Marketing Principles: Understanding Customer Decisions and Approaches

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of marketing principles, emphasizing the importance of an effective marketing plan for business sustainability and profitability. It discusses various marketing approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, experimental, and ethnographic methods, and how these methods help understand customer behavior. The essay also explores different types of buying behaviors, such as complex, dissonance-reducing, variety-seeking, and habitual, and how these behaviors influence marketing strategies. Furthermore, it highlights essential elements of a marketing plan, including research, planning, tactics, and strategy, and their roles in market segmentation, targeting, positioning, and pricing. The document concludes by underscoring the significance of understanding market demographics, competitors, suppliers, government regulations, economic conditions, and technology in shaping effective marketing processes. Desklib provides access to this essay and a wealth of other study resources for students.

MARKETING
PRINCIPLES

INTRODUCTION
Marketing has been defined in several ways. No organization can sustain their business without an
effective marketing plan. A company which develops an excellent product with unique features,
excellent qualities, and effective packaging but does not acquire that much popularity to its customers
or clients is always at a loss. Because no one gets aware of that product, which effects the business as
well as reduces the sale. That’s where marketing is needed. Through an effective marketing process,
the customers become more aware, and it also helps them to buy the product or service presented by
the organization. Thus the sale increases and makes profits. There is strong competition in the market,
that’s why a product or service offered to the customers from several organizations. But one product or
service different from another. Due to this competition, it is important to make a product or service
popular to the customers(Bradford, Erickson and McDonald, 2012). Smart marketing process helps a
company to increase the number of the customers and make new customers as well. Not only that but
through this, it is very much possible to retain customers, seize the maximum share of the market. It
helps to enhance the trust of the brand name. Due to these benefits maximum organizations has
created an individual designation for marketing in today’s market. Retention of customers and share of
the markets are the biggest challenge that an organization faces. Some factors affect the marketing
process. One of those factors is the demographic of the market significantly impact the marketing
approach of a company. It can monitor the buying habits of the customers.

Competitors are another factor that influences the buying process. According to
the recent studies, articulate an effective marketing plan is must require the
thing. The suppliers and distributors are an integrated part of the operating
area that impacts the marketing strategy of a company(Cohen, 2006). A less
number of suppliers reduces the popularity of a product or a service.
Government principles and norms also have a large effect on marketing.
Though it varies place to place. The Economic condition of a region or state is
also imperative. As an example, if the inflation of a country is high, then the
customers can only go for the necessities. That’s why an effective marketing
with attractive price rates need to be planned. Last but not the least,
technology and the choice of the media also affects the marketing process of an
organization. If an organization chooses the favorite medium to place their
product or service, then it will reach a large number of people. A brilliant
marketing plan is essential, but the intellectual execution of those plans is also
very significant(Cohen, 2006).

A BRIEF DISCUSSION AND APPLICATIONS
OF DIFFERENT MARKETING APPROACHES

USE OF MARKETING CONCEPTS:
According to some experts, there are four basic methods such as qualitative,
quantitative, experimental techniques, and ethnographic. The first two
approaches depend upon enquiring whereas the other two methods are carried
out through observation. A qualitative approach is that what discovers a less
number of the population through interviews, questionnaire(Johnson, 2007). The
qualitative approach is used to depict the outcomes or analyses a precise
concept. Experimental methods are used by scholars through a creation of an
article environment and then changing one or more factors to get required
outcomes. The scholars or researchers perceives a group at one time to figure out
a particular social behavior in ethnographic approach.

HOW CUSTOMERS MAKES DECISIONS
(LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY)
Marketing activity of a company depends upon the buying nature of the customers(Simkin, 2000). A client can
highly or lowly involve with a product or service, and it based on an obvious and imperceptible value of the
products. There are several kinds of buying natures, and they are as follows:
• If the customers are highly involved, and they spend a significant amount of time selecting a product or
services, then it is known as complex buying behavior. These products are costly, and customers ask several
questions before buying a product or service. Buying a precious jewelry or getting admitted in a university
are the examples where customers have this buying behavior.
• If customers are highly involved, but the product options are less, then it can be called dissonance buying
nature. For instance, customers of floor tiles have this buying quality(Simkin, 2000).
• When customers involved lowly with the product, but there are several options available for the same item,
then it is known as variety seeking behavior. As an example, there are various kinds of fragrances, for which
manufacturers give several offers to the consumers that help them to increase the sale of the products.
• If customers or consumers have low involvement with the product or service, but there are a lot of same
quality products available in the market and that product are listed under the necessities of the customers,
then that will be known as habitual buying behavior.

The marketing process is not only to create, deliver and
communicate but also to value the customers. Many more
procedures are undertaken in marketing such as branding,
advertising, pricing and product placement, etc(Westwood,
2016). However, there are also some vital elements that affect
the marketing plan of an organization. They are research,
planning and tactics, strategy. Research has to be done before
launching a product in the market. Research is necessary to
calculate customer's need and scopes available in the region.
Research is also critical to figure out the way the organization
communicates with its clients and customers. Marketing is an
integrated part of business. A proper market segmentation,
targeting, positioning and pricing for a product can do business

REFERENCES
• Bradford, E., Erickson, S. and McDonald, M. (2012). Marketing Navigation. 1st ed.
Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Ltd.
• Cohen, W. (2006). The marketing plan. 1st ed. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons.
• Johnson, j. (2007). Marketing Intelligence & Planning. Marketing Intelligence &
Planning, 11(5), pp.1-47.
• Simkin, L. (2000). Marketing is marketing – maybe!. Marketing Intelligence &
Planning, 18(3), pp.154-158.
• Westwood, J. (2016). How to write a marketing plan. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.
• Winer, R. (2009). New Communications Approaches in Marketing: Issues and
Research Directions. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(2), pp.108-117.