Marketing Note - Diploma

A. Introduction

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value. Value simply means the difference between the cost and benefit of market offerings. Value is an important process in marketing, and it is the most important concept that marketers should keep in mind. There are five steps in marketing process, which are described in the diagram below:

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B. Body

There are five steps in order to understand marketing process:

1. Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants

To understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants, marketers need to be familiar with:

• Marketing Research / MIS / MI

By doing Marketing Information System, the process of creating value can be done. MIS consist of marketing research, internal database and marketing intelligence. MIS helps marketers to understand marketing environment and provides marketing intelligence for the organisation, while marketing research will help marketers understand consumer buyer behaviour.

• Micro & Macro Environment

Microenvironment is the forces close to the organisation that affect its ability to serve customer. It is important for marketers to understand microenvironment because microenvironment forces could affect marketing decisions. There are six microenvironment variables:

• Company ➛ top management
• Suppliers
• Intermediaries ➛ reseller
• Competitors
• Customers ➛ business market
• Publics ➛ internal publics

Macroenvironment is the larger societal forces that affect the whole microenvironment. The changes in macro environment affect the whole microenvironment; therefore macro environment is important for marketers. There are six factors of macro environment:

• Demographic ➛ baby boomers
• Economic ➛ inflation
• Natural ➛ drought
• Technological
• Political ➛ government regulation
• Cultural

• Consumer buyer behaviour

Consumer buyer behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of individuals and households that buy market offerings for personal consumption.

Consumer’s buyer behaviour and their purchase decision are strongly influenced by four buyer’s characteristics: cultural, social, personal and psychological. These characteristics cause consumers to develop product and brand preferences that affecting decision making process. Understanding these characteristics helps marketers develop suitable marketing mixes to appeal the target customer.