Marketing Process

Marketing mainly focuses on bridging the communication gap. This field of learning is enormously studded with broad and interesting marketing concepts that teach you how to sell a product effectively. Thus, it definitely isn't the process of selling or producing products. 

Marketing is not just a mere activity that is a one-time thing; rather, it's a continuous process. Analysing the needs and wants of customers and then accordingly serving them that product/service is the crux of the Meaning of marketing process. 

If you're a marketing student looking for a good source to learn the marketing process, then this article will come to your rescue.

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An Introduction of Marketing Process 

Marketing emphasises building a healthy, profitable exchange relationship with the customers. The product sold or service rendered should be able to create or add value to the customers in exchange for their money. In other words, Marketing is a process, which aims at creating value, satisfying the needs and wants of the customers. The marketing process thereby focuses on analysing and researching the market to tap the opportunities and then capitalising on them to mint revenues.

To describe it briefly, the marketing process works on the well-designed steps that attempt to gain information about the market and then capture the value by using requisite marketing plans and strategies.

What are the 5 steps of the Marketing Process?

As mentioned above, the marketing process consists of various steps. These steps of the marketing process are the ladder to ultimately maximising the profits of the company by ensuring customer satisfaction. The following are the 5 steps of marketing process:

1. Identifying and understanding the needs and wants of customers 

2. Formulating a customer-based marketing strategy 

3. Developing an integrated marketing approach 

4. Building up a profitable exchange relationship and creating customer delight 

5.  Capturing value from customers to create customer equity and profits

Let’s understand these five steps of The Marketing Process in brief:

• Identifying and understanding the needs and wants of customers

The first and foremost step among the 5 steps of the marketing process is to identify and understand the needs, wants, and demands of a customer. It is essential that the company thoroughly understand its marketplace, its target market's needs, and wants. This is necessary to construct a product/service that can satisfy the customers and then create a value-based customer relationship. 

Needs and wants are two different terms. While needs are basic for survival and cannot be created deliberately, wants are shaped by the society’s culture and can satiate the needs as well. For example: when you're hungry, then food is a need, but if you specifically ask for a McDonald's burger, then it is a want.

• Formulating a customer-based marketing strategy 

This step is one of the important aspects of the concepts of marketing process. After identifying and analyzing the needs and wants of customers, the company should develop a customer-driven marketing strategy. To formulate this strategy, the company needs to put focus on segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Segmentation divides the market into various sections, which allow the company to decide whom they want to serve first. After segmenting the market, the company should decide what factors can differentiate it from the competitors and how to position its product/ service in the market. This is one of the most fundamental concepts of marketing process.

• Developing an integrated marketing approach 

In the 5 steps of the marketing process, this step is perhaps the most crucial one. After formulating the marketing strategy and deciding to whom the company will serve and how the marketers should design an integrated market approach that will create value for the customers.

This integrated marketing approach requires a perfect blend of 4P's marketing tools to execute the strategy. A comprehensive, well-structured, and balanced blend of all these tools helps to deliver and capture a healthy, profitable customer relationship.

• Building up a profitable exchange relationship and creating customer delight 

The essence of the Meaning of marketing process is to establish and maintain a profitable, healthy relationship with the customers by serving them superior value for their money and satisfaction. Managing customer relationships is essential to creating customer delight. Customer relationships help to maintain and expand the customer share of the company in the market in comparison to its competitors. 

• Capturing value from customers to create customer equity and profits

Marketing is a process which aims at creating customer satisfaction and producing higher customer equity. Customer equity means the combined sum of the lifetime value of all the customers of the company, including current and potential customers. The higher the loyalty to the company's profitable customers, the higher is the customer equity. Customer equity is an effective measure of a company's performance. 

The customer value and profitable relationship with the customer aren't created by themselves. Marketers need to coordinate with other company’s departments and stakeholders.

Marketing is a process, which aims at creating customer value, satisfying their needs and wants. To achieve the same, it is essential that the company formulates the strategy with a balanced blend of 4P’s and in coordination with the human needs and wants. This is how the introduction of marketing process changed the commercial landscape.

Quick MCQ

Here's a quick MCQ for you. Let's see what you've understood:

Marketing is a process which aims at....

a. selling products/services

b. production process

c. profit maximisation

d. satisfying consumer needs 

Answer:

(d) satisfying consumer needs

Fun Facts 

• Around 65% of the businesses around the world have expanded their digital marketing during the COVID pandemic.

• Studies reveal that almost 73% of the customers don’t like pop-ups or additional ads on the websites. They find these ads distracting and annoying.

Conclusion

Marketing includes those business activities that are intended to serve consumer needs and desires through the transaction process. The marketing concept comprises identifying consumer needs and wants and then producing products (goods, services, or ideas) that will serve them while making a profit.