16. Marketing and promotion

Lead-in:

1. storage – зберігання, склад

2. customer purchasing power – купівельна спроможність покупця

3. marketing research – маркетингове дослідження

4. promotion – просування товару

5. to persuade – переконувати

6. marketing mix – структура маркетингу

Marketing is an activity that includes different kinds of business dealings with the movement of goods and services from producer to consumer. It is a very complex process. It includes such activities as product planning, storage, buying, pricing, promotion, selling, traffic, distribution of ideas and research. The aim of marketing is to find out what the other person wants, then manufacture it for him. So marketing is the management function which organizes and directs all business activities involved in assessing and converting customer purchasing power into effective demand for a specific product or service so as to achieve the profit, target or other objectives set by a company. Those who produce must know what goods and services, where, for what prices, why, for what purpose their customers would like to buy. Marketing research in this respect helps producers very much. A marketer must determine what customer needs are. It’s done by way of market segmentation. Every market can be divided into segments or, in other words, into separate groups of consumers. First, there are demographic factors like age, income, educational background, occupation, size of family, type of home and neighbourhood, etc.

Then there are psychographic factors – the customer’s opinions and interests, hobbies, vacation spots, favourite spots, etc.

The ABC of marketing is the so-called Marketing Mix. It consists of 4 elements: product, price, place and promotion.

Place means the location of certain goods and services and their distribution.

Promotion includes all kinds of communications in marketing, say, advertising, sales, direct mail, free additions and fairs. The primary objectives of promotion are to inform consumers (potential customers) of the existence of certain goods, and services, to demonstrate their advantages and to persuade the consumer to buy them.

The third element of Marketing Mix is Product. It is often connected with research and development of a new product or service, testing it, searching the potential markets and introduction to the market.

Product is the most controllable of the 4 elements of Marketing Mix.

The most changeable element of all the 4 is Price. As prices rise, we can buy fewer things or only things of lesser quality; on the contrary, as prices fall, customers can buy more things or things of better quality.

Questions for comprehension check-up and discussion:

1. What is marketing?

2. What is the aim of marketing?

3. What segments can every market be divided into?

4. What is the ABC of marketing?

5. What does Marketing Mix consist of?

6. What is promotion?

7. What is the most changeable element of Marketing Mix?