Sustaining a company’s status quo can become quite challenging, even for mega companies that set the standards and internationally recognized corporations that go after long-lasting prosperity. Marketing strategies can indeed encourage sales, by influencing behavior tactics, branding and processes of winning people’s trust and turn them into potential clients. Among the numerous different text book definitions of marketing, perhaps the most constant is that marketing is a “process that’s ultimate goal is to create exchanges that will satisfy and benefit both the customer and the organization” (msu.edu). With marketing and organization can relate to their clients and create the most appealing services or products, according to their clientele or possible customers’ needs. However, in order a customer, either existing or potential, purchases the service or product promoted by an organization, they need to be persuaded as to the efficiency and quality of what they are about to buy (msu.edu). This is also part of marketing. In other words, everyone deals with marketing on a daily basis, which is why Regis McKenna, a marketing guru, says that “Marketing is everything and everything is marketing” (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, n.d). Attempting to promote a business, marketing plays the key role in the whole process. My personal stance for marketing allies with the aforementioned theories and abides by the perception that marketing is the process of promoting one’s business, via various ways and strategies, so societies spend towards a steered direction, based on the organization’s goals, target audience and merchandise type.
If an organization uses marketing correctly, they will probably have clearly figured out their customers’ needs, provided they have selected a specific target audience to focus on, and the product will eventually sell itself (Perreault, 2004). For example, car brands like Porsche and Ferrari do very little marketing; yet, they rely on their excellent reputation to promote their products’ marketing. Of course, relying on an organization’s reputation does not work for everyone, since each industry has different strategies to market their products effectively. Another definition of marketing includes the process of having a concept, or product, or service, planned and executed, priced, promoted and distributed (Carpenter, 2004). McDonald fast food restaurant is a worldwide known giant that makes use of any kind of advertisement to obtain customers and promote consumer consumption. Marketing also includes branding, which encourages corporate growth and help solidifying a company’s reputation (Perreault, 2004). Prime example of such, is Coca Cola, which is an internationally recognized beverage that is closely synonymous to soda. They have utilized catchy slogans, as part of their branding marketing tactics that have helped in their company’s expansion. All three aforementioned companies try tactics that influence behaviors, in one way or another, in order to manage new customer acquisition and ensure business longevity to the highest possible level.
Creating awareness about the products or services a company has to offer is perhaps the most vital role of marketing. By creating awareness, an organization is a step closer to successful sales, which is the core reason all the marketing is done. Since customers are provided with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with an offered service or product, they might as well favor it and eventually be convinced to purchase it. Once a company has obtained new clients, it is important that they are loyal and that the company keeps adding new clientele, which is also what marketing is all about. Unquestionably, marketing is a powerful and highly effective tool in the hands of those that know how to handle its power and gain a lion’s share in the market, branding their name and acquiring coming back satisfied customers.
References:
Michigan State University, Marketing, n.d. Retrieved from: https://www.msu.edu/course/prr/473/oldstuff/Marketing.htm#Marketing
Carpenter, Karen, The difference between marketing and sales, Circuii Tree, 17 (12), 84, 2004. Retrieved from: ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry Database (Doc. ID: 757821481).
Perreault, William & McCarthy Jn, Jerome, E., Basic Marketing: A global management approach (15th Ed), 2004. The McGraw-Hill Companies.
The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Introduction to marketing, n.d. Retrieved from: www.thehagueuniversity.com/xmsp/xms_itm_p.download_file?p_itm.
