(MB) Marketing Basics Module Overview

Marketing Basics Module Overview

Introduction

title image wordle captioned: marketing basicsWhether you own a business or simply work for one, you are a part of the business' marketing plan. Each employee contributes to the marketing mix, whether by designing and producing a product that fits the needs of the target market, or by creating a happy customer through excellent service. The route to a successful marketing campaign begins with knowing your target market. It continues with selecting from among all of the available promotional tools and media to create the campaign that will reach your target market. In order to gain and maintain a competitive advantage, businesses need to organize data on current and prospective customers to know what they want. Information and innovation are key to maintaining a competitive advantage.

Essential Questions

  • What fundamentals of marketing are important to small business?
  • How do I use demographics to determine my target market?
  • How do I create and maintain a customer database?
  • How could I use a customer database to target a particular market?
  • What tools, both traditional and online, are available for marketing my product or service?
  • How can I gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace?

Key Terms

  1. Marketing mix - price, product, promotion, place
  2. Target market - a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise
  3. Demographics - statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it
  4. Promotional tools - the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision
  5. Channels of Distribution - these are the routes used by a company to distribute a product such as wholesalers, retailers, internet orders, etc
  6. Inventory - Items produced and awaiting sale are known as inventory
  7. Logistics - the overall management of the way resources are obtained, stored and moved to the locations where they are required
  8. Premium Pricing - The pricing practice of setting the price of an item artificially high to give the customer the perception of higher quality is known as premium pricing
  9. Penetration Pricing - Penetration pricing means setting the price of an item below market price in order to attract new customers
  10. Skimming Pricing - Skimming pricing is the charging of a high price in order to gain maximum revenue conducted under conditions of product uniqueness and inelastic demand patterns
  11. Competitive Pricing - Setting the price of a product or service based on what the competition is charging is called competitive pricing
  12. Customer Relationship Management - A model for managing a company\'s interactions with current and future customers, that involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support, is referred to as Customer Relationship Management or CRM

Module Minute

In January each year as excitement grows for the culmination of football season with the Super Bowl, many avid football fans look forward to the TV advertisements that accompany the program as much as they do the football game itself.  In 2013 the price for a 30 second ad for Super Bowl XLVII was $4 million.  To many, these ads and others like them are the heart of marketing.  But marketing is so much more.  The marketing mix includes product, promotion, price, and place and in one sense, everyone in an organization is responsible for an organization's marketing from the CEO to the person who greets each customer. As HP founder David Packard said, "Marketing is too important to be left solely to the marketing department."

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