Week 1 - Introduction to Marketing
1. Marketing is an organizational function and a set of
processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders. Marketing management is the
art and science of choosing target markets and
getting, keeping, and growing customers through
creating, delivering, and communicating superior
customer value.
2. Marketers are skilled at managing demand: they seek to influence its level, timing, and composition for goods, services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas. They also operate in four different marketplaces: consumer, business, global, and nonprofit.
3. Marketing is not done only by the marketing department. It needs to affect every aspect of the customer experience. To create a strong marketing organization, marketers must think like executives in other departments, and executives in other departments must think more like marketers.
4. Today’s marketplace is fundamentally different as a result of major societal forces that have resulted in many new consumer and company capabilities. These forces have created new opportunities and challenges and changed marketing management significantly as companies seek new ways to achieve marketing excellence.
5. There are five competing concepts under which organizations can choose to conduct their business: the production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and the holistic marketing concept. The first three are of limited use today.
6. The holistic marketing concept is based on the development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize their breadth and inter-dependencies. Holistic marketing recognizes that everything matters in marketing and that a broad, integrated perspective is often necessary. Four components of holistic marketing are relationship marketing, integrated marketing, internal marketing, and socially responsible marketing.
7. The set of tasks necessary for successful marketing
management includes developing marketing strategies
and plans, capturing marketing insights, connecting
with customers, building strong brands, shaping the
market offerings, delivering and communicating value,
and creating long-term growth.