Marketing is fundamental

[King Justice]

Marketing is fundamental after the succession of setting up your own business, offline or online.

Marketing spreads the word about your business and the product/service that you are trying to sell. Marketing is not just advertising, but the way you advertise, and the message that you want your company/product/service to broadcast.

After setting up your own business its important to consider a marketing plan to maximize sales opportunities.

The 4 P's of marketing include Product, Place, Price and Promotion - be sure to consider all of them when outlining a marketing plan. :)

[DEADMAN]

I also agree with you.

If a good of high and useful quality cannot be sold without a Good Marketing. Nothing gets sold and get trusted with a Good Marketing. People trust and buy old good (i.e those've good marketing sale from the past).

So, only a better quality good is not enough to get sold by itself, you need a better Marketing to sell them at a profitable price and satisfactory.

[pendelton]

A main part of a business plan is the marketing plan. You should not start off without knowing how you are going to market you products or services.

[Nazreen]

Yes this is absolutely true for any kind of business, whether it's in the internet or not. The Internet is now the future of marketing that's why I'm also learning how to be IT Savvy :) By the way, I came across an article about Double Ading (http://articlesarchives.netfirms.com/aa1.html) by A.L Haines but it's not very specific on how it's done. It's suppossed to increase traffic to your business site. I tried to google it but there's not much information on it. I'll still try to research on this but if there's someone here who can give me more details, I'll appreciate very much.

[Bradleynova]

The only way a product can be taken off the shelves is with a good marketing plan and initiation. Something I sometimes need help with as well.:cool:

[deepak_sharma]

Well i also support on the note that marketing is fundamental and key to all successful business. I also support 4 p's theoy enlightened by king justice . This 4 p's theory is quiet handful in internal assesment of your organisation which is an imporant part of your company's SWAT analysis.

[Fergal]

...SWAT analysis.

Do you mean SWOT analysis, as in Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats?

[entreator]

yaa right...........thats what deepak meant..........SWOT analysis is something that he must have gone through in a subject managerial economics..........that shows the importance of SWOT ............i also believe that marketing is an important part of a companies success story........these days companies are spending major part of there expenditure budget on marketing and in this age of globalisation its more important that we market our product well........more important than anything else...........

[Kay]

The 4 P's of marketing include Product, Place, Price and Promotion - be sure to consider all of them when outlining a marketing plan.

True, you should. I'd be interested to know in what order everyone places the importance of them. For example, would you feel Promotion is more important than Price? After all, if you can promote something successfully and create a perceived need for it, price may be a secondary consideration if enough people are scrambling to get it.

On the other hand, if your price is cheap enough and your product of good quality, maybe it would sell itself through word of mouth. That would knock promotion down the list - it would be a less important consideration because it wasn't really needed.

Enough buzz/hype can make a fairly shoddy product sell well too of course. In fact, I have to confess I've bought a few that put promotion and price over product quality at some time or another... :D

So what's the winning combination? Which of the 4P's gets the biggest slice of the pie?

[Fergal]

Personally I find that the 4P's need to fit well together and that they depend on each other. To use your examples Kay;

...if you can promote something successfully and create a perceived need for it, price may be a secondary consideration if enough people are scrambling to get it...

I don't fully agree with that statement, if you are lucky enough to be in this situation and don't pay careful consideration to charging as much as you can for your product, you will have missed a great opportunity to profit greatly from your business. If you price too low not only will you have missed this opportunity but you will quickly find that you can't keep up with demand.


On the other hand, if your price is cheap enough and your product of good quality, maybe it would sell itself through word of mouth.

I would say that most businesses who find themselves in this situation have given promotion serious consideration before they launched their product / service. The business offering was most probably offered in a very planned way so that it would get picked up by word of mouth communication.

Companies who have benefited substantially from word of mouth will often have worked very hard at initially promoting their product or service to insure that people who are respected for their opinions / key influencers in the markets have tried the product / service in the first place.

[pendelton]

I'd have to say that which you place emphasis on will very case by case. Supply and demand will effect the price, promotion will be can influence the demand, the place will influence both price and promotion, while the product can sometimes set everything in it's place.
Take the price gougers after the major hurricanes that have hit the US. Promotion was not really needed, the demand was high for everything, and the products sold were the cheapest available. The prices were high due to the place.
Now, flip that around and try selling bulk propane in the middle of a city with lots of access to natural gas. The place gives a low demand, the product's quality will not help, and it does not matter, really, how you promote.

These are extremes, yes, as most everything else will fall just about in the middle.

[scifi]

The 4P's principle is being given famous Marketing GURU- PHILIP KOTLER.
But to be true I want to share with u a fact that there is vast difference between these theoretical concept & actual work environment practices being followed in corporate world.
To be precise I must say that these are the general guidelines that provides you with base to develope your own concept which has greater practical feasibility....!!!!

[Webestrian]

@Topic
Its nomore 4 P's
Now it's 7 P's

Price
Product
Place
Promotion

People
Processes
Physical Evidence

[scifi]

@Topic
Its nomore 4 P's
Now it's 7 P's

Price
Product
Place
Promotion

People
Processes
Physical Evidence

Webestrian... I think you should check once more seven P's illustration...
Instead of physical evidence It should be PHYSICAL ASSETS according to me!!!!

[Webestrian]

Webestrian... I think you should check once more seven P's illustration...
Instead of physical evidence It should be PHYSICAL ASSETS according to me!!!!

Nope dear.Its physical evidence.Its refers to physical environment of a business.The first four points are specifically in relation to consumer goods and the later three points describe the issues specifically in service industries.
For example for opening a restaurant you must give special considerations to the following
People e.g. waiters
Process e.g. the cooking process
Physical evidence e.g the physical environment

Hope that i was able to make it clear :)

[scifi]

Nope dear.Its physical evidence.Its refers to physical environment of a business.The first four points are specifically in relation to consumer goods and the later three points describe the issues specifically in service industries.
For example for opening a restaurant you must give special considerations to the following
People e.g. waiters
Process e.g. the cooking process
Physical evidence e.g the physical environment

Hope that i was able to make it clear :)

Thank You webestrian for making it clear to me...You were very right that last three P's refer to Service Industry & I have checked that physical evidence is same thing that I mean to convey through Physical assets..... But the correct 7th P is "Physical Evidence" only....
In the process I also came to learn about 4C's corresponding to 4P's
Customer solution
Customer Cost
Convenience
communication
I would like to confirm from you if there are 7C's too, corresponding to 7P's!!!!!!

[Webestrian]

Hey dude.Its nice to see your interest in marketing fundamentals.You are very right in pointing out these 4 C's.
Oh,looking these 4 C's just took me towards 7 C's of communication.I still remember how our college teacher, a few years back,always advised us to focus 7C's during communication.Those 7C's really helped me a lot.Cool memories of my past college life.

[scifi]

Hey dude.Its nice to see your interest in marketing fundamentals.You are very right in pointing out these 4 C's.
Oh,looking these 4 C's just took me towards 7 C's of communication.I still remember how our college teacher, a few years back,always advised us to focus 7C's during communication.Those 7C's really helped me a lot.Cool memories of my past college life.

Yeah me interested in fundamentals because I am still in college...But it nice to listen that you have already passed this stage....

[pendelton]

Webestrian, the only thing you missed is to give us the 7Cs.

[Webestrian]

Webestrian, the only thing you missed is to give us the 7Cs.
Oh i thought perhaps the thread would go off topic this way.

So i have posted another thread for 7Cs of communication.Here's the link http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?p=9374#post9374

[collinsturner]

Marketing is the spine of any business.

[scifi]

Marketing is the spine of any business.

Hi collinsturner!!!
Welcome to the BAF community...

I have a different opinion here from your consideration of marketing as a spine or backbone of any business.. I visualize marketing as senses through which you explore outer world or come in contact with people- your customers..
If case of spine is particular, then I will say preferably that Finance is the backbone of any business.......:)

[Nelly]

Hi,

My idea is marketing is fundamental. But marketing is not everything. Unless you are a beginner you'll have to balance your time and resources wisely. If you waste too much time and money on marketing itself you'll end up nowhere. After all what we want is sales.If you are already running a business most of the time you are busy servicing your existing customers. investment of a small amount of marketing time must be invested wisely and bring a payback of prospects and customers.

Nelly

[Fergal]

Welcome to Business Advice Forum Nelly and thanks for posting.

Customer service and after sales care are very important indeed. If you focus completely on marketing and neglect to look after your customers, you will very quickly find that any goodwill generated by your marketing is lost. Unhappy customers will tell plenty of people why they don't like your business and that will significantly decrease your chances of making a sale.

[azraf]

Actually Finance brings the Energy, Marketing brings the Way/Policy , HR brings the Life and Customer Care maintain the Flow.

Thats all run the business. Nothing is unimportant. But generally all the fields are about same in organization except Marketing . Because, Marketing is more dynamic and change it shape more often than the other department of the business. Innovation in marketing policy is one of the main conditions to keep alive the product on market.

[Nelly]

Thanks Fergal !

[azraf]

I just forgot to mention the main thing of the business, i.e. "Product".

In present days, business treated/view product as a combination of tangible and intangible value, which includes the Product itself [features, packaging, etc.], after sale service/ customer care, warranty, Call center, etc. which call as market offer. This offer also designed based on market[ing] research to find out the consumer needs.

i.e. product design comes from the marketing team on basis of a marketing research [e.g. for an existing product: which features are important, list of new features should be added, etc.]to find out the customer needs.

In a word, the authority and responsibility to design the market offering is on Marketing Department.

What else you need to justify the importance of Marketing???

So, Please say with us- Marketing is the [I]Most Dynamic Field of an organization.

[flashgordonweb]

The order I have been following lately is this:

1) Have a Quality Product/Service
2) Let people/companies know about it (promotion)
3) See what kind of feedback you get
4) Tweak your product/service based on the feedback
5) Once you have honed your product/service, you now start to market it (different then promotion)
6) Make sure you take customer feedback/support seriously - if they like it, they will help promote it (via Word-of-Mouth)
7) Continue to market your product/service based on the feedback you get and any new avenues you encounter

Repeat, repeat, repeat

[Kay]

The order I have been following lately is this:

1) Have a Quality Product/Service
2) Let people/companies know about it (promotion)
3) See what kind of feedback you get
4) Tweak your product/service based on the feedback
5) Once you have honed your product/service, you now start to market it (different then promotion)
6) Make sure you take customer feedback/support seriously - if they like it, they will help promote it (via Word-of-Mouth)
7) Continue to market your product/service based on the feedback you get and any new avenues you encounter

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Very helpful post, flashgordonweb, thanks. I think #6 in particular doesn't always happen with some people because their ego gets in the way and they can't handle criticism, even if it is constructive and will ultimately benefit them and in turn, their business.