The term market traditionally refers to an area where buyers and sellers gather to buy and sell goods and services. However, in business studies, when someone asks what the market is, it refers to all the existing and potential customers for a particular product or service. For instance, when Samsung brings out a new smartphone, individuals who are willing to purchase the phone will be considered as the market for that smartphone.
On the other hand, marketing refers to a series of activities that facilitates the smooth flow of goods and services from manufacturers to customers. Additionally, according to Dr Philip Kotler, marketing can be defined as a social process where individuals interact with each other to procure what they need. This process starts before a product is manufactured and continues even after a product or service has been sold.
It is easy to confuse marketing and selling products. Therefore, you should have a thorough understanding of what selling in marketing means. Selling is a part of the marketing process where goods and services are sold to consumers on an exchange of money.
Features of Marketing
After knowing about what is marketing concept, you should also have an idea about the features of marketing that are as follows –
Satisfying the needs and wants of customers
Creating a product or offering
Value to customer
Exchange of goods and services
Think and Answer: Can e-commerce sites be considered a marketplace? Give reasons to support your answers.
After reading about what is market and marketing, let us now see what can be marketed. Any product that marketers can sell and has the potential to meet the needs and wants of buyers can be marketed. It can be anything from a physical product such as mobile phones and TVs to a service like banking, dining, etc. However, a product must offer some benefits to the buyer. These benefits can be -
Functional benefit
Psychological benefit
Social benefits
Fun Activity: Make a list of as many products that you use in your daily life.
What is the Marketing Process?
Marketing process comprises a series of steps that are undertaken to deliver the finished goods and services to consumers. These steps include -
Carrying out Market Research
The first step in the marketing process involves identifying the needs and wants of prospective and existing customers. Consequently, businesses carry out market research to collect data regarding what their customers want.
Market Planning
The information collected through market research is used to plan and strategies for attaining marketing objectives such as boosting sales, using promotional tools, lowering productivity etc.
For instance, after conducting market research, a certain clothes retail store found out that people prefer pastel coloured clothes more. Accordingly, they decided to offer more pastel coloured apparel in their showrooms to meet customer demand.
Designing and Manufacturing Products
The next step after planning is to start manufacturing products as per the decisions reached during market planning.
Standardisation and Grading
During manufacturing, organisations also focus on maintaining quality standards for all products so that consumers can be sure about the quality and packaging. For products like rice, grains, wheat, their quality is judged by the grading system.
Packaging
In this step, finished products are packaged and labelled. It is an integral part of marketing since appealing packaging manages to attract a higher number of customers.
Branding
A product is then given a brand name that facilitates in differentiating a particular manufacturer’s product from its competitors in a market. It is also an assurance of quality and service from the manufacturer to consumers.
Customer Care Service
Apart from providing quality services, providing satisfaction to customers should also be a priority for companies. Accordingly, they need to set up a reliable customer service that is available 24x7 to handle queries and complaints from customers and offer quick services.
Product Pricing
It is one of the most critical steps in the marketing process. It is because customers look for affordable products that will add value to their life. On the other hand, a business also needs to earn profits. Therefore, a company should be meticulous while fixing the price of the product and keep in mind factors like competitors’ prices, demand for their product etc.
Storage
Goods are not consumed immediately after their manufacturing is completed. Therefore, to keep them safe, goods are stored in warehouses from where they are transported to wholesalers or retailers in different parts of the country or city.
Promotion
Manufacturers make use of various promotional tools like advertising to communicate to customers about their products and create a demand for them. In other words, it is the answer to “what is product marketing”.
Distribution
It is the final stage in the marketing process where goods are distributed to different parts of the country for consumption.
What is Marketing Management?
After reading about the marketing process, you must be wondering about what is meant by marketing management. The term marketing management includes planning, organising, implementing, coordinating and controlling all market-related activities for an efficient exchange of goods or services.
Additionally, marketing management helps businesses and manufacturers to adopt a suitable marketing strategy to meet and manage the demands of their target customers effectively. Marketing strategy is a set of plans that enable an organisation to reach its objectives.
Let us examine what are the different marketing strategies that are employed by businesses.
Internet marketing
Media advertising
Word of mouth advertising
Promotional marketing
B2C marketing
Besides, marketing strategies, one should also know what is marketing analytics. Marketing analytics refers to the process of analysing the effectiveness of an organisation’s marketing strategies and aids in streamlining it to ensure high returns on investment.
What Are The 7p’s of Marketing?
Price
Product
Promotion
Place
Packaging
Position
Place
To know more on this topic, avail the study materials by Vedantu on this topic which can be accessed from the website.
FAQs on Difference Between Market and Marketing
1. What is a Marketing Strategy?
Ans. They are a set of plans that businesses and organisations follow to reach their overall goals.
2. What are the Marketing Objectives?
Ans. It involves the set of short-term and long-term goals of a business or organisation to be achieved within a given time frame. These objectives enable an organisation to build customer loyalty and create awareness about their products.
3. What are the Principles of Marketing?
Ans. There are four fundamental principles – product, price, place and promotion.
4. What are the Types of the Marketing Mix?
Ans. There are two types – product mix and service mix.
5. What is Marketing Research?
Ans. It is the first step in a marketing process that involves researching the prevalent needs and wants of consumers in a market.