MARKETING PROCESS

5 Steps of the Marketing Process

The Marketing process consists of 5 steps. The first 4, companies create value for their customers and the last step captures value from the customers.

Objective 2: Understanding Marketplace and Customer Needs (5 Core Marketplace Concepts)

Step 1 - It consists of 5 core customer and market concepts

NEEDS, WANTS, and DEMANDS
MARKET OFFERINGS (products, services, and experiences)
VALUE and SATISFACTION
EXCHANGES and RELATIONSHIPS
MARKETS

NEEDS are states of deprivation of humans. They include physical (ie. food, clothing, and warmth); social (ie. belonging and affection); and individual (ie. knowledge and self-expression).

WANTS are the form human needs take as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. They can be in the form of objects that are able to bring satisfaction (ie. An American needs food but wants a Big Mac, French Fries and a Soft Drink). Wants are are shaped by ones' culture.

DEMANDS, backed by buying power, are wants turned.

Companies analyze customer data and perform marketing research to find out more about the needs, wants and demands of their customers.

MARKET OFFERINGS are combinations of products (physical), services (activities or benefits), information or experiences that fulfill customers’ needs and wants.

MARKETING MYOPIA occurs when sellers make the mistake of paying more attention to products than to the benefits and experiences produced by these products and services. It occurs when companies think that customer needs their product instead of the actual need of what the product provides (ie. customer needs a hole in the wall, not a drill). Needs stay the same, whereas products change. Brand experiences can be created by combining several service and products to satisfy and fulfill needs.

Customers choose and buy based on formed EXPECTATIONS about value and satisfaction provided by market offerings. Marketers should carefully adjust levels of expectation as low levels fail to attract new buyers, whereas, high ones disappoint.

EXCHANGE is the act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in return. In the broadest sense, the marketer tries to bring about a response to some market offering.

Marketing consists of actions taken to create, maintain, and grow desirable exchange relationships with target audiences involving a product, service, idea, or other object.

These concepts of exchange and relationships lead to the concept of a market. A MARKET is a set of actual and potential buyers of a product or service. These buyers share a particular need or want that can be satisfied through exchange relationships.

Marketing means managing markets to bring about profitable customer relationships. However, creating these relationships takes work. Sellers must search for and engage buyers, identify their needs, design good market offerings, set prices for them, promote them, and store and deliver them. Activities such as consumer research, product development, communication, distribution, pricing, and service are core marketing activities.

In addition to customer relationship management, today’s marketers must also deal effectively with customer-managed relationships. Marketers are no longer asking only “How can we influence our customers?” but also “How can our customers influence us?” and even “How can our customers influence each other?”

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Chapter 1.2: Marketing Process