GCSE Business Studies/What is Marketing?

Marketing is finding out what the customer wants (market research) and providing to them.

Marketing Objectives

Firms will use marketing in order to achieve objectives. Some common objectives are:

• Introducing a new product, or increasing sales of an existing one.
• Introduce an established product to a new market segment.
• Change the image of a brand.

If a business gets its marketing right, it will be easy to sell its product.

What is a Market?

The term market means the place where buyers and sellers meet. In other words, where goods are traded. It describes the type of product been traded, too - e.g. the global oil market.

• Mass markets sell ordinary things to very large numbers of people.
• Niche markets sell things to specialist consumers.

Market Segmentation

A market can be divided into different groups of people (market segments). Markets can be divided in different ways based on different things, such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Social class
• Location
• Culture or religion

Orientation

There are two marketing orientations that businesses use:

• Market orientation involves researching what people want or need, and then researching and developing it in order to provide it to them. This usually means that the product is more likely to be useful, and so it is more likely to be successful.
• Product orientation involves designing a new product and then persuading people to buy it. This is commonly used with high-tech goods, for example. Customers may not feel they need the product until after it has already been developed. There is often a risk that the business makes something that nobody wants, and so the product may not be successful.

The Marketing Mix

There are four main factors that make a customer decide to buy a product or service, these are:

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place

We call these factors the four Ps or the marketing mix.