John Barr
Intro to Business
Amy Grant
Unit 4 Paper
March 6, 2013

Marketing Is It Necessary Marketing what is it and how does it work? I think in order to know these things you first have to know what marketing is. Marketing is defined satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process. Another definition is "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” When you understand these definitions you have a better chance of understanding if marketing is needed for a company to be successful. In order for marketing to help a company be successful it has to be aimed at someone. It cannot be generic in nature; it needs to have a purpose. Marketing revolves around one person, the customer, and go to any lengths to firstly identify what the needs of the customer are, and subsequently satisfying those needs. You have to be able to entice a potential customer to want to want your product more than any other of your competitors’ products. Okay so what does this mean? Well suppose you have a restaurant and you think it is the best restaurant around. You have opened every day at six in the morning and closed at ten in the evening, you are at what you believe to be a great location, and you believe your food is the best around, and still you’re not making a profit like you think you should be. You start thinking what am I doing wrong? Well the answer to that might be very simple, marketing; do you have a great marketing strategy? Marketing is a process that begins from the very day a product is conceptualized. The features, attributes and benefits of the product have to suit the needs and wants of the customer perfectly. The key elements of a good marketing strategy are innovation and competitive advantage. Companies that constantly strive to be better than their competitors by consistently offering new and innovative products are the ones that enjoy the majority of the market share in their particular industry. Once the product has been developed and manufactured, the customers need to be made aware of the availability of the product. This is done through advertising and direct selling. Utilizing various mediums like the radio, newspapers, billboards, and allows you the platform to reach out to a mass of people at the same time. Highlighting the product's utility and novelty is the key element. In other words you have to make your product stand out among all the other restaurants in your area. Ask yourself what do I have that other restaurants don’t have? You have to be able to offer your customers a great product, great service, great prices, and most important consistency. Providing customer with these things can make the chance of you succeeding as a successful company. So you think that once you have attained this goal that your job is over and the customers will just keep coming. This is as far from the truth as possible. The name of the game is retention of customers, as rivals are always looking to steal away customers from any business. By focusing on customer satisfaction, a company is retaining its power over the customer and this can be achieved only by good after sales service, prompt complaint solutions, informing about future offers and products and overall customer relationship management. Marketing can help your company be as successful as you can be only if you have a good product strategy. Rahul Thadani (1) wrote an article on how product strategy enables the company to focus on a specific target market, instead of trying to be everything to everyone. Who are you selling to? Define your target customer or market. Identify whom you are selling to, and what that market looks like, what are you selling? Describe how potential customers will perceive your product compared to competitive products. Understand what makes your product unique in the market. What value do you provide your customers? You cannot be everything to everyone