Marketing

the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, capturing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

a marketing plan

specifies the marketing activities for a specific period of time. The marketing plan is broken down into various components: how the product or service will be conceived or designed, how much it should cost, where and how it will be promoted, and how it will get to the consumer.

marketing is about an exchange

the trade of things of value between the buyer and the seller so that each is better off as a result. Sellers provide products or services, then communicate and facilitate the delivery of their offering to consumers. Buyers complete the exchange by giving money and information to the seller

marketing mix or four P's:

product, price, place, promotion

The four P's

are the controllable set of decisions/activities that the firm uses to respond to the wants of its target markets.

Product (The four P's)

-although marketing a multifaceted function, its main purpose is to create value by developing a variety of offerings, including goods, services, and ideas, to satisfy customer needs.
-must be perceived valuable enough to buy by the customers

Goods (product)

are items that you can physically touch, EX: Nike shoes, Budweiser, Kraft cheese, Tide, an iPad...

services (product)

are intangible customer benefits that are produced by people or machines and cannot be separated from the producer. When people buy tickets, they're not paying for the physical ticket stub, but for the experience they gain. Hotels, insurance agencies, and spas provide services.

combining goods and services

EX: when you go to an optical center, you get your eyes examined (a service) and purchase new contact lenses (a goods)

ideas (product)

include concepts, opinions, and philosophies; intellectual concepts like these can also be marketed. EX: groups promoting bicycle safety go to schools, give talks, and sponsor bike helmet poster contests for children. The exchange of value occurs when the children listen to the sponsors' presentation and wear their helmets while bicycling, which means they have adopted, or become "purchasers" of the safety idea that the group marketed.

Price

-everything has a price, though it doesn't always have to be monetary. Price is everything the buyer gives up - money, time, energy - in exchange for the product
-Marketers must determine the price of a product carefully on the basis of the potential buyer's belief about its value.
- the key to determining prices is figuring out how much customers are willing to pay so that they are satisfied with the purchase and the seller achieves a reasonable profit
-price should be based on the value that the customer perceives.