Economic systems and marketing
The nature of marketing | You click on the TV and a commercial for laundry detergent balloons onto the screen, followed by an ad from a nonprofit organization asking for your contributions to feed hungry children. You stroll down a supermarket aisle and snap a coupon out of a dispenser, allowing you...
The quality approach to marketing| Marketers have long cared about the quality of the goods and services sold by their organizations. After all, it is harder and less gratifying to sell defective goods or inept services. In recent years, however, many organizations...
Marketing levels of activity| At times marketers may focus on broad marketing activities. They consider the way an entire marketing system works or should work. At other times marketers are interested in the ways individual organizations carry out marketing and how they can improve these...
The marketing mix| A landlord who knows his or her target market will know how to provide the right product at the right price. The landlord will also have a sense of where and how much to advertise. A marketer who has selected a target market...
Green products| Organizations that practice green marketing try to ensure that their products are helpful to the environment or at least cause little or no harm. BMW is developing cars that can be easily taken apart and recycled. The Real Goods catalog offers products that...
Life cycle stages| The details of the product life cycle vary among different industries, products, and markets. However, the basic model describes a product's life cycle in terms of four stages. The stages in the product life cycle are introduction, growth, maturity and...
Packaging| The packages in which goods are sold serve several purposes. First, packaging is functional. Many kinds of products, such as soup, laundry detergent, and lubricating oil must be carried in some type of container. Furthermore, customers may expect the package to have some kind of ...
Creating a marketing plan| The result of strategic marketing planning is a marketing plan for a particular product or product line. In the case of a small business, the marketing plan may even cover the marketing activities of the entire firm. The following text outlines...
Forecasting future demand| Because no one can predict the future perfectly, forecasting future demand is necessarily inexact. Many economists and statisticians specialize in forecasting market potential. Consequently, as is true for measuring current demand, the best sources for forecasts of market potential are trade groups and...
Functions of advertising| The overriding function of advertising is to inform potential customers about a product and persuade them to buy it. It can also remind customers about a product, and it can convey information about the organization itself or issues important to the organization. Advertising can inform a large number of people with...