What is Marketing?
Marketing is the study of commercial activities from the needs and psychology of the consumer, originating the business of promoting products or services. Marketing tends to direct the products, adapting them, to their best market.
Marketing focus is to bring the right consumers to the store or to the sales channel (call center, website, app), while Sales focus is to close the transactions. While Marketing is focused on the promotion, Sales is focused on the transaction itself.
Both, Sales and Marketing look for growth.
What is Marketing?
"The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising."
Oxford Dictionaries
The 4Ps of the Marketing Mix
The theory of the 4 Ps of Marketing is more than 50 years old. In 1960, E Jerome McCarthy invented the 4 Ps of marketing:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
4Ps of Marketing Mix
The 4Ps of Marketing Mix are the fundamental of marketing. Product is the quality, the design, the brand, the features, the packaging, the variety. Price is the list prices, the discounts, the payment period, the credit terms. The Place is the advertising, the sales promotion, the personal selling and the public relations. The Promotion is the channels, the coverage, the locations, the inventory, the transportation and the logistics.
Marketing chooses the mediums and the mediums are the message
"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan. Like the 4 Ps of Marketing, "the medium is the message" is also from the 60s.
The evolution from the sixties until today is mainly about the medium that is more digital. Due to that there are insights in real time, that allow marketers to optimize the 4 Ps, increasing the ROI (Return On Investment).
ROI means Return On Investment
What are the formats that advertisers are using? Video (TV, Digital, Screens, DOOH), Audio (Radio and Digital), Images (OOT, Digital, Screens), Content (CRM, SEO, PR).
The first formats (video and audio) are often used for brand marketing, where the goals are brand awareness and reach, while the last formats (images and content) are used for performance marketing, where the goals are KPIs associated with the business like cost per acquisition or cost per sale.
Marketing Funnel
The marketing funnel has 5 steps:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
The Brand Marketing plays a role mainly on the awareness, consideration, loyalty, while the Performance Marketing plays a role mainly on the conversion.