The Ultimate Understanding of Marketing and its Fundamental Concepts!

Hello!

Welcome to my first blog post here.

I thought it would be best to start with defining what is marketing and write about some fundamental concepts related to marketing.

Some common questions most of us have regarding marketing are:

What is marketing? What is the definition of marketing? What is the marketing concept? What is the use of marketing in business? What is marketing management? What is a marketing strategy? What is a marketing mix? What is marketing segmentation? What is marketing research?

These questions reflect how Marketing is a vast subject of great interest and depth.

In this blog post, I will answer some of these common questions. It will also help you understand the fundamental concepts of marketing.

Here is a list of topics covered in this article:

1. What is Marketing?
2. Marketing Management
3. Purpose of Marketing in business
4. Evolution of Marketing
5. Marketing Research
6. Market Segmentation
7. Marketing Mix
8. Marketing Strategy
9. Marketing Plan

Let’s start by understanding what is marketing!

What is Marketing?

There have been many attempts at defining marketing, and there is no right or wrong in any of these. As I said earlier, marketing is such a vast subject that touches various aspects of any business, and hence it is challenging to narrow down on a single definition.

With years of my own experience of being an active practitioner & keen follower of this art, here’s my take on what is marketing all about:

Marketing is a process that includes a series of customer-focused initiatives & actions: identifying customer needs, developing a product/service to satisfy those needs, communicating and attracting customers’ attention to that product/ service, getting customers to buy & consume the product, and developing loyal customers leading to repeat purchase. Ultimately this satisfies the customer needs and results in profits for the company.

Marketing is both science and art at the same time.

Marketing is not a one-time act. It is a continuous process. The marketing cycle with a customer starts even before you create a product, and it continues even after the customer buys your product.

Marketing is about sending the right message, to the right audience, at the right time.

Marketing comprises various streams such as market research, product development, product pricing, promotion, distribution, marketing communication, and customer loyalty.

So that’s my take on what is marketing, and as you may have realized, it’s challenging to capture it in one single definition.

There is this one particular definition that I came across that seems to be concise yet all-encompassing:

‘Marketing is both the science and art of creating and communicating products/services at an appropriate price to serve the needs of customers, better than the competition and in a profitable way.’

The ‘profitable way’ in the above definition is the key since Marketing has to result in profits for the business; this is an important end goal of marketing.

In any business – small or big, marketing is one of the core pillars of success.

Next, let’s look at what is marketing management.

Marketing Management

Marketing management, simply put, is the combination of all the marketing functions and techniques used by an organization.

It involves planning, development and implementation of various marketing programs, processes, and activities intended to market the company’s products/ services and satisfy the customer needs profitably.

It also involves deploying and managing the company’s marketing resources such as budget, staff, tools & technologies, digital assets, etc.

Marketing management ensures that all marketing activities are implemented in an organized and efficient manner.

The various functional activities included under marketing management are – market research, understanding customers and their needs, competitor analysis, setting marketing goals, product development, pricing strategy, product availability, developing & implementing the marketing plan, running marketing campaigns, developing marketing communication & creative designs, tracking & measurement of marketing metrics, and managing the marketing budget.

Marketing management is one of the business functions in an organization, just like other functions such as accounting & finance management, human resource management, others.

Marketing management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programs designed to bring about desired exchanges with target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational objectivesrom the customer’s point of view.

Philip Kotler

Purpose of Marketing in Business

Marketing is a lifeline of any business. It is one of the most necessary ingredients for the success of any business. Let’s look at what marketing can do for a business.

Marketing, if done properly and in a sustained manner, can build a long-term and profitable business.

Marketing is the connecting bridge between the business and its customers in many ways.

Marketing helps businesses understand customer needs and problems and develop products/ services to solve those needs.   

Marketing informs customers about the company’s products/ services and how these would solve the customer needs in a better manner.

Marketing helps businesses sell their products/ services, earn revenue, and generate profits.

Marketing engages customers with the business, its products, and its representatives. This establishes long-lasting relationships between the company and its customers.

Marketing helps businesses grow their customer base, expand to newer markets and sustain growth over long periods.

Marketing helps businesses differentiate themselves from the competition and establish a unique positioning for their products/ services, thereby giving them a competitive advantage.

Marketing helps companies build a positive reputation, establish trust & credibility with their customers, partners, and vendors.

Evolution of Marketing

Marketing has a long history and has existed and been in practice in different forms and means, relevant to the concerning times or eras. Marketing has evolved in many ways over time.

Marketing focus and orientation has undergone considerable changes over its long history and is broadly described as follows:

Production orientation

This was believed to exist pre-1920s era, when marketing focused on mass production and wide distribution.

It meant products were made widely available to consumers at a cheaper price.

Sales orientation

From production focus, marketing moved to sales focus somewhere believed to be after the 1920s.

Here sales became the most important priority, and companies started pushing the products through aggressive sales to consumers.

This saw the advent of advertising, as well as door-to-door sales push through salesmen.

Marketing orientation

Somewhere in the 1950s, companies started to focus on what consumers wanted, instead of just pushing the products they produced.

This is referred to as the marketing era, where companies began to use market research and understand consumer needs and make products accordingly.

Relationship Marketing orientation

In 1990’s the focus moved towards building long-term and deeper relationships with customers.

The concept of a return customer became important at this stage of evolution.

Customer loyalty was valued, and it led to further sales through repeat purchases as well as recommendations to potential new customers.

Societal Marketing

Shortly after the success of relationship marketing orientation, customer-focused marketing began to become popular.

This is referred to as societal marketing, where the customer was at the center of all marketing activities, and customer satisfaction became the topmost priority.

Digital Marketing

The current era that we are witnessing is that of digital marketing. With the advent of digital technology and the internet, marketing has shifted towards digital.

Digital marketing has enabled companies to come close to their customers and has easily established two-way communication between them.

Now there are a lot more interactions between brands and their customers. These interactions are not limited to just the product or service, but also around other issues concerning the customers.

While marketing has evolved over time as described above, that doesn’t mean that the previous stages or practices have become completely irrelevant.

Some marketing practices from different eras have been carried forward and are still relevant & in use.

For example, market research, customer-centric approach, customer satisfaction, relationship building, are all very much important and in practice in today’s modern-day marketing. Some companies are still sales-focused and focus on aggressive selling.

Evolution of Marketing Channels

Along with the marketing orientation, the marketing channels and mediums used to communicate with the customers, have also evolved over time.

Early-stage marketing channels were handwritten handouts, posters, flyers. This was followed by advertisements in print mediums – daily newspapers and magazines.

Then radio became a popular medium, and radio advertisements in the form of jingles were extensively used.

This was followed by TV being extensively used for running advertisements. With the advent of satellite television, TV ads gave a mass reach to marketers in reaching out to their target customers.

Telephone was another popular channel that lead to telemarketing becoming a popular channel for marketers.

And today we have digital channels, and this has completely changed the game. The heavy usage of modern-day personal computers and mobile phones has led to customers spending maximum time on these devices.

Online channels such as websites, email, search engine marketing, social media, mobile marketing, and others are the most extensively used channels in modern-day marketing. 

Advanced marketing automation tools that deliver customized marketing solutions with minimal manual intervention are becoming increasingly popular in modern-day marketing.

Marketing Research

Marketing research involves gathering and analyzing data to develop actionable insights that influence all marketing decisions and actions such as identifying target market & market segments, product development, product advertising, product placement, sales forecast, and more.

Marketing research helps in identifying the problems, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to the marketing of products and services.

Marketing research is a process of establishing a deep understanding of customers – their problems, fears, needs, dreams, desires, aspirations, choices, and preferences.

Modern-day marketing is all about a customer-centric approach and total customer satisfaction and that’s where a deeper understanding of customers & their behavior is of paramount importance.  

For a new product launch, this deep understanding of customers and their needs results in creating a strong product-market fit, and then the product sells naturally.

Marketing research also helps in the understanding of the market, its size, and competition.

Marketing Research vs Market Research

Marketing research is broader that includes market research as a part of it. Marketing research pertains to all functions of marketing and covers all the elements of the marketing mix, as explained above.

Market research, as the name suggests is about the study of the market.

 It is used mainly for developing & launching new products/ services and identifying the target market.

Data is collected directly from the target customers, it is then analyzed & interpreted to evaluate the feasibility of a new product or service.

At times, the two terms are used interchangeably, and this may create confusion.

Data Sources for Marketing Research

There are two types of data sources for conducting marketing research: primary data source and secondary data source.

Primary data is fresh data collected by the researcher for a specific research project. Primary data is collected directly from the target audience through various data collection methods.

Secondary data is the data that has already been collected by someone else and is readily available. For example research reports published by industry bodies, government census data, etc.

Businesses use either primary, or secondary or combination of both data sources depending on the research objectives.

Data type for Marketing Research

Data collected can be qualitative data or quantitative data.

Qualitative data is collected when the research intends to gain an insight into of how the respondents think or behave.

The questions asked are open ended and exploratory, such as “what do you like about this product?”

Qualitative data will answer the “why” of customer actions.

Quantitative data is collected to determine ‘how many’ or quantity of respondents who think or act in a particular way.

The questions asked are closed ended, such as “how often do you buy our product?”

Quantitative data gives statistics and hard facts.

Marketing Research Methods

There are various methods used by researchers to collect primary data:

Surveys

Here the researcher will have a list of questions or a questionnaire and gets the responses to these questions. Surveys are conducted via in-person interviews, online, or telephonic interviews.

In-person interviews give the flexibility to ask more probing questions and also record other observations such as the respondent’s body language. 

Online surveys are extremely popular these days since it is fast, can scale up, and is economical. These are done through online questionnaires or even using online survey tools like SurveyMonkey.

Telephonic interviews is a way of doing a survey on phone. These are again quick when compared with in-person interviews, however the telecom regulations pose a limitation here.

Focus Groups

As the name suggests, a focus group is a group of people brought together who have a discussion on the research topic. The focused group discussion is conducted by a moderator.

The group of people is carefully chosen and represent the target audience of the business.

The group discusses a predefined topic which could be around the product, user preferences or even marketing messages.

Focus groups result in deeper insights, however they are expensive and need an experienced moderator.

Observational Research

This involves observing how consumers engage and interact with a product in a natural environment, and in an unobtrusive manner.

Observational research can be done by watching the customers directly or through video recordings.

For example, in a retail store, observation is done around how customers move around, how much time they spend where and how they engage with the products.

The advantage of observational research is that it gives completely unbiased data. However it does not allow you to get deeper into the customer’s head.

Behavioral Research

Behavioral research involves studying and analyzing the purchasing behavior of customers in online or offline stores.

This gives great insights into what influences purchases and how to boost the same.

For example, online stores use Google Analytics to track and analyze the behavior of users on their websites.

Similarly, in offline retail stores, customer behavior is tracked with respect to their response to pricing discounts, special offers, point of purchase displays, and more.

Importance of Marketing Research

Marketing Research helps in making well-informed marketing decisions,  that are backed by data and analysis.

It eliminates the risk of making decisions based on just a gut feeling.

Marketing research techniques can be used for all marketing decisions, such as defining a target market, defining target customer segments, new product decisions, designing the marketing messages, and more.

It provides accurate data and information that empowers the management to make important decisions like entering new markets, new product launches, others.

Market Segmentation

A target segment has complete homogeneity amongst its group members, while it is distinctive from other segments or groups. Customers belonging to a segment respond in a similar manner to the marketing activities of a business.

Segmentation is a technique used by marketers for effective and efficient targeting of their customers. It helps businesses to market their products effectively and in a profitable manner to each target segment.

Marketers develop distinct messaging and communication for each target segment, in order to maximize response from the customers belonging to that segment.

Businesses also develop customized products to cater to the needs and tastes of a well-defined segment.

Market segmentation is broadly of 4 types:

Demographic segmentation

Here target customers are segmented based on demographic variables such as age, gender, education, occupation, income, and more.

This is one of the most common forms of segmentation and is an easy one to identify or define. Yet it remains to be an effective type of segmentation, tried and tested by marketers over time.

For example, an e-commerce marketplace will have a Kids Fashion section, further segmented into Boys Fashion & Girls Fashion.

Geographic segmentation

Here target customers are segmented based on the geography or their physical location. The variables used are locality/ area, city, state, country & region.

This again is one of the more common and easy forms of segmentation that is used by most businesses.

For example, a local restaurant would focus its marketing activities targeting customers within a small radius of say 2-3 kilometers of its location.

Psychographic segmentation

This segmentation technique is based on the personality, values & beliefs, lifestyle, interests, and hobbies of target customers.

It is a slightly challenging one as it requires deeper market research to understand the psychographic variables of individuals and then group them together.

However, if done well, this can be a very effective segmentation technique.

For example, a travel company selling exotic holiday packages would target a customer segment with a certain lifestyle and interests in luxury travel.

Behavioral segmentation

Behavioral segmentation technique is based on the behavioral aspects of customers such as purchase patterns, response to discounts & offers, repeat purchase behavior, frequency of purchase, product usage patterns, etc.

This segmentation is widely used for customer lifecycle marketing, generating repeat purchases, and customer loyalty.

For example, e-commerce companies identify different cohorts of customers based on behaviors such as casual browser, registered user but not yet purchased, items left n cart, 1^st purchase done, loyal customer, etc. They target each of these cohorts with unique marketing messages and offers.

Advantages of Market Segmentation

By segmenting target customers into distinct and homogeneous segments, marketers can customize their marketing activities to each segment.

The customization happens in terms of communication & messaging, special targeted offers, highlighting relevant product features & benefits, and at times tailoring the products to each segment.

This results in maximizing the target segment’s response towards the marketing activities, thereby making them highly effective.

It also results in minimizing wastage of marketing efforts & resources, thereby increasing the efficiency of the marketing activities.

Tailor-made messaging and customized marketing activities result in a better customer experience. This in effect leads to higher customer retention and results in customer loyalty.

Ultimately, marketing segmentation leads to a higher ROI on the marketing initiatives.

Marketing Mix

Now, let’s understand what is marketing mix.

As the name suggests, marketing mix is a mixture or combination of marketing variables that are managed by an organization to achieve the desired response in the target market.

The marketing mix historically comprises of 4 Ps – product, price, placement, and promotion, typically relevant for product selling businesses. These are also called the 4Ps of marketing.

Eventually, as services selling business began to grow, three additional Ps – people, process, physical evidence were added to make the contemporary marketing mix of 7 Ps.

The 7Ps of marketing is one of the top marketing models or tools that is used by organizations while designing their marketing plan. It becomes a guiding tool for the marketing plans and its implementation to achieve the marketing goals.

Let’s look at each of these 7Ps of the marketing mix:

Product

Product is either a physical good such as a car, mobile phone, soap, etc., or a service such as insurance, broadband, etc. that an organization produces and sells to satisfy the customer needs.

Product is developed based on understanding customer needs and preferences through marketing research.

When customer needs are deeply understood and a product is then developed to solve those needs, it creates a great product-market fit, and then selling the product becomes natural and easy.

Products are developed to satisfy an existing demand or at times to create new demand.

Businesses try to differentiate their product from their competitors offering similar products in the market. This differentiation could be in the form of quality, features, packaging, and other aspects.

For example, there are several mobile phones available today, with each brand trying to differentiate its phone through various features such as display quality, screen size, battery life, processor speed, shape, etc. Every product will have a lifecycle. Developing and managing a product through its lifecycle is one of the key components of a marketing mix.

Price

Price is the cost of purchasing a product that a customer has to pay. When a customer buys a product, there is an exchange of value between the seller and the buyer – the customer pays money in return for the value the product offers to satisfy their needs.

Pricing strategy and deciding the appropriate price for a product is one of the key components of a marketing mix.

Several factors such as competitor pricing, launching a new product in an existing market, the target segment affluence level, etc. play a role in deciding the product price.

Pricing also depends on the demand-supply gap in the market. If there is a gap in the supply vs the existing demand for the product, then the product can be priced high and vice-versa.

There are two types of pricing strategies: cost-based pricing and value-based pricing. Cost-based pricing means marketers determine the price based on the cost incurred to manufacture the product, whereas in value-based pricing, the value generated by the product for the customer is considered to determine the price.    

Pricing can also be used as a strategy to differentiate a product from competing products. For example, a new product can be priced lower than existing competing products in the market and this helps to attract customers to the new product.

Discounting in pricing is also a common tactic used by marketers, where attractive discounts are given on the product price to attract customers and boost sales.

Place

Place refers to the availability of the product for the customer to purchase. The product placement strategy determines the places where the product is made available so that it becomes easy for the target customers to purchase the product.

Mass products are distributed across wider retail stores to ensure maximum reach and availability, whereas premium or niche products are available across limited stores.

These days most of the products are available in both offline and online stores. In fact, e-commerce has made it very convenient for customers to find and purchase products, and get them delivered to their doorstep.

This has made even traditional product manufacturers realign their placement strategies and ensure a robust availability in online stores.

The direct to consumer (D2C) model is now increasingly popular, where companies sell their products directly to their customers, without any distributors and retailers being involved.

This gives companies greater control over their customers’ overall experience and managing their brand & promotions.

Promotion

The role of promotion is to promote the product, communicate its benefits to the customers and give them a reason to purchase the product. Promotion is used to reach out to target customers, attract their attention and induce purchase of the product.

Promotion is the face of the marketing mix, that a customer gets exposed to the most.

A company may have an excellent product, attractive pricing and good placement. However, in the absence of a strong promotion, the target customers may not even come to know about all this and hence there won’t be any purchases.

Promotion strategy includes tools such as advertising using traditional channels like TV, radio & digital channels like search engine marketing, email, etc.

It also includes sales promotions such as special offers & discounts, special schemes, contests & prizes, branding, marketing communication, public relations, direct marketing, and trade fairs.

Promotion binds all the other elements of marketing mix together and communicates a combined message to the customers.

For example, a typical product advertisement would highlight the product features, its uniqueness, its price (including any special discounts or offers), and even where it is available for purchase.

People

People refer to employees on payroll or outsourced ones who come in direct or indirect contact with customers. These include sales teams, sales agents, customer service staff, delivery staff, recruiting staff, and even the product and marketing teams.

During modern times, customer purchase decisions are influenced by the human side of the brands. They like to actively interact and engage with brands. As such, the people who represent the brand play an important role in the overall marketing mix.

This aspect has gained wider importance with the growth of services businesses, where, in the absence of a tangible product, human interactions play a very important role.

Companies try and recruit the best talent at all levels. They also focus on training and upskilling their employees. How well these employees perform their job, and what kind of experience they deliver to the customers go a long way in attracting and retaining customers. 

Companies also invest in CRM (customer relationship management), to manage relations with their customers and create loyal customers.

Process

Processes refer to the complete flow of how a product is delivered to or reaches the customer.

Robust and tighter processes impact the overall customer experience. Specific and well-defined processes ensure that the staff can implement them smoothly.

Processes that have a direct connection with the customer’s experience are the most important ones.

For example, the customer service process regarding the resolution of any complaint or issue that the customer is facing regarding the product, is very important.

Some other important processes with an overlap with customer experience are the logistics & product delivery process, and the product return and refund process.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidence refers to anything tangible related to the product that the customers get to see, hear or experience.

This could be the product packaging & branding, the physical store, the online store, product signage, or even the product purchase receipt.

It could also be office buildings, company representatives, company website, and company social media handles

Consistent branding across various communications such as hoardings, television ads, digital display ads, emails, websites, brochures, etc. also generate physical evidence.

All these physical evidence assets result in reassuring the customers and establish trust in their minds.

Now that we have understood the marketing mix, let’s look at understanding what is marketing strategy and how marketing mix is used in the marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is a comprehensive & detailed game plan to define and achieve an organization’s marketing objectives.

Marketing strategy defines the company’s marketing objectives, in line with the overall business objectives. It then provides a blueprint to achieve these objectives.

Marketing strategy is an overall game plan of identifying the company’s prospective customers, and designing the company’s marketing mix (explained above), in order to serve these customers’ needs in a profitable manner.

Marketing strategy defines the target market segments and the target customer needs, highlighting those that the organization intends to tap into or fulfill. It then defines the company’s marketing mix, designed to fulfill the customer needs.

Marketing strategy provides direction to the company’s marketing activities. It guides the business to focus its resources on the best possible opportunities, to maximize sales and revenue.

Marketing strategy provides a guiding foundation for formulating a detailed marketing (action) plan.

Components of Marketing Strategy

Let’s look at some critical components of a robust marketing strategy.

Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives or goals are set in complete alignment with the overall business goals of an organization.

For example, if the business goal of an organization is to earn xx revenue in a defined period then the marketing goals supporting this goal could be the number of paid customer acquisitions, average revenue per customer, repeat purchase frequency, and customer retention.

Some other examples of marketing objectives are: increasing market share, increase in sales, increase in profits, becoming a market leader in the category, category expansion, new markets, brand awareness goals, brand loyalty, and more.

Target Market

This involves identifying and clearly defining the target market segments for the company’s product/ service. The target segments are defined by demographics, geographic, psychographic & behavioral variables.

Market research plays an important role in identifying and defining the target market.

Highlight the target customers’ pain points and needs, particularly the ones that are untapped or not satisfactorily fulfilled. Along with this, the customer preferences, choices, dreams, and desires are also captured here.

This information helps the company to target its product & marketing efforts effectively and profitably.

Competitive Analysis

Studying the existing competitors in your chosen target market is extremely important. This may lead to critical information in understanding any gaps in satisfying customer needs by competition.

It also helps to understand if the market is saturated, with too many players, and the competition marketing mix in terms of product features, price, brand messaging, and promotions.

This information is then used to determine how the company can differentiate its offering and try to get a unique positioning for its product/ service in the target market.

Value Proposition

Value proposition, simply put, is the value that the company promises to deliver to its target customers if they end up buying and using the company’s product or service.

Companies try and offer a unique value proposition to their prospective customers, that differentiates them from the competition, and shows how their product or service will be able to satisfy the customer needs in a better way.

Value proposition gives a strong reason for the target customers to buy their product or service.

The value proposition is usually a statement communicated to the target customers through the various marketing & communication channels

Marketing Mix

Here the various elements of marketing mix are defined and detailed out, so that these combine into a strong, unique and winning offering in the market.

A robust marketing mix intends to solve the customer problems and satisfy their needs profitably.

Elements such as product, pricing strategy, placement and the promotion strategy are defined. The other elements of people, processes, and physical evidence are also considered for some businesses.

The marketing mix and its elements have been explained in detail above in this article.

Brand Messaging

These are the key messages that will reinforce your brand awareness and its positioning in the minds of your target customers.

Marketing strategy determines how to communicate your brand messaging to your target customers to influence them to buy your product or service.

Monitoring & Measurement

Monitoring and measuring effectiveness is an important element of a marketing strategy.

Evaluating your marketing strategy periodically helps you see if your strategy is working and helping make progress towards achieving the marketing goals.

For example, does your marketing strategy lead towards an increase in sales, increase in revenue, or increase in brand awareness?

The evaluation also helps make future decisions on any modifications or improvements in your marketing strategy.

Importance of a Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy serves as a blueprint for the company’s marketing activities. It gives direction and brings in synergies across all marketing actions.

Marketing strategy helps focus the company resources (people & money) towards achieving the marketing goals.

A robust marketing strategy gives the company an edge over its competition, in serving the customer needs.

Marketing strategy helps align the marketing objectives with the company’s business goals and eventually leads towards these business goals.

Marketing Plan

It is a plan that details out how to achieve the marketing goals and will detail the series of marketing actions.

Simply put, marketing strategy describes the ‘what’, while marketing plan describes the ‘how’.

Marketing strategy provides the direction to the marketing plan and the various marketing activities detailed in the plan.

Marketing plan supports the marketing strategy and will detail out the marketing actions, when to implement them, how much would they cost, and how will success be measured.

Components of a Marketing Plan

Now let’s see what are the components of an effective marketing plan:

Campaign Goals

Marketing campaign goals are defined in accordance with the marketing objectives in the marketing strategy.

These goals are very specific and pertain to individual marketing campaigns or activities.

For example, increasing brand awareness by x %, acquiring y number of paid customers, generating xx leads, increasing website traffic, others.

Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are decided based on the marketing goals.

These campaigns could be lead generation campaigns, paid customer acquisition campaigns, lead engagement campaigns, launch marketing campaigns, brand awareness campaigns, customer loyalty campaigns, PR campaigns, and more.

Targetting

Target audience is defined based on the target market identified in the marketing strategy. The target audience is defined for each campaign.

Also, Customer Personas are created to represent your ideal customer, including their pain points, needs, behavior, dreams, aspirations, and media habits.

Marketing Channels

Marketing channels are decided for each marketing campaign.

Examples of marketing channels are social media channels, paid advertising channels like Facebooks Ads & Google Ads, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), Word of Mouth marketing, video marketing, affiliate marketing, offline marketing channels such as TV ads, Print ads, Radio ads, in-store displays, etc.

Any marketing campaign may use one or more channels, depending on the target audience preferences and the campaign goal.

Marketing Tactics

Marketing tactics are specific actions or tactics used in marketing campaigns to achieve the campaign goals.

Examples of marketing tactics are lead magnets, customer testimonials, special offers, festival sale offers, flash sales, free delivery, free trials, early-bird discounts, and more.

Marketing Budget

This is where the annual marketing budget is decided.

This annual budget is then allocated to each marketing campaign and for the different channels used in each campaign.

Timeline

Usually, a marketing plan is annual, and that means it’s designed for one year.

Each marketing campaign timeline is planned with clear start and end dates. Some marketing activities can be ongoing in nature.

An annual marketing calendar is created, which gives a single view of all the marketing activities planned and their respective timelines through the year.

Responsibilties

Simply put, this explains who’s responsible for what part of the marketing plan.

This aligns people with the marketing activities/ campaigns. Each activity will have a clear responsibility assigned. There will be responsibilities assigned to each part of the campaigns like creative design, media buying, others.

Also, internal & external dependencies such as dependency on the operations team, sales team, finance team, creative agency, digital agency, PR agency, and others are listed against each marketing activity.

Measurement

It is important to track and measure the progress and success of the marketing campaigns and the overall marketing plan.

This is done by defining the key performance indicators or KPIs.

KPIs are the metrics that measure the performance of the marketing activities & campaigns.

KPIs are aligned with the marketing goals.

For example, brand recall is a KPI for measuring the success of a brand awareness campaign.

Other examples of marketing KPIs are: number of leads generated, number of customers acquired, registered users, cost per lead, lead conversion rate, revenue growth, website traffic growth, marketing ROI, and more.

So this brings us to the conclusion of this blog post. I hope this article has helped you with a deeper understanding of what is marketing and understanding some of the core marketing concepts.

As I said at the beginning of this article, marketing is an extremely vast and deep subject, and it is impossible to cover the different aspects in a single blog post.

So while this post covers the fundamentals, I will keep writing articles that will cover the various aspects of marketing and its applications to businesses.

I would appreciate any feedback, comments, and questions from your end regarding this article or, in general, about marketing.

So please feel free to write to me in the comments section below, and I will respond.

See you in the next article!