Marketing and advertising

MARKETING

Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to attract an audience to his product or services

through to advertising. Marketing aims to deliver value for prospects and consumers through

content, with goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty, and ultimately

increasing sales.

Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it's important you understand how to use

marketing to increase business's efficiency and success.

Marketing starts with the customers: they should be at the center of any business activity. Through

marketing a company can identify and analyses the needs of its customers and then make the more

relevant decisions in order to satisfy these needs and make a profit.

The marketing comprises the following steps:

• Identifying: fundamental to market research. This process consists in discovering the

consumer’s needs through market surveys, such as:

• Questionnaires: an inexpensive and fast method for gathering a large amount of data

in a short period of time. Nowadays most questionnaires are online and are often to

check customer satisfaction with a purchased product or to obtain suggestions,

feedback and opinions.

• Phone interviews

• Focus group: this is the most common form of research when a company needs to

know all about consumers’ opinion and it is widely used for both services and

products.

• Consumer panel: often used to test a product before a launch.

• Product test: the manufacturer selects a group of potential buyers and offers a

product sample for people to use.

• Anticipating: Marketers must try to anticipate what customers will want, whether it's a

particular service or a new feature of a product. A company that uses a model of anticipative

is: Netflix.

Netflix ‘s model is firmly based on an anticipative marketing strategy. The Netflix’s platform

proposes films and series to watch, these suggestions are made according to customer’s

preferences and what they have looked previously, thanks to an algorithm. The aim here is

to build customer’ loyalty by recommending products adapted to their preferences.

• Satisfying: the marketing process has to be pleasing to consumers in order to convince them

that the product will satisfy their needs or wants. In this way, they will be persuaded to

purchase or use that particular product or service. Fulfilling the consumer needs start with

understanding what your product does and how it helps people. Taking the time to fully

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research and understand how you help consumers is the best way to properly target

marketing campaigns.

• Profitability: marketing has to be balanced in order for a business to make a profit and

continue to operate. A marketing budget must be sufficient in order to function correctly

and achieve the desired results, but care must be taken not to overspend and reduce overall

profits for the company.

TYPES OF MARKETING

There are several types of marketing:

DIGITAL MARKETING

It has dramatically changed the face of marketing. It is the ideal tool for any business, be it the

largest multinational or a start-up selling T-shirts from a basement. It provides vast quantities of

data on things like a user's shopping habits, interests and physical movements through the use of

cookies, tracking codes and data collection on apps so that a company can target a specific audience.

Digital marketers can monitor and analyses this data - practically in real time - and can adjust

marketing campaigns accordingly.

Digital marketing techniques include internet-based activities like search engine optimization and

digital display advertising on websites, games consoles with in-game advertising, digital television,

social media marketing and mobile phone marketing. Mobile marketing, given the huge number of

smartphones and other hand-held devices and the amount of time users spend on them, is a great

means of reaching a massive but, at the same time, targeted audience. This can be through mobile

web access, but also SMS, MMS, push notifications, QR codes, mobile apps and location-based

marketing.

However, there are also some obstacles that might limit the success of digital marketing. There is

so much competition from businesses of all kinds and sizes that it is becoming much more difficult

to capture the attention of the user. The increase in the number of digital channels and devices,

which often use different interfaces and protocols and which are used for different purposes by

consumers, has caused problems for the creation of uniform campaigns. Lastly, it can be extremely

problematic for a company to use correctly and effectively the sheer amount of data available from

all these digital sources.

It is essential to find the right media mix in order to be sure that the campaign is as successful as

possible and the advertising budget is well spent. The incredible growth of digital media and its huge

potential means that companies need to find the right mix of traditional and digital media to stay

ahead of the competition and keep in touch with consumers. If a consumer watches an ad, he or

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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing allows a company to follow on social media comments to find out what

people think about a product or a service, and also to develop a fan base of followers. Involves,

indeed, the use of social media channels (such as Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube) to build a brand,

connect with customers, drive website traffic and increase sales. These platforms have proven to

be excellent marketing tools because they have the ability to educate customers on products,

individualize consumer social media experiences and engage with an audience in a way that wasn’t

possible before.

A type of social media marketing is: Influencer marketing.

With influencer marketing, companies pay social media accounts with a large following to include

their product in an Instagram, TikTok or Facebook post.

There are many variations of influencer marketing campaigns, but they all harness the creator’s

loyal following, trustworthiness and authenticity. Companies are focused on the following brand-

influencer partnerships: giveaways, product collaborations and influencer-led advertisements.

Some examples of different types of influencer marketing campaigns:

Giveaways and contests: these types of influencer marketing campaigns are used to help

o increase engagement and promote brands. The influencer will describe how to enter the

contest whether it’s leaving a comment, sharing a post, completing a social media challenge

etc.

Sponsored posts: the influencer promotes a product/service and when their followers

o convert, they earn a share of the profit. Basically, the creator will receive a commission for

every sale they make through discount codes and/or referral links. Affiliate influencer

campaigns are popular in ecommerce since it’s as simple as sharing a link or code for

followers to make a purchase. Sponsored content are social posts that brands pay

influencers to create and publish on the creator’s account. Sponsored posts are disclosed by

a hashtag like #ad or #brandpartner, or a paid promotion label that appears on-screen to let

followers know the creator is being paid for the content.

Product collaborations: can take various different forms, but they leverage a creator’s

o creativity and influence by inviting them to design or produce specialized content, or a

special edition of the brand’s products. These product collaborations might include event

activations, unboxing videos, reviews and pre-release content to help create hype and

excitement around the launch.

PRINT MARKETING

Involves marketers reaching out to target audiences through offline formats. Brochures, informative

flyers and mail advertisements are a few examples of print marketing that marketers hand out or

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There are various benefits of print marketing materials:

Raise brand recognition: You can use print marketing materials to present your brand colors,

o logos and design in different formats to either distribute or display. This helps people

recognize and remember your company and products whenever they see those colors or

designs.

Gain attention: Giving a customer or client a physical item that displays business information

o provides them with a resource that’s easily available. Whether it’s a business card, a pen or

coffee cup, it puts name recognition within easy reach. It saves the customer the time and

effort to search online, especially if they’ve forgotten your company’s name, location or

services.

Provide visual information: Some customers prefer to “see” what company offer. Once you

o get their attention with clear headlines and visuals, they may be more likely to read

descriptions and sales pitches elsewhere in brochures or fliers.

Increase sales: As well as advertising business, print materials usually include phone

o numbers, physical and digital addresses and other information. This can lead to increased

sales, business opportunities and customer loyalty.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEO)

Companies can pay a search engine to place links on the web to increase the visibility and

traceability of a website.

BILLBOARD MARKETING

Another way to expose more consumers to a brand and features content on larger physical surfaces.

Consumers can find these kinds of advertisements in crowded areas like Times Square, along

popular highways or on the walls of buildings. Some companies may pay for mobile billboards,

placing ads on the sides of trucks or public transportation vehicles. Marketing teams need to get

creative with billboards, such as applying bold colors or humorous content, since drivers and

passersby may only have a few moments to take in a message.

FOUR MAIN FACTORS OF MARKETING - 4 PS

There are four main factors, commonly known as the 4 Ps, that determine how a product will be

marketed.

1. Product: the perfect product must provide value for the customer and give customers what

they want, not what producers think they want. It also needs to be different from

competitors' products, for example in the quality, size, design, packaging.

2. Price: since price is the only element in the marketing that generates a revenue, pricing must

have the object to provide a profit. One pricing strategy is 'cost plus pricing' which is when

the cost of production, distribution and other overheads are calculated and then a profit

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markup is added. There are other price strategies to take into consideration, like: the price

that potential customers are prepared to pay for the product or the selling price of

competitor companies.

3. Place: a product must reach the right place, at the right time