Planned marketing strategy
In the contemporary business world, marketing is a powerful tool in the growth and development or survival of any business entity. This is more so applicable in this era of artificial intelligence where technology has moved a stride in perfecting the quality, p effectiveness and efficiency of marketing. The desire for a business to maintain high levels of profitability will therefore call for execution of a well planned marketing strategy. Increase of internationalization and globalization in today’s commercial society even complicates the matter more.
It hence becomes ever more imperative for every business entity to carry on with the development without being left behind in competition. Whether a company wishes to venture to a new geographical market from its domestic one it will still important for it to design how it carries out this venture in order to succeed in its mission entirely. Marketing is a broad subject covering various aspects which include features like public relations, advertising, sales and promotion and brand loyalty building.
It should not be confused with sales. Sales will entail the transactions which involve delivery of the products into the hands of consumers while marketing encompasses getting the product to the market, carrying out a promotion about the product, influencing consumer behaviour and enhancing sales. (Author: Anna Puljeva; Peter Widen; [2007], Importance of internal marketing. ) Marketing strategies have been on constant evolution since the introduction of the guerrilla marketing concept by Levinson Conrad about two decades ago.
A company is doomed to fail if it does not have marketing mindset or if it is basically product-centred rather than customer-based. Marketers have to be very creative to let the product attract the much needed attention of the prospects, otherwise it would be impossible to get the product noticed. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MARKETING Modern marketing as we can see has taken a leap embracing the technological advancements and changes or shifts in consumer tastes and preferences.
This has greatly influenced the way we perceive the world of commerce and definition we attach to our identity. The marketing and advertising practices we have today are a development of the earlier years. Brand development, improvement in advertising techniques and the present retailing methods are all products of past economic and business development. In mid 19th century, the characteristic marketing system involved wholesalers assembling various manufacturers’ or producers’ products and then selling them to retailers and jobbers.
The owner of the independent store was its main operator and the principal retail marketing agency. This setup met firm competition in the 20th century especially from the established chain stores. These departmental stores were well organised such that they were able to handle mass distribution of goods thereby enjoying an advantage of economies of scale. In the 1980s and 90s robust marketing techniques were developed which replaced earlier models thereby replacing the earlier ones.
The guerrilla marketing technique for example (developed by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984) relies basically on imagination, time and energy based on low budget rather than immense marketing budgets. Therefore profit was the primary measure or statistical indicator of efficiency and effectiveness, rather than sales. In this type of system, the seller would concentrate wholly on the number of new connections made each period. The guerrilla type of seller does not concentrate on the competitor either but he creates a standard of excellence trying to cooperate with other businesses.
