What is Marketing? To succeed in business, businesses and entrepreneurs need to have a thorough understanding of the market, the needs and desires of customers, and the art of business conduct. Today, businesses have to operate in an environment of fierce competition and rapid changes in all aspects and customer loyalty is decreasing day by day. Therefore, marketing, especially modern marketing, is an extremely effective "weapon" for brands to maintain their position in the market. However, not everyone understands the essence of marketing. So what is marketing ? How to understand the marketing profession.
What is the definition of Marketing?
According to the definition of marketing by Philip Kotler : "Marketing is a form of human activity aimed at satisfying their needs and wants through exchange." Marketing is a social and managerial process by which different individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, providing and exchanging products of value. with others.
“In today's complex world, we all have to be marketing savvy. When we sell an airplane, find a job, raise money for charity, or promote an idea, we do marketing… Knowledge of marketing allows for smarter handling as a consumer. whether it's buying toothpaste, a frozen chicken, a computer or a car… Marketing touches each of us for the rest of our lives.”– Philip Kotler
What are the basic characteristics of marketing?
Above you have learned about the concept of what is marketing? as defined by philip kotler. So expanding in other aspects and angles, how is marketing defined? Summary of marketing with 9 definitions below will help you better understand the characteristics of marketing.
1. Basic Needs (Needs)
The starting point of strategic marketing thinking is the needs and wants of people. People need food, water, air and shelter to survive. Besides, people also have strong aspirations for creativity, education and other services.
The most pressing human need is to feel the lack of something that they feel . Human needs are diverse and complex. It includes both basic physiological needs for food, clothing, warmth and safety, as well as social needs such as intimacy, closeness, prestige and affection, as well as personal needs for knowledge and self-expression. Urgent needs are primitive constituents of human nature, not created by society or marketers.
If urgent needs are not met, people will feel miserable and unhappy. And the more important those needs are to the person, the more miserable it is. Unsatisfied people will choose one of two solutions: either embarking on a search for an object capable of satisfying the need or trying to suppress it.
What is Marketing? What is Marketing? What does marketing include? - (Photo: marketing management)
2. Wishes (Wants)
Human desire is an urgent need with a specific form, corresponding to the cultural level and personality of each person. Wants are expressed in concrete things capable of satisfying needs in a way to which the cultural life of that society is familiar.
As society develops, the needs of its members also increase. People are more and more exposed to objects that arouse curiosity, interest and desire. Manufacturers, on their part, always direct their activities to stimulate the desire to buy and try to establish an adaptive connection between their products and urgent human needs.
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3. Demands (Demands)
Human needs are wants with conditions of ability to pay. Wants become needs when backed by purchasing power.
Humans are not limited by their desires, but by their ability to satisfy them. Many people want the same product, but only a few are satisfied by their ability to pay. Therefore, in marketing activities, businesses must measure not only how many people buy their products, but more importantly, how many people are able and willing to buy them.
In the process of implementing marketing as a business function, marketers do not create needs, needs exist objectively.
Marketers, along with other factors in society, influence wants and needs by creating products that are relevant, easy to find, attractive and affordable for their target customers . The more the product satisfies the wants and needs of the target customer, the more successful the marketer will be.
4. Product (Product)
The urgent needs, wants and needs of people suggest the presence of products.
A product is anything that can be marketed, noticed, received, consumed, or used to satisfy a human need or want.
Usually the word “product” conjures up in our minds a physical object such as a car, a television or a drink, etc. And so we often use the word “product” and “service” to distinguish physical objects from those that cannot be touched or touched . But really, after all, the importance of material products is not so much that we have it but that we use it to satisfy our wants. In other words, people don't buy a product, they buy the benefits that the product provides. For example, people don't buy a motorbike to see it, but let it provide a travel service. A makeup box is purchased not to be admired but to provide a service to make people more beautiful. The woman doesn't buy a perfume, she buys "a hope", etc. So material products are really tools to provide a service that creates satisfaction or benefit for us. . In other words, we are the means of conveying benefits.
What is the definition of marketing? What is direct marketing? (Photo: yourstory)
The concept of products and services also includes activities, locations, places, organizations and ideas. So sometimes people use different terms to refer to the product as objects to satisfy (satisfier) , resources (resource) or dedication (offer) .
It would be a mistake if manufacturers only focused on the material aspects of the product and paid little attention to the benefits that the product brought. If so, they only think about the consumption of the product, not the solution to solve a need. Therefore, sellers must realize that their job is to sell the benefits or services contained in products that are able to satisfy the needs or wants of customers, not to sell physical features. of the product.
The concept of product and wants leads us to the concept of product satisfaction. We can express a particular product and a certain desire in circles, and describe the product's ability to satisfy wants by the degree to which it covers the desired circle.
The more the product satisfies the wants, the easier it is to be accepted by the consumer. Thus, it can be concluded that manufacturers need to identify the customer groups they want to sell to and should offer products that satisfy as much as possible the desires of these groups.
5. Benefits (Benefits)
Usually, each buyer has a limited income, a certain level of product knowledge and buying experience. Under such conditions, buyers will have to decide which products to buy, from whom, and in what quantities in order to maximize their satisfaction or total benefit from consuming those products.
Total customer benefit is the totality of benefits that customers expect from a given product or service, which may include the core benefit of the product, benefits from the services associated with the product, the quality and ability of the manufacturer's personnel, the reputation and image of the enterprise, etc.
To properly evaluate a customer's product choice, in addition to considering the extent to which a product can satisfy the wishes of the buyer, i.e. the benefits that the product can bring to them. , manufacturers need to weigh and compare the costs that buyers pay for product and satisfaction.
What is Marketing? Marketing is marketing? What is Facebook Marketing? (Photo: entrepreneur)
6. Cost (Cost)
Total customer cost is the total cost that the customer has to pay to get the product. It includes the time, energy and mental costs of searching and choosing to buy a product. Buyers evaluate these costs along with monetary costs to get a complete idea of the customer's total costs.
In the stage of buying and selling products, the above solutions make it easy for buyers to buy what they want and sellers to sell their products. But in the consumption stage, the seller needs to know if the buyer is satisfied with what they expect from the product.
7. Customer Satisfaction (Customers' Satisfaction)
Customer satisfaction is the state of a person's perception through the use of a product about the degree of benefit that a product actually brings compared to what he or she expects.
Thus, to assess the level of customer satisfaction with a product, people compare the results obtained from the product with his or her expectations. One of three levels of satisfaction can occur: The customer is not satisfied if the actual results are worse than what they expected; Customers are satisfied if the results are commensurate with expectations and customers are very satisfied if the results obtained exceed expectations.
Customers' expectations are often formed from their previous buying experiences, the opinions of friends and colleagues, and the information and promises of sellers and competitors. Through their marketing efforts, sellers can influence, or even change, buyers' expectations. Here, it is necessary to avoid two trends: first, sellers make buyers expect too high of their product while it is not worth it, thus disappointing buyers; Second, the seller makes the buyer have lower expectations than the product's ability, which will satisfy the buyer but not attract many buyers. In this case, the marketing solution The common logic used by successful businesses is to increase customer expectations while at the same time ensuring that product performance matches those expectations.
For businesses that are customer-centric, customer satisfaction is both one of the marketing career goals and an important quirky marketing tool. Honda has had the Accord model recognized as number one in customer satisfaction for many years, and advertising for that achievement has helped it sell more Accords. Or Dell Computer's also thanks to advertising as the number 1 company in terms of customer satisfaction that achieves high growth in the personal computer industry.
What is Marketing? – Honda Accord (Photo: autocar.co.uk)
When a business is customer-centric and strives to create a high level of customer satisfaction, it encounters the obstacle that it is difficult to maximize customer satisfaction. This is explained by the following three reasons:
- First: If increasing customer satisfaction by reducing product prices or increasing services, it may reduce the profit of the business.
- Second: Because businesses can also increase profitability in many other ways, such as improving production or increasing investment in research and development.
- Third: Because the business has an obligation to meet the needs of other interest groups as well, such as its employees, agents, suppliers and shareholders. Increasing costs to increase customer satisfaction will reduce costs to increase the benefits of these groups of people. Finally, businesses must act on the philosophy of trying to ensure that customer satisfaction on the basis that an acceptable level of satisfaction must be ensured for other interest groups within limited resources.
What is Marketing? Marketing classification? (Photo: real deal weekly)
8. Exchange and transaction
Marketing takes place when people decide to satisfy their wants through exchange.
Exchange is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return. Bartering is one of four ways people get the product they want (self-produced, appropriated, begged, and traded). Marketing was born out of this last approach to getting products.
Exchange is the core concept of marketing. However, for a voluntary exchange to take place, the following five conditions must be satisfied:
- There are at least two parties (for exchange)
- Each side has something that could be of value to the other
- Each party has the ability to communicate and distribute
- Each party is free to accept or reject the other's offer
- Each party believes it is necessary and beneficial to have a relationship with the other
These 5 conditions constitute the potential for exchange. Whether the exchange actually takes place or not depends on coming to an arrangement of the conditions of the parties. If they agree, we conclude that the act of exchange is pleasing to everyone (or at least not bad at all), since each party is free to refuse or accept the other's offer. In this sense exchange is a value-creation process. It is production that creates value, exchange also creates value by expanding the possibility of consumption.
Exchange is a complex human activity, a unique human behavior, which is never possible in the animal world. According to Adam and Smith, "human beings have a natural inclination to exchange things, to trade, to give one thing for another".
9. Transactions
If two parties committed to the exchange have negotiated and reached an agreement, then we say a transaction (business transaction) has occurred. The main transaction is the basic unit of exchange. A business transaction is a sale of value between two parties.
A business transaction involving at least two things of value, agreed terms, a suitable time, a suitable place. There is often a legal system that arises to support and bind the transaction parties to follow their commitments.
A transaction is different from a transfer. In a handover, A gives X to B but receives nothing in return. When A gives B a gift, a favor, or a charitable distribution, we call it a transfer, not a business transaction.
The object of marketing research is limited mainly to the concept of exchange, not transfer. However, transfer behavior can also be understood from the point of view of exchange. The deliverer offers a product in the hope of getting some benefit, such as sympathy, relief from guilt, or seeing a good deed from the transferee.
In a broad sense, marketers seek to generate a response to some offering, and that response is not just buying or selling in the narrow sense. Marketing consists of activities performed to elicit a necessary response by the target side to some object. In this program we limit the concept of what marketing is to business transactions without referring to exchange in a broader sense, such as transfer activities that are the object of non-business marketing.
What is the definition of Marketing? – (Photo: hostpapa)
Market (Market)
The concept of exchange inevitably leads to the concept of the market. A market is a collection of actual or potential buyers of a product.
The size of the market depends on the number of individuals who have needs and products that are of interest to others and are willing to exchange these products for what they want.
A market can form around a product, a service, or anything else of value. For example, the labor market consists of people who want to give their work in exchange for money or products. The money market appeared to satisfy people's needs so that they could borrow, save and preserve money...
The market should not be construed as a place where exchange relations take place. In developed societies, markets are not necessarily site-specific. With modern means of communication and transportation, a trader can advertise a product on a late-night television program, take orders from hundreds of customers over the phone, and send goods by mail. telephone to the customer in the following days without having to have any direct contact with the buyer.
What is the role of Marketing?
Marketing is increasingly important in a fiercely competitive global economy. Marketing plays an important role in establishing relationships between customers and organizations that supply the market. It helps to satisfy the customers with the products of the business through the process of Marketing research, building, testing products based on the needs and desires of customers. At the same time, thanks to the communication function performed through advertising, PR , etc. Marketing also plays the role of providing information to customers, which is the basis of customer choice. The process of understanding customer needs and taking care of customers of the Marketing department also plays a role in satisfying customer needs.
Marketing also plays a role in building brand and business image, bringing prestige and competitive strength. When Marketing meets customer needs and follows the market, Marketing brings profits to businesses, increases revenue, so it plays a key role in determining the success of a business.
What do Marketing majors learn?
Above we have just learned in detail what is the concept of marketing? And surely you already know quite well what marketing definitions are? . If you are looking to become a Marketer or are planning to study marketing but do not know what marketing includes? Then also find out the shares below:
The marketing major focuses on systematically training the basic knowledge of modern marketing with aspects such as: Building and developing customer relationships, market research, designing product distribution programs , brand promotion, product design, event organization... . All are distributed in specialized marketing subjects such as: Sales Management, Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior, Pricing and Distribution Strategy, Product Strategy , Advertising and Promotion, and Translation Marketing service, international marketing, PR…. and many other subjects.
After studying marketing, you will be able to grasp the psychological behavior of customers, the needs of customers, be more agile in recognizing challenges and opportunities before your competitors, planning Brand promotion and product development strategies…
Some frequently asked questions about Marketing:
1. Is it difficult to learn marketing?
In essence, in order to study Marketing, each individual needs to have thinking, creativity and know how to grasp the necessary information. Therefore, marketers are often under pressure from many different sides. Learning Marketing is not difficult and nothing is easy. Difficult or easy depends on the passion, determination and ability of each person. If you have determined that you are interested in Marketing, do not hesitate to "engage" in this extremely interesting field.
2. Which school does the marketing major go to?
Which school to study marketing is always a concern of many young people. With the promising potential of Marketing in the current market economy, there are many universities offering this major. You can major in Marketing at the following schools:
- +) National Economics University.
- +) Academy of Finance.
- +) University of Commerce.
- +) Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology.
- +) Hanoi University.
- +) RMIT International University Hanoi.
- +) University of edX.
- +) University of Finance and Marketing.
- +) University of Economics - Law - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City
- +) University of Economics and Finance, Ho Chi Minh City
- +) University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
3. Where is the best place to study marketing in Hanoi?
In the list of the best universities in Hanoi for training in Marketing, 4 famous names cannot be ignored: University of Commerce, National Economics University, Academy of Posts and Telecommunications, Academy of Finance main.
In addition, in Hanoi, you can study Marketing at prestigious training centers including:
- +) FPT Training Center
- +) Vinalink Training Center
- +) Kyna Center
4. Is it possible to self-study marketing?
Marketing is a field with wide knowledge, without background knowledge, it will be very difficult for you to be able to self-study Marketing. However, if you have passion, creative thinking and discipline at work, you can completely self-study Marketing and develop it every day. To start self-studying Marketing, you can refer to: Books, specialized magazines, reputable marketing sharing websites such as marketingai.admicro.vn, agencyvn.com, marketing-vn.com, forums, etc. group on marketing, internship at agencies,...
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