When it comes to marketing, many people think that it is simply a matter of using promotional tactics to sell products. However, those who work in the field can identify at least seven marketing functions that govern almost every aspect of a company and must take into account all business decisions. It's true that the main purpose of marketing is to attract customers and motivate them to buy your products and services. Behind the scenes, marketing is a complete process that directly affects production, distribution, and all other aspects of communication and delivery.
Promotion means raising awareness about your product through mass communication and encouraging people to buy it. Most people outside the marketing profession consider marketing and promotion to be synonymous. Although the two are not synonymous, it is a crucial function of marketing that aims to raise awareness about your product or service in the market. A promotion strategy can make or break a marketing campaign.
Marketers use a set of different strategies, such as public relations (PR), direct outreach, social media and advertising to let the audience know about a new product and why it matters. From content marketing to social media and email, any medium used for raising awareness is essentially included in promotion. Selling involves motivating customers to buy a product or service by telling them how it meets the customer's needs. Many companies have blogs to attract and engage their target audience.
Companies that blog receive twice as much email traffic as companies without blogs. For example, Help Scout, which has useful blogs for its readers. Ahrefs has also created a comprehensive resource on SEO that revolves around its tools and sells them without selling. See all the traffic your content attracts in the following screenshot.
Product and service management is a function of marketing because it requires designing, developing and modifying the product or service to meet the changing needs of customers. Only those products or services survive changing times and can keep pace with changing market trends. Managing products and services involves involving the customer to obtain their feedback and to monitor the changing needs and perceptions of customers. Marketers try to understand the needs and interests of customers before the product launches in order to ensure that the product meets their expectations.
Companies obtain this information through customer feedback, surveys and, most importantly, through social media. This information also helps create one-off promotional campaigns that hit the mark and generate returns on investment (ROI). Marketing information management also deals with competitive research and monitors market trends. All of this information is crucial for the company to make key decisions, whether it's about product design, price, promotional campaigns or funding and distribution.
For example, J, Crew collects their customers' zip codes with every purchase. This information helps marketers understand the distribution of their customers: where their most loyal customers live and which areas need the most attention. Pricing involves setting the price of a product or service to maximize profits, taking into account consumers' perceptions of value, the price of production and competitive prices. This is the most difficult of the seven marketing functions, since it involves extensive knowledge of the market.
Prices cannot be too low or too high compared to the market average. Then you have to consider the target audience and how much they will be willing to pay for a product and the value it provides. Another factor affecting prices is brand reputation. Reputable brands can sometimes sell their products at a higher price than most competitors because they enjoy the trust of their customers.
Most of the time, prices fluctuate at different times of the year. The marketing department must help the company adapt its prices based on those fluctuations and still obtain the desired benefits. Rolex is a perfect example of a brand that can get higher prices because of its brand perception. Prices also reflect the purchasing power of their target audience and the promise of luxury.
That's why prices are a function of marketing and cannot be set otherwise. Funding involves obtaining the capital needed to manage or expand your business or deciding how to spend the money for maximum ROI. Of all the functions of marketing, funding is the least discussed, but it is a very important aspect of marketing. Marketing affects and should affect financial decisions, even those outside of what would be considered the “marketing department”.
Effective marketing management can affect a company's funding in many ways. The most obvious connection is, of course, budgeting for marketing campaigns. Financial restrictions can affect marketing decisions, including the marketing channels you can use. The marketing department must consider decisions, such as when to offer discounts, when to offer free products and when to apply price cuts.
Excellent marketing campaigns can also help companies obtain funding from investors or banks. At the same time, marketers know what strategies to use to maximize ROI. Distribution involves decisions about when and where the product should be available and under what conditions. You're right to think that distribution should be the responsibility of the supply chain management team.
However, it's also one of the seven functions of marketing. When, where and how you distribute your products depends largely on your target audience and brand perception. For instance, if you're a high-end luxury brand, you're not going to distribute your products through Target, right? Therefore, marketing guides the distribution of products according to the promotion campaign and where the target audience usually buys those products. In the same way, a new brand may opt for a different distribution channel than that of an established business.
If it's a new business, you can choose a well-known mall to sell your products. Once your brand gains enough popularity, your marketing team may recommend that you open a standalone store. They can help you select an area where most of your customers hang out. They may advise you to make the transition to an online store if most of your sales are made online.
Therefore, the responsibility for making distribution-related decisions ultimately lies with the marketing team. An extraordinary example of commitment to quality and the importance of distribution to maintain the brand image is Peet's Coffee. Despite being a multi-billion dollar company, it has a direct in-store delivery (DSD) system. More than 700 representatives personally rotate their products on store shelves every week to fulfill the company's promise: to offer the freshest cup of coffee to its consumers.
Every salesperson who wants to succeed in the marketing industry must understand these 7 functions of marketing. Companies that base their critical decisions on marketing knowledge usually make good decisions and are well-informed. They are generally prepared for unforeseen situations and better understand their company's growth and future schedule. Before any promotion or campaign begins, marketers spend hours researching to determine the right strategy, target keywords, and demographics that will most interest the product.
Promotion strategies must be flexible to reach the target audience and can be re-evaluated with a marketing audit every few months. Otherwise, investing in a bad campaign can result in lost customers and revenue. Research is crucial to any marketing function, from pricing to promotion, and this is where managing market information comes into play. Market information management is the process of collecting data from consumers and competitors to improve other marketing functions and help develop strategies for your company.
Without marketing information management, the other 7 functions of marketing won't be useful. Companies manage market information by collecting information about their consumers and their preferences through a variety of ways, including surveys, customer feedback and social media. From them, statistics and other data are obtained to see the effectiveness of campaigns and promotions. Marketing functions act as a basis of work for marketing professionals.
Each function contains a set of responsibilities and tasks for a marketing team to create, organize, and execute a successful campaign. There are 7 functions of marketing that contribute to the overall work of marketers. The seven marketing functions are essential, since each of them symbolizes a category of activities that occur in marketing. The marketing department strives to promote and sell products in a competitive market and to target all seven marketing functions frequently, while designing a campaign allows marketing teams to focus on their objectives.
In addition, the seven marketing functions are essential to understanding marketing strategies, processes, and tools. These functions work in a coherent manner to allow professionals to develop consistent marketing strategies for various brands and organizations. We need to understand seven marketing functions to discover marketing intent. These functions represent all aspects that are part of the marketing effort.
This section will look at the 7 functions of marketing more precisely. Creating value and delivering value for buyers are primarily related to selling. Sales show the change in ownership of value and provide consumers with the services and goods they want. It has business-to-business sales to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and consumer retail sales.
Marketing and sales are added functions. For example, marketing creates awareness and branding for a product, allowing a company's sales staff or retail staff to sell more products. Promotions make current and potential customers familiar with your product and your company. By using marketing strategies, such as direct marketing, telemarketing, advertising or public relations, you can share the benefits of products and generate interest in your products.
Distribution defines how and where your customers can buy your products. If you're marketing products to a small number of business customers, you can instantly transact with them through the sales team. However, if the business expands to other regions or countries, it may be more profitable to reach consumers through local distributors. Customer product marketing companies are scattered in retail stores or online.
Distribution channels are companies and individuals that offer products or services to customers. In short, distribution is shown across consumers' places to purchase products or services. For example, they could be subsidiaries of traditional stores or online sales sites. Finance and marketing work closely together.
Without marketing, it would be difficult for a company to sell products, transmit value to customers and not have stable and growing finances. A number of business owners prefer to borrow from a bank to start a business. On the other hand, some customers rely on the sale of shares or shares of the company. In addition, funding also affects decisions such as granting credit to customers or not.
Most retailers allow customers to pay with options such as Visa or MasterCard, while others offer their credit. Market research plays a fundamental role in creating and implementing business strategies to meet market needs. The importance of marketing in business is to emphasize identity and satisfy customer requirements through communication. To determine customer requirements and, therefore, create and implement market research strategies and programs to meet those needs, marketing managers require more information about consumers, competitors, and other market information.
Based on market studies based on consumer information and factors affecting customer buying or non-purchasing behavior, business manufacturers have designed products and goods that satisfy customers, even if they are the most demanding. Product management is a vital function in an organization, since it guarantees priority tasks in accordance with business objectives. Therefore, the position of product manager plays an integral role in startups and companies. In addition, product management helps you make decisions that match consumer needs and company objectives.
As more and more companies focus on innovation, the role of product management has become a fundamental factor in the success of those organizations. A seller can fulfill the function of setting prices for their products by developing pricing systems based on product cycles or life stages. Price is the real value that customers perceive your product to have. Therefore, the price of a product must be set so that it is not too high, but at the same time, it must also be profitable enough for the company.
In this post, we've learned why marketing functions are important and what are the 7 marketing functions you should know. By understanding marketing functions, you'll do better and develop interesting marketing ideas. Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform that helps businesses sell online, trade markets, and manage their inventory. With more than 400,000 merchants using it to sell their products, Shopify is one of the most.
Marketing is a large process that encompasses more than just selling a product; it includes the production, communication and distribution of the product or service. While determining logistics depends on supply chain management, the distribution of a product is decided by the marketing team. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with these components as a marketer can allow you to better understand your industry, develop effective marketing campaigns, and promote your brand. Marketing programs that improve customer loyalty further ensure long-term sales, while product development programs generate new revenue.
Whether you are a company that has just started and has a one-person marketing department or an established company with hundreds of employees, understanding the 7 functions of marketing is an important step in growing your company. . .
