follow –
- Product – This means the offering that is made by the company to the market in the form of the goods and services.
- Price – This refers to that one which the customer pays for buying a specific product form any company.
- Place – This refers to the efforts that the company makes to make sure that the products are available to the customers whenever they want to buy it.
- Promotion – This refers to the effort that the company puts in to make sure for the fact that the sales of the products are carried out better provisions to their customers.
In this way, the company is able to develop a suitable marketing program which proves o be quite effective for the company in the long run.
4) Managing the efforts of the marketing process
Now, this is the last step of the marketing process. Even if all the above three steps are carried out well if the management is not proper, the company will not be able to maintain its growth.
Thus putting emphasis on the management is a must. Also, while all the above stages were theoretical, this step is practically applied.
This is the action phase where a suitable type of marketing mix is set up for the targeted market. This step is all about implementing the strategies in the right manner.
Companies should also be careful while taking risks and should try to take only calculated risks. There are a few firms which can help the companies with this step like the CRM which stands for Customer relationship management. And with the help of the management can be carried out effectively.
Conclusion
Thus when all the above steps are carried out in the marketing process, the company can easily establish them as the leader of the market and maintains its growth in the long run.
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