What Is Marketing?

Marketing refers to various activities that a business undertakes in order to promote either the sale or purchasing of a specific product, service, or asset. It may be undertaken by a single firm or by a number of firms working in close cooperation to ensure a consistent and sustained appeal to customers. Marketing therefore involves many different activities and hence the term is quite broad.

Marketing is an important determinant of the success or failure of any enterprise. A firm that does not undertake marketing would be operating a dead end business. The marketing function has to be balanced with other functions such as product development, quality control, and advertising. Many marketing techniques are applied but the most common involves retail display, direct mail, catalogues, and the Internet. Marketing also incorporates research and assessment to determine what marketing strategies will work best.

Marketing helps to create awareness about a particular product, service or asset. It helps the public know more about a product before they make that purchase. Marketing therefore is very important because it encourages the public to take action. If the public knows about a product before they take it, they are more likely to purchase it. Marketing therefore involves communication and advertising, and this form of communication is typically through social media marketing, television advertising, radio advertising, print advertising, and other forms of marketing.

Marketing may also be undertaken as a complementary activity to selling a product. For example, a physician might seek to improve upon the service he provides through his office and could seek to publicize his services through marketing. Other examples of complementary activities include teachers creating web sites for their students, accountants creating websites to assist their clients with tax reporting, and dentists creating dental websites to help patients with their teeth care needs. Each of these marketing methods provides the service of informing, though in varying degrees.

Influencer marketing occurs when an individual serves to inform another about a service or product. The word ‘influencer’ means a person whose voice is heard by many others. An example of an influencer would be a fashion consultant who, by way of her work, has influenced the decisions of hundreds of millions of consumers. Such individuals can be termed as influencers and their influence can be used in marketing research.

A marketer can use the information garnered from marketing research to find new markets or to locate markets where similar products are offered. Marketers can use this information to help them design advertisements that will reach a particular audience and thereby increase their sales. Marketers use different types of marketing strategies such as pay per click, content marketing, and social media marketing. Pay per click marketing, for example, uses a small advertisement on the website of a client. Content marketing uses keywords and articles related to the product or service that is being marketed.

Marketers can hire consultants or experts to assist in market research. A consultant can help the marketers in formulating a business plan and strategy. These plans can be implemented through data gathered through market research. Marketers can also hire professionals for conducting product development activities. Product development involves coming up with new products, marketing them, and testing them before launching them.

Another marketing strategy that has been widely adopted by marketers is keyword marketing. Keyword marketing is a process of finding relevant phrases and keywords related to a product or service that is then used by service providers and advertisers alike to promote their respective products. This technique is widely adopted because it is relatively inexpensive and can yield good results. It also offers marketers a way to test the effectiveness of their advertising and marketing campaigns. In addition, keyword marketing also helps consumers remember services or products.