CONCEPT & MEANING

Market:-Refers to a set of actual and potential buyers of a product or service.

Marketer:-Who takes an active part in the process of exchange

  • Seller examines the needs of the possible buyers, develops a market offering, and motivates the buyers to buy the product
  • In situations of rare supply, the buyer may be taking extra efforts in persuading the seller to sell the product.

FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING

  1. Gathering and Analyzing Market Information:
  • Begins with planning and designing a product for the consumers.
  • Includes collecting and analyzing information regarding customer needs and buying habits, the nature of competition in the market, prevailing prices, distribution network, effectiveness of advertising media, etc
  1. Standardization and Grading:
    • Refers to producing goods of fixed specifications, which helps in achieving consistency in the output. Increasing consumers’ confidence in the product quality.
    • Process of classification of products into different groups such as quality, size, etc.
  2. packaging and Labeling:
    • protects the product from leakages, spoilage, moisture, heat, and mishandling and adds value and life to the product
    • Designing the label to be put on the package. The label may vary from simple tags to complex graphics.
  3. Branding:
    • Name, term, symbol, or combination of all these which uniquely identify the products
    • Creates a corporate brand identity for consumer
  4. Customer Support Services:
    • Customer support services such as after-sales services, handling customer complaints, and obtaining credit services for the satisfaction of the customers.
  5. Pricing of Products:
    • Generally, the lower the price, the higher would be the demand for the product and vice-versa.
    • The marketers have to properly analyze the factors determining the price of a product and take several crucial decisions in this respect.
  6. Promotion:
    • Promotion of products and services involves informing the customers about the firm’s product, its features, etc., and persuading them to purchase these products.
    • Four important methods include advertising, Personal Selling, Publicity, and Sales Promotion.
  7. Physical Distribution
    • Include decisions regarding channels of distribution or the marketing intermediaries (like wholesalers, retailers) to be used
    • The physical movement of the product from where it is produced to a place where it is required by the customers for their consumption.
  8. Transportation:
  • Involves physical movement of goods from one place to the other.
  • On the basis of the nature of the product, the cost involved, urgency, nature of the goods, etc. suitable means of transportation can be selected
  1. Storage and Warehousing:
  • Wide gap between the production and actual sale of goods.
  • Involves making suitable arrangements for preserving the goods till they are bought by the consumers
  • Finished goods may be required to be stored for a period when demand is expected to rise.