Modern companies make substantial investments in marketing; in fact, this set of activities is usually essential for their sustainability. This is why it is necessary to define marketing and explain its importance for modern organizations. In my opinion, this term can be understood as every activity that is aimed at creating an extra value for the customers and ensuring that the company’s products or services appeal to the buyers.
This is one of the possible explanations of this concept. But there are other definitions. For instance, Julian Gaspar says that marketing is “the determination of the needs and desires of markets so that products and services can be developed, prices, promoted, and distributed” (2005, p. 276).
This interpretation focuses on specific activities that are involved in marketing. Other scholars emphasize the role customers and their needs. For example, Alan Fyall and Brian Garrod argue that marketing consists in determining the needs of target markets or finding ways of satisfying these needs (2005, p. 7). Thus, one can say that this term can be discussed from different perspectives.
Overall, these definitions show that marketing plays a vital role in many organizations. First of all, it is important for understanding what clients actually want or what they expect from products or services of companies. This is why a great number of businesses conduct customer surveys in order to determine what kind of things buyers value most of all.
For instance, software developers usually encourage users to test their products long before they are released. In this way, they can better users’ needs and eliminate the defects of products. Thus, marketing is essential for increasing customers’ satisfaction.
Additionally, marketing is important for increasing customers’ awareness about their products. Without it, companies can hardly hope for substantial revenues. This is why they develop strategies for spreading the information about their offerings.
As a rule, they spend much time determining what kind of media is most suitable for them. For instance, they can choose television, radio, or internet. Their choice may depend on their product or the lifestyles of clients. These examples show that marketing strategies can be effective only if they take into account the behavior of clients.
Furthermore, marketing is important for retaining customers and differentiating the company among its competitors. This task is crucial for retaining strong positions in the market. Therefore, organizations develop different strategies for achieving this goal. For example, some of them attempt to win the clients’ loyalty by setting lower prices for their products or offering some bonuses.
However, many organizations pay more attention to the quality of their products or services. For instance, some producers increase the guarantee period while others attempt to customize their products and services. For instance, car manufacturers can design vehicles according to customers’ requirements.
This is how they try to appeal to the clients. These activities are aimed gaining the loyalty of clients, and they are closely related to marketing. People, who develop marketing strategies, have to find ways of differentiating their products or services among others.
On the whole, these examples demonstrate that marketing is closely related to many activities of a company such as product development, advertisement, after-sales services, pricing and so forth. Moreover, marketing should be based on the in-depth knowledge of customers, products, competitors, and the industry, in general; otherwise it can hardly achieve its goals.
Reference List
Fyall, A. & Garrod, B. (2005). Tourism Marketing: A Collaborative Approach. New York: Channel View Publications.
Gaspar, J. (2005). Introduction to Business. New York: Cengage Learning.