Marketing describes the concept of market-oriented business management aimed at satisfying the needs of (potential) customers. In addition to operational measures designed to influence the purchase decision, this also applies to all other areas of the company's activities.
Marketing is also understood as the area of business that is responsible for marketing products and services.
The difference between marketing and advertising
Many people equate marketing with advertising – and they are completely wrong. Even the above definition of marketing suggests that it is more than just putting a company logo on pens and leaflets.
Marketing is necessary to align a company with the needs of the market. Accordingly, all business measures and decisions should be aimed at satisfying customer expectations.
The task of marketing is to recognize the needs of the market, as well as its changes, such as an increasing or decreasing need for a product. The goal is to ensure an increase in sales.
In short, marketing allows you to sell more by identifying potential customers and the market, promoting the product and improving the image.
The Main Components of Marketing
The various marketing components used to achieve marketing objectives are called the marketing mix. The most important components are: product, price, place (distribution policy) and promotion (communication).
1. Product
With a product policy, you devote yourself to all the information that is directly related to your product or service. You will already know what you have to offer, but you may not fully understand how you are different from your competitors. With a product policy, you define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and see what customer needs you are meeting or want to meet in the future.
2. Price
Pricing policy is actually self-explanatory. Here you deal with everything that has to do with setting prices for your products and services. This means that you study all aspects that play a role in pricing your offer in order to ultimately find the most suitable price for you and the target group:
- Own profit margin
- Willingness to pay of the target group (customers)
- Normal market prices of competitors
Here, the USP also plays an important role. After all, the price also conveys a certain message. For example, if you want to stand out from the competition with exceptional quality, dumping prices is the wrong choice. On the one hand, in this case it should not be, since high quality is reflected in higher costs, and on the other hand, from the consumer's point of view, low prices are an indicator of low-quality products.
3. Place
The distribution policy concerns what is important for the distribution of the product or service. How and where can you best reach your customers? How do you sell at all? Over-the-counter, only online or at trade shows, etc.? Do the channels you choose match the channels chosen by the target audience?
So it’s all about being where the customer is or where they shop. For example, a cloud service provider like Google has little use for a branch office, since the target group only buys this type of service online.
4. Promotion
Within your communication policy, you decide how you want to draw attention to yourself and your offer. It is important to evaluate how specific marketing measures play their role. In addition to choosing the right marketing channels and content, the company’s overall communication style is also taken into account.
Is there more emphasis on humor and friendly communication? Or should you demonstrate your seriousness as much as possible in every contact with the customer?
In addition to the four classic marketing components, there are three more marketing tools: personnel, process and equipment policies, which are taken into account primarily in the service sector.
The Basics of Successful Marketing
After the theory, now it all becomes concrete. But before you implement individual marketing measures aimed at making your product more famous and increasing sales, you first need to lay some foundations. Target group analysis, USP, defining marketing goals and your corporate identity play a crucial role in your marketing strategy. Below, we would like to focus on these aspects.
Efficient and effective marketing through target group analysis
The larger the target group, the more potential customers and higher the profit. However, if you set too large a target group, you will not be able to conduct effective marketing and will throw your money out the window due to untargeted marketing measures. The more precisely your target group is defined and reflected in your marketing concept, the better all marketing campaigns will work.
When analyzing your target group, you first make a fundamental distinction as to whether you are selling B2B (i.e. to other companies) or B2C (to end consumers). Organizational characteristics primarily provide a bird's eye view of potential customers. When defining your target group in business to business (B2B), you analyze the following four aspects:
- Company headquarters and industry
- Company phase
- Number of employees
- Market share
Then look at the following criteria of economic characteristics:
- Sales
- Benefit
- Growth
- Purchasing power
All aspects of the purchasing behavior of companies are described below:
- Purchase frequency
- Price sensitivity
- Purchase time
- Point of sale (i.e. place of sale)
When it comes to personal characteristics, the focus is on the person who makes the purchasing decision. Interestingly, this aspect of target group analysis in B2B is also the approach by which the target group can be defined in B2C.
This makes sense because you are looking at an individual decision maker or target person, not an entire company. This part of the B2B target group analysis or full B2C target group definition looks at the following aspects:
Demographics: Where does your target person live and how old are they?
Socioeconomic characteristics: What is the target person’s education level and income?
Psychographic characteristics: What is the target person’s personality? What opinions does the person hold and what do they want?
Buying behavior: This aspect is similar to the ones above. It is important to determine the target person’s price sensitivity. How much money does he or she typically put on the table for your type of offering?
By carefully analysing your target group, you will have a precise picture of your potential customers. You know where to look for them, what their economic situation is, what prices they are willing to pay and what results they expect in return, and you can develop your marketing concept on this basis.
It is not only important to focus on your (potential) customers during the initial target group analysis. You should also always consider the focus on the individual customer when implementing specific marketing measures.
To make your product better known and increase sales, you can use the BEILRY Advertising Service. It will provide advertising with both small and large numbers of customers and helps maintain your brand awareness.
In the BEILRY system, all data, such as data on impressions of your ads and clicks to your website, is recorded and saved, which provides the basis for target group-based marketing. Detailed information on how the BEILRY advertising service works can be found on the «About the Service» page.
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