Ashley D. Su 
What is Marketing?
Marketing is one of, if not the most important aspect of a business. What’s the point of selling a life-changing product if customers have never heard of it and know nothing about it? This is where knowledgeable marketers come in handy. These marketers help companies identify consumer and industry trends, formulate campaigns, and captivate audiences by showing how their products shine against others.
What exactly is marketing? According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketing is “the activity, set of institutions, and processes of creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers. , customers, partners and society as a whole”. Still confused? To put it in simple terms, marketing is the process by which people become interested in a company and its products by describing its offerings in a way that perceives value for the customer.
Whether we know it or not, marketing efforts are all around us. A simple example of a marketing campaign might be gas station billboards along the highway. These companies realize that cars need gas and humans need food, so sticking eye-catching billboards along the highway could increase customer awareness and, therefore, profits. One of the most famous examples of marketing is Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan. Virtually everyone on earth has heard this phrase before. Pairing “Just Do It” with world-class athlete spokespersons has proven to be one of the most effective marketing campaigns of the past 30 years. This simple yet effective phrase resonates with competitive athletes and fosters feelings of pushing yourself to be a better athlete (in your Nike gear, of course).
One of the reasons marketing is so vital in today’s world is that it helps inform other aspects of business. Product, sales, and advertising teams are all affected by the efforts of a marketing team. One of the most important tasks of a marketer is market research. This effort typically involves gathering information about a company’s key demographics, their affinity with a company’s current products, and what other competitors are doing. A marketing team’s in-depth market research informs product and engineering teams about what to create, sales teams about what to sell, and advertising teams about what to communicate.
The 4 Ps of marketing
The 4 Ps of marketing are the key areas involved in effectively spreading the word about a product. Sometimes known as the marketing mix, product, price, place and promotion are essential to any good marketing campaign.
1) Product
The product is the good or service that the company offers. Quality products must be able to satisfy customer needs, while being able to satisfy customer demand. To effectively market a product, marketers need to identify the value it brings to the customer and why customers would want it. The marketing team can start working on campaigns once these questions, and more, have been answered.
2) Price
Price is obviously an important factor in determining whether a consumer buys your product or goes to a competitor. Good marketing teams rely on industry research to price their products appropriately to increase market share and reach happier customers.
3) Location
It is essential that marketing professionals take into account (both digital and physical) when marketing a product. Is a certain product more marketable in-store or online? Should you sell a certain product internationally? How do you market certain geographical areas? How does the culture of a place affect your marketing abilities? Marketing teams need to be hyper-aware of where they are marketing to truly optimize their efforts.
4) Promotions
What good is a marketing effort if there is no excitement and buildup around a product? Promotion includes advertising, promotional strategy and public relations around a product. “Should we create an advertisement? “Should we sponsor a podcast?” “Should we just run a Google AdWords campaign? With the help of market research, marketers should be able to know when to target their audience and by what means. Executing the promotion stage of the marketing mix is critical as it helps build product buzz and brand awareness.
