It is common knowledge even among laypersons that marketing is an important factor in the success of any business. But not many realize it full importance that it has to a business. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (Definition of marketing: Marketing, 2008).
This definition stresses that marketing is an activity that should be beneficial for a whole range of people and not just the customer and the seller. The importance of marketing can be summed up in the words of the world famous economist Peter Drucker. He has said that “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation.
Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” (Trout, 2006). It is important for The Great Indoors to take these ideas seriously. Marketing is all the more important in today’s world because of the rising levels of competition that has come about as a result of globalization and free trade. Now cheap goods from many Asian and African countries are available in the country.
This is compounded by the fact that the internet is being used more and more as a method of purchase by customers. As the definition of marketing says, the important factors that are needed to make marketing successful is communication and delivery of the product or service that is to the satisfaction of all the people concerned. Communication can be through advertising, promotion, direct approach or marketing etc.
The next important factor is satisfaction especially for the customer. This is essential for creation and retention of customers. But the article mentioned above asks a question that why should a customer choose a particular company or brand when there are many alternatives to choose from. The author says that the most important thing is differentiation. The product has to be different or innovative to be noticed by the customer in the first place. The plan laid out by The Great Indoors as mentioned in the previous section follows such a strategy of innovative marketing. The products sold by the company are manufactured by well-known brands and hence customer satisfaction will not be a problem.
The innovative (differentiating) approach where customers can come and actually cook on six different ranges will be very attractive to them. They can actually feel out the product before they make a decision. The availability of free advice, tips and demonstrations from expert chefs is also an added attraction. Differentiation is the key and we have focused on it very well. Other factors that are very important in marketing are also being taken seriously. They are satisfaction of customers, retention of customers, market segmentation, building brand loyalty, information about competitors and their strategies, gathering market intelligence and personal rapport with customers.
It can be seen that The Great Indoors has taken this function very seriously. Eminent persons like Peter Drucker have stated how important the marketing function is in today’s competitive environment. This section can be concluded with the words (taken from the above article on marketing). The words given were spoken by David Packard who was the founder of Hewlett-Packard. His words about marketing were “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.” (Trout, 2006). In fact the whole organization in this case will get themselves involved in some way or other to make this strategy a success.
Reference
Definition of marketing: Marketing. (2008). American Management Association, marketingpower. Web.
Trout, Jack. (2006). Peter drucker on marketing. Forbes. Web.