Over the years, marketing has gained more prominence than ever before. It has also changed drastically with digital transformation in the picture. Back in 2014, one of the biggest fast-fashion brands in the world, H&M had launched its “conscious” collection. This was a part of their marketing campaign to promote sustainability. The campaign encouraged buyers to donate their used, unwanted clothes. This campaign still continues to this day. This is because it helped H&M to launch an entire new “conscious” collection along with enhancing its brand image. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone. That’s how amazing an efficient marketing campaign is for your business.
Marketing is a broad unit of a business these days. The importance of it has increased in the past decade. This is because entrepreneurs have seen all the difference it can make.
Features of marketing
Even though there are several ways to conduct campaigns for your products/services. The features of marketing still remain the same. Some of the prominent ones being:
Systematic process
Marketing campaigns are planned with the view of meeting customer needs and demands. They aim to offer the right products/services that the targeted audience needs. For doing so, there is a system that needs to be followed. To market a product involves meeting the requirements of the customer’s size, taking the customer’s view into consideration for the design of the product, fixing the right price of the product, and having a promotional strategy in place depending upon who the target audience is.
Dynamic
It is all about coming up with new ideas and innovations. Being a continuous creative process, it is dynamic by its very nature. The team is constantly coming up with ideas to add more value to the existing product, to increase profit and to bring in more customers. Innovation and creativity being an integral part of marketing, it is bound to be dynamic in nature.
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Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.
- Joe Chernov
Target Markets
Every campaign has a set of consumers that they are targeting. The entire campaign is building keeping them in mind. For example, the target market of a luxury brand like Versace will not have a price point in focus. Instead, the focus here would be exclusivity. How a product will be marketed depends upon the choices, preferences and lifestyle of the target consumers.
All Pervasive
Marketing as a process is all pervasive in nature. It can be applied for any product or service in any stream of business. For example, even in non-profit organizations like schools, marketing techniques can be adopted. The techniques can help in identifying right courses for students (products), charging a fair amount of fees (price point, and the extra-curricular activities and facilities act as the USP of marketing the school to get more and more admissions in.
Social Process
When a marketing campaign is conducted it reflects the current image of the society. The campaigns in some cases are a direct mirror of what is happening in the society. For example, in the beauty industry, the awareness of consumers has increased tremendously over the years. Hence, brands ensure that they market themselves as free from paraben, SLS, and other harmful chemicals. Marketing is all about ensuring that the customer satisfaction is met without hampering the public interest in general.
Consumer-Oriented Process
The team is primarily focused on the demands and needs of the consumers. Being that the process is formed entirely on the target audience, by its very nature, marketing is a customer-oriented process. Some teams first take in account the products they have and look for ways to generate its demand amongst customers. While the others, first conduct tons of research and data to understand the customers’ needs and demands, and then create a product accordingly. Any of the strategies can be used depending upon the industry you are and the product you have to offer.
Competitive Advantage
How you market a product, plays a huge role in reaching out to your existing and potential customers. An effective marketing campaign will give you a competitive advantage from the rest in business. The marketing campaigns need to find unique and innovative ways to make their product and their brand stand out. Proactive and unique marketing techniques are a great way of staying ahead in the competition.
Expansion of Business
An effective strategy helps in bringing in more customers, increasing the sales, and overall profits of a business. When a company is making profits, it will be willing to expand its business even further. A company can expand its business by increasing the marketing activity in the current market itself. This is known as market penetration. It can also venture into new marketplaces. This is known as market development. The additional profits the company is making can also be used for enhancing the existing products. This is known as product development.
Integrated Approach
Marketing is an integrated part of a business and does impact other teams of the organization. It is interlinked in nature as it coordinates with various other departments. Some of the most common departments, the marketing team coordinates with are the accounts, finance, sales and production departments. It is not an independent department in itself as it does impact the overall functioning of the organization. For example, the marketing team is working on a campaign. Funds are needed for kickstarting and running the campaign smoothly. Here the marketing will now coordinate with the accounts team and work things out.
Why market your products/services?
If you market your products correctly, can help your business to reach new heights. It is beneficial in so many ways to the business, that it can turn things around for a company. Some of the key benefits of marketing are –
To establish a relationship with customers
A business needs to have a relationship of trust with its customers. Market segmentation is conducting research to find in depth about the consumer behaviour. They use the data derived for building a better relationship with their customers. It strengthens your relationship with your customers, increasing their brand loyalty towards you.
Plays an integral part in boosting sales
Marketing campaigns are focused on promoting the products/services in innovative and creative ways. These campaigns, when conducted effectively, leave a mark in the consumer’s mind and compel them to buy the product. Triggering the purchase decision of buyers plays an important role in selling the product. Also, it helps in tapping into potential customers and converting them into buyers as well.
Aims to keep the business relevant
We live in a world, where consumers are not hesitant to switch from one brand to another. To stay relevant during such time, it is crucial for your business to stand out from the rest of the competition. Marketing ensures that you remain a client’s favourite by taking into consideration the opinions of the consumers and valuing them. Many businesses get overconfident about their customers and suffer a blow later when replaced.
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Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.
- Ann Handley
Effective Way of Engaging Customers
Engaging with the customers is a potent part of the business. There are several measures that help in conversing with customers. Teams find ways to communicate with the customers effectively without seeming pushy. It involves furnishing your customers with relevant information regarding your products. Marketing will give your audience a sense of belonging when they talk to them effectively.
Helps to Build and Maintain the Company’s Reputation
Your business reputation will determine its growth and life span. Marketing helps in building the reputation of your company. Majority of the marketing activities are aimed towards building the brand equity of a company. The consumers trusting your brand and seeing that the promise you make to the consumers is delivered, will help in building your reputation.
Provides business insights
There are several marketing researches conducted to find exactly what the target audience is looking for. The insights found from these researches will not help the marketing alone but overall business as well. These insights can be used by the production team to enhance the product based on the customer’s preference.
To communicate and inform customers
Marketing ensures that the information regarding a product is delivered to its potential customers. Marketing helps the customers to find why the product is worth buying and its value for money. The awareness created by marketing while providing information at the same time, will make your business stand out. Also, marketing is a great way to inform your customers about any perks and discounts that you are ordering. The way you communicate with your consumers will decide the fate of your business.
Marketing is a true game changer for your business. It does all good to your business. It helps in determining how the product/service should be, understanding the target consumers’ needs, increasing sales and increasing the overall brand awareness of your business. Read our article on the ‘7 Ps of Marketing‘ to further understand the core concepts of marketing.
