Marketing Strategies Essential Learn How Your Business Can Meet Customer Needs in an Increasingly Competitive Market

Chapter 1

Introduction

Marketing focuses on identifying and addressing social and human needs. Meeting needs profitably is one of the shortest definitions of marketing. All commercial endeavors aim to fulfill the needs and desires of society. Therefore, marketing is a fundamental task for all corporate entities. Every time a salesperson pitches washing machines, a doctor attends to a patient, or the government urges parents to take their kids for polio shots, they are marketing to their target audiences. Small business owners have historically prioritized other tasks like accounting, production, and selling over marketing.

The promotion of marketing awareness among small business owners is highly prioritized through training programs, enterprise development, and the current push for competitiveness. Marketing is now taking its proper place alongside other business functions. Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a shift in business people's thinking from a product orientation to a consumer orientation. Selling satisfaction, rather than just selling products, is emphasized by modern business concerns. The activities must be coordinated to create a marketing mix that gives customers the most satisfaction. Because of this, marketing research and product planning are crucial to marketing. Other essential marketing tasks are purchasing, assembly, selling, standardization, packing, storing, transportation, promotion, pricing, and risk-taking. As a result, marketing is broad and no longer limited to just the sale of