Marketing is the act of satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.
Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior.
Positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors. It is different from the concept of brand awareness. In order to position products or brands, companies may emphasize the distinguishing features of their brand or they may try to create a suitable image through the marketing mix. Once a brand has achieved a strong position, it can become difficult to reposition it. To effectively position a brand and create a lasting brand memory, brands need to be able to connect to consumers in an authentic way, creating a brand persona usually helps build this sort of connection.
A marketing plan is a plan created to accomplish specific marketing objectives, outlining a company's advertising and marketing efforts for a given period, describing the current marketing position of a business, and discussing the target market and marketing mix to be used to achieve marketing goals.
In marketing, market segmentation or customer segmentation is the process of dividing a consumer or business market into meaningful sub-groups of current or potential customers known as segments. Its purpose is to identify profitable and growing segments that a company can target with distinct marketing strategies.
Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Market research helps to identify and analyze the needs of the market, the market size and the competition. Its techniques encompass both qualitative techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, as well as quantitative techniques such as customer surveys, and analysis of secondary data.
Marketing strategy refers to efforts undertaken by an organization to increase its sales and achieve competitive advantage. In other words, it is the method of advertising a company's products to the public through an established plan through the meticulous planning and organization of ideas, data, and information.
Psychographics is defined as "market research or statistics classifying population groups according to psychological variables" The term psychographics is derived from the words "psychological" and "demographics" Two common approaches to psychographics include analysis of consumers' activities, interests, and opinions, and values and lifestyles (VALS).
In business, a demand chain is the understanding and management of customer demand, in contrast to a supply chain. Madhani suggests that the demand chain "comprises all the demand processes necessary to understand, create, and stimulate customer demand". Cranfield School of Management academic Martin Christopher has suggested that "ideally the supply chain should become a demand chain", explaining that ideally all product logistics and processing should occur "in response to a known customer requirement".
The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.
Cranfield School of Management, established in 1967, is a business school that is part of Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. Cranfield School of Management is triple accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), EQUIS and AACSB.
Paul Baines is a British marketing academic, specialising in the topic of marketing for political parties and candidates. He is the professor in Political Marketing at Cranfield University. He was the former Director of Business Development at the Middlesex University Business School and the former the Director for the Baines Associates Limited, since 2008. In 2019 he joined the University of Leicester as Professor of Political Marketing and Associate Dean.
Customer analytics is a process by which data from customer behavior is used to help make key business decisions via market segmentation and predictive analytics. This information is used by businesses for direct marketing, site selection, and customer relationship management. Marketing provides services to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle at the consumer. Customer analytics plays an important role in the prediction of customer behavior.
The study of the history of marketing, as a discipline, is meaningful because it helps to define the baselines upon which change can be recognised and understand how the discipline evolves in response to those changes. The practice of marketing has been known for millennia, but the term "marketing" used to describe commercial activities assisting the buying and selling of products or services came into popular use in the late nineteenth century. The study of the history of marketing as an academic field emerged in the early twentieth century.
An account manager (AM) is a person who works for a company and is responsible for the management of sales and relationships with particular customers. An account manager maintains the company's existing relationships with a client or group of clients, so that they will continue using the company for business. Account managers do not manage the daily running of the account. They manage the relationship with the client of the account(s) they are assigned to. Generally, a client will remain with one account manager throughout the account's duration. Account managers serve as the interface between the customer service and the sales no in a company. They are assigned a company's existing client accounts. The purpose of being assigned particular clients is to create long term client relationships. The account manager serves to understand the customer's demands, plan how to meet these demands, and generate sales for the company as a result.
A target market, also known as serviceable obtainable market (SOM), is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total market for a product or service.
Brian David Smith is a strategic management consultant, academic and author. His particular interests include the evolution of business models and competitive strategies in the life science sector, particularly pharmaceuticals and medical technology. His academic research on these topics informs both his consultancy and writing.
Beth Rogers was Head of the Marketing and Sales academic community at the University of Portsmouth Business School (2012–2017). She pioneered professional selling and sales management curricula for postgraduates, undergraduates and work-based learners at University of Portsmouth Business School. Portsmouth was the first UK business school listed as a "Top Sales School" by the University Sales Education Foundation. Dr Rogers chaired the steering group which launched National Occupational Standards for sales in the UK (2005–2009), and was also a member of the Learning Advisory Group of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (2010–2016). She continues to contribute to HE and the sales profession as a visiting fellow at Cranfield School of Management and as an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals. Her recent book with sales development practitioner Dr Jeremy Noad, "Selling Professionally", is the IPS textbook for the UK L4 Sales Executive apprenticeship.
Demographic targeting is a form of behavioral advertising in which advertisers target online advertisements at consumers based on demographic information.
Jerry (Yoram) Wind is The Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and is the founding director of the Wharton "think tank”, The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.
