Marketing management and profit

Money makes the world go round and thus, marketing. Marketing is all about making profits and giving the customers what they need and what they want. Marketing Management is a very wide knowledge for a student or a businessman to comprehend in order to fully understand the real nature of marketing. Accordingly, it is a discipline where one could apply the principles and techniques of marketing to establish a good management of an organization from the resources up to its activities.

With this basic definition, expectations on this subject are highly dedicated to how I will be able to absorb its principles and apply in a real scenario such as managing a marketing firm, effective launch a product, satisfy the market and the like. It basically falls into the learning stage and application. Although equipped with a basic knowledge through different literatures, I have been interested into finding more facts about the subject matter to contribute to my learning and be able to be one of the top marketing managers in the society. Hence, learning what the principles of marketing management, how a marketing manager influences the market and understanding the different aspects of the marketing mix is the focus of my expectations.

On the other hand, many companies are putting much effort in developing their products through the way of branding, choosing the best packaging and putting the right features in order to catch the attention of the market. As well as pricing, choosing the right place and its promotion techniques to reach the potential customers are important considerations for the company. People who are willing and able to spend money for the exchange of the benefits from the products are said to be the customers or the potential customers in a market. In this process of exchange, the main goal of companies is to make profit while customers are into the satisfaction. However, what values do the companies offer to the customers and what are the specific sources of value do they offer to us? Are these ideas clearly defined to the customers? How do the companies offer value to the market through their advertising campaigns? As this course discusses the process of marketing management, we will try to examine these questions and provide information on how companies are being fair to the market as they sell their products.

Discussion

This course indeed helps me to analyze different brands out in the market and the strategies that they use to attract the market and develop brand loyalty which in a way reflects the values they offer to the customers. As such, for Starbucks Coffee, the company has established a good image to the market by the physical look of their store, high quality products and a good customer service. It is a good proposition though their company has to work hard to maintain their sales and positive image to the market. Marketing managers have put much effort on developing their products in order to fit with their target market and ensure a customers' satisfaction. In some point, people are likely to patronize the company because of the environment of the store and not because of the products. Starbucks Coffee have built a good image through the ambience of their stores like offering their customers a nice place to talk, warm and cozy environment to hold short meetings and other.

Values offered to customers

As a customer, how are we going to know and define the values offered to us by the companies? As part of the course, suppliers are the main determinants of offering this value of a product or a service. Sometimes we overlook these values and rely solely to the actual benefit of the product. There are certain value models that the authors refer to know what the products mean to the customers, and one is the field value assessments. In this method, suppliers gather information from the customers in various ways and give them the idea of how to segregate the values in different market segments. So why is it important? Basically suppliers could offer various products to the market and knowing the perceptions of the customers, it gives the suppliers a chance to inform what the customers could get from the core product. In addition to, suppliers could present evidences to customers about the accomplishments in offering value products through the value models. Consequently, understanding the real value proposition could benefit not only the customers but also the suppliers, at large.

Market Research

Primarily, marketing management involves a thorough market research before creating a marketing plan for a certain product. It basically studies and analyzes the market, developing the brand, creating the brand name and brand mark, conceptualizing advertisements on tri-media and other. It deals with the conduct of marketing research up to delivering the product to the market and getting feedbacks. Marketing research importantly serves as your way of gathering facts and information about the market, analyzing and understanding the market and knowing what their perceptions are. All companies just like Starbucks Coffee Company conducts a marketing research before they create or introduce a certain brand of coffee into the market to know if it is feasible or not. After conducting the research and obtaining ample data, series of tests will be initiated and plans will be drafted. It is vital to define every detail of the plan from product development, sales management, market segmentation, penetration, marketing mix and other to ensure a smooth flow of the overall project. Specifically through this process, marketing managers are discovering the needs and wants of the people as well as the behavior of their consumers. Hence, the facts gathered from the people serve as the basis of the strategies or ideas to be applied in formulating a thorough marketing plan.

Market research can be done through a survey or a questionnaire for the target market so researchers will be able to get the desired market information. Interacting with the potential customers can give the marketing managers the information about the prices of the related products in the market and analyze the demand and supply chain. After gathering the information, market segmentation follows where the market is separated into different groups according to their lifestyle, geographic location, demography, age, gender, psychographic differences and product use (Kotler, 2003).

Furthermore, market research for businesses such as a supermarket, a pharmaceutical industry, and hotel and restaurant industry determines the current market trend which significantly depicts how the market does in the economy, what products are in and what to provide the customers that will be valuable to them. This could also give the marketing managers a hint on what the competitors provide and thus, be able to match with what the market currently buys. Analyzing the customers' perception must be the first one to focus on and choosing the best model to respond to these needs is the next step to make sure that values are offered in accord to their expectations. It will then be followed by the competitor and risk analysis, researching about the product, and thinking of what advertising campaign is suitable (Kotler, 2003).

Marketing Mix

Marketing ensures the growth of the company through the Product, Price, Place and Promotion or the 4 P's, also called the Marketing mix. These tools are used in order to satisfy the customers' needs and wants as well as the goals of the business. This is one of the highlights of this course, I may say as a student, because it talks about how a marketing manager formulates the entire marketing process. It consists of the important factors in a business and details out the important considerations to be given to each.

The first one is Product. Generally, it refers to the items that a company could sell or offer to the consumers. According to Kotler (2003), a product is anything that can be offered that satisfies the needs and wants of the market. It may appear in various ways and could either be intangible and/or tangible. Tangible products are those that can be touched such as appliances, cosmetics, house, car, clothes, etc., while intangible products fall into the category of services, events, insurance, etc.

As what I have learned, companies now offer various product lines and product mixes. They work hard to upgrade their products in order to emerge in the competing market. It is important to take note that product serves as the most important factor in marketing because a business cannot market without a product as it satisfies the needs and the wants of the market. The product is the basic way to know and represent the values offered by the company. It does not only rely on the actual product, value is found on the core product usually and sometimes on the augmented product (Kotler, 2003).

The next marketing mix is Place. It is a marketing tool to reach the market. It can be a physical store, a website, a directory or any form of distribution where the customers get hold of the product. Apparently, suppliers are part of the chain and this is where value usually occurs and is being considered. Companies can be suppliers too and in point of fact any individual or organization that provides products and services. Thus, they need to consider the values they give the customers as discussed earlier.

Another marketing tool is Price. It is basically the worth or cost of the product. It is the part of marketing mix that determines sales and profits. Price is one that determines the value of a product physically and perhaps, in a profound sense. Relatively, the higher the price of a product, the higher its value is. Getting the perception or feedback of consumers about pricing is vital to fully understand their taste and preferences. The strategies in pricing should be known for each product and businesses must have a price schedule and agree with the legal terms (Kotler, 2003).

Advertising

I believe that marketing is possible without advertising but it is always part of the promotion mix. Promotion is the tool used to promote the product composed of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing. This tool is the way to communicate with the customers. It gives information about the product and helps customers to be aware of the product they are buying. There are different ways to promote a product; one is advertising.

Advertising is a paid non-personal way of informing and persuading the market about a certain product through the use of print ads, television, radio and World Wide Web. It influences the market a lot and serves as a way of delivering the values offered by a product to the customers. As such, an advertisement can contain materials or information that could enlighten the customers about health topics for health products, a television ad with good story lines about certain products could show the real essence of why we buy that product and the like.

Conclusion

Discussed are some of the things that I have learned from the course which I could apply in a real scenario. Marketing management is not just simply selling the product and thinking of the best strategy on how to get customers. Although some of my expectations are not met because of lack of organization, I strongly understand the process on how managers market a certain product. Personally, I have observed how marketing managers do their jobs through the advertisements and other promotional tools existing in the market. However, false advertising and marketing of products might lead to a negative result where customers buy products not because of the value it offers but by how advertisers are effectively persuading customers through the messages of the ads. I suggest that marketing must face the reality and avoid fraudulent actions just to make a profit. Value proposition is important because marketing is not just for the company, it must adhere to the benefit that the customers get in exchange of their money.

Generally, I may say that I really have learned a lot on this course. The importance of creating quality products for the customers and the process of exchange between the company and the customers, advertising the products in accord to its use and not for the sake of flaunting are just examples of what ideas I have put on a highlight. As the world merges into a more high-tech way of marketing, there are questions such as; what will be the way of advertising more years from now, are there any more products that can be developed in the midst of existing products, are the companies putting more importance on value of the products in the later centuries?