According to American Marketing Association, marketing involves identifying the items and services that customers prefer. After identifying the items and services, an approach is then developed for pursuing customers to make the purchase. For marketing to be successful, it has to quench the customers’ needs (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
Alternatively, marketing can be defined as the course through which organizations increase the worth of their items and services to attract the attention of customers. Additionally, the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as one of the tasks assigned to management and includes discovering, looking forward to and satisfying customer needs with the aim getting returns (Mohan, 2005).
Once the marketer has discovered customers’ needs, he/she should strive to improve the quality of the goods and services. The next step entails informing the customers about the item and service whose value has been improved to meet their needs. Kotler and Keller (2009) argue that the main objective of marketing is to sensitize the public about the existence of a given item or a service. This awareness can be spread through advertising and there are many channels of advertising, which include the Internet, radio, television, posters, and billboards.
When marketing an item its important to focus on the needs of the potential customers because this is what will make them want to buy the good or service. Exaggerating the features of an item or service will only drive customers away because they will feel as if they are helping someone achieve his/her sales targets. After addressing the needs of the customers, they will probably be content and refer the goods or services to their friends, which will eventually lead to organizational development.
The above statement may sound too good to be true, but analyzing it from another perspective confirms that it is actually true. For instance, if an organization that sells farming equipments satisfies the needs of several customers by making the equipments more durable, the contented customers will refer other farmers who are in need of durable equipments the organization supply.
As time moves by, the customers will swell and the organization will have to make more farming equipments to meet the increase in demand. Additionally, more employees will have to be brought on board to help the organization achieve its mission.
In this regard, marketing is important to any given organization and thus, the success of a business rests on its marketing techniques. First, Mohan (2005) states that marketing tells the outside world about the goods and services that can be obtained from a certain organization. This suggests that people cannot tell what an organization deals with, unless they hear from the organization itself.
This sensitization is usually achieved at a cost, but the benefits sought after are worth the expenses. For instance, Toyota is the leading automaker and currently, the company is developing a model powered by a lithium battery. Thus, the company has to inform the public about this initiative. However, there are companies that do not need to market their items and services because they have been in the industry for so long and have a good reputation.
Similarly, marketing is perceived to have a positive influence towards increasing the revenue generated from the sale of an item or service. In fact, customers cannot buy unfamiliar items or services. When a new items or services are introduced in the market, the customers are reluctant to purchase it because they do not know anything about it. Marketing therefore helps to increase the sales earned from a given item/service.
According to Bell (n.d.), informed customers are most likely to buy an item, and the more they are informed the more they buy. The customers will make the purchase for various reasons. Some will purchase the item or service just for the sake of trying it, while others may want to confirm what they hear their friends say about the product/service.
Furthermore, marketing ensures that people are aware about a particular item or service and the benefits that come with it. For instance, when Samsung introduced plasma TV, it had to sensitize the public about this item through commercials that were aired in TV stations, billboards and the Internet.
The cost of advertising was high, but its nothing compared to the revenue that was earned from the increase in sales. Marketers anticipate that the sales will continue to increase as the awareness campaigns increase. This is because there are people who have not yet heard about this product and they will probably purchase it once they are informed about it.
Lastly, marketing enhances the reputation of an organization. This is because organizations use marketing as the platform to familiarize the public with their brand name. This is because people loyalty to brand names that are marketed intensively. People refer to their familiarity with a given brand to gauge its reputation and thus, they cannot trust items or services that sound or look foreign to them (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
For instance, customers who wish to buy mobile phones may prefer the most common models such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Apple. This is because they are familiar with these brands and they know where to get the accessories that are compatible with these brands. This suggests that no one wants to be the first to use a new brand and thus, every one wants to try what others have already tried.
References
Bell. P. (n.d.). Importance of Developing a Marketing Strategy Plan. Web.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L. (2009). Marketing Management (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Mohan, J.K. (2005). International Marketing. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.