Marketing Concepts

1. Product

Any material good, service, or idea that has value for the consumer and is capable of satisfying a need.

Good

A physical, tangible object that can be destroyed by consumption or is durable.

Service

The application of human or mechanical effort to people, animals, or objects. Services are intangible, perishable, and cannot be stored.

Ideas

Concept, opinion, question… => intangible.

2. Need a feeling of lacking something essential for the performance of human activity.

3. Desire

How the will to satisfy a need is expressed according to the individual characteristics of each person

4. Demand

The express formulation of a desire conditioned by available resources and received stimuli.
There are infinite needs that can be satisfied by a product, and infinite products that can satisfy a single need.
Marketing identifies needs, orients desire, and stimulates demand.

5. Utility

A measure of the satisfaction obtained from receiving something of value in an exchange. A clearly subjective concept, it is part of the evaluation through comparison. Typology:

Form utility

Better form of use, a table is worth more than the wood and screws separately, it is created through manufacturing.

Utility of place

Depending on the situation of the product, it will be more or less useful to us; utility is obtained through transportation and distribution.

Time utility

A product acquires greater value if it is available when the consumer wants it. This utility occurs with storage.

Possession utility

No product has any utility if it cannot be used, owned, consumed, or otherwise desired. This utility is created by the sale and delivery of the product.

Information utility

The value of a product increases if its existence and characteristics are known. This utility is realized through communication.

Of these 5 utilities, 4 are created by marketing, and even in the first, provided by production, we must specify that marketing also collaborates in the conception of the product => it indicates how the product is to be made and therefore its production.

6. Exchange

Communication is established between two or more parties to obtain something of value from the other.
Conditions that must be met for an exchange to exist:

There must be two parts
Each party must have something that can be of value to the other
Each party must be able to communicate and deliver what they have
Each party must be free to accept or reject the other party’s offer
Each party must believe that it is appropriate to deal with the other party to achieve the exchange.

7. Transaction

Materialization of the exchange, I give money, I receive a car

8. Transfer

Materialization of the exchange without money, you give the idea, I give the vote.

9. SWOT

Strategic tool to generate a situation analysis.

In any business planning process, it is necessary to carry out a prior analysis of the situation.

The SWOT method summarizes the main results of this analysis clearly and concisely so that the information obtained can be easily understood. With this tool, we can identify the most important points on which to base our strategy.

The situation analysis is based on two distinct parts: the internal part and the external part.

External analysis focuses on investigating the environment, the market, and the competition —that is, those factors the company cannot control. Internal analysis studies the company itself: its size, structure, solvency, human resources, corporate culture, logistics, etc. That is, it investigates factors related to production, financing, marketing, and organization.

The results of the analysis will be reflected in the SWOT matrix. This word is made up of four acronyms:

Weaknesses
To threats
Strengths
Opportunities

The strength or weakness of our company, about the competition, will be explained through internal analysis.

Our company’s strengths allow us to maintain a competitive advantage, while our weaknesses will hinder us from achieving our planned objectives or force us to limit them. These weaknesses will tell the company what it needs to improve.

On the other hand, external analysis will allow us to identify potential threats or opportunities.

We must keep in mind that this analysis is similar for all companies since changes in the environment have occurred for all market participants at the same time. The difference is that while a particular change may harm one company, another may benefit from it in some way. For example, an increase in interest rates will harm a company with a high level of debt, which a competitor that uses more equity can take advantage of for potential expansion.

Finally, the results obtained will be captured in the four sections of the SWOT matrix. This will allow us to:

Get a summary of the knowledge we have acquired.
Highlight the most significant ones
Allow other people in the organization to understand the results by providing them with such information in an orderly manner.

For example, a SWOT analysis might indicate in its “opportunities” section, derived from an analysis of social and cultural aspects, that women are increasingly concerned about a healthy and balanced diet and that internet use is now widespread. Therefore, a company could adapt to this situation or trend and create an advertisement showing the health and figure benefits of consuming one of its food products and, in turn, directing viewers to a website where they can benefit from promotions, activities, diets, exercise plans, etc. The company will leverage these visits to continue its impact on consumers.

10. Market Research

As ZIKMUND indicates, market research refers to the “objective and systematic process in which information is generated to assist in marketing decision-making.”

Market research allows companies to obtain and analyze information that enables them to answer a series of questions necessary to plan and make decisions with the least amount of uncertainty possible.

This information can be obtained from two types of sources:

Primary sources

We obtain data through surveys, observations, etc. This data is obtained firsthand.

Secondary sources

Information is obtained from publications, reports, statistics, etc. These publications may have been prepared for other purposes, although they may be useful to us in our research.

In turn, information can be obtained from internal sources (i.e. from the organization itself) or external sources (from other institutions or organizations).

Marketing research can be classified in different ways*:

According to the information used

Since this information, as I have mentioned, can be obtained from the office itself (desk study), it can be obtained by conducting surveys, observations, etc. (field study), or a mixed method can be used.

According to the type of information collected

- Qualitative: We might be interested in simply obtaining impressions, comments, etc. about a specific issue or problem. For example, we might be interested in knowing what a group of women experience when they smell a certain fragrance.
- Quantitative: Figures or values are obtained that can be translated and analyzed using statistical calculations. For example, how many children under 10 years old watch more than two hours of television per day?
- Mixed: We obtain comments and impressions about a particular issue and complement the results with other numerical, logical, etc. data.

According to the objectives to be covered
Research can be descriptive, that is, it describes a fact, situation, behavior, etc. For example, what routes do visitors to a shopping center take, which stores are most visited, etc.
- Research can be predictive, with the aim of determining or approximating certain future variables (prices, competition, demand, sales) that allow us to make appropriate decisions.
- Exploratory: Look for opportunities and threats about a possible action, which will give us reasons to make one decision or another.
- Control studies: To determine whether the results obtained match those expected. If not, these studies allow deviations to be measured and corrective measures to be taken.

According to business areas
General market data. We might be interested in learning about a particular shopping center’s areas of influence, trends in the fashion industry, statistics on companies in that sector, etc.
- Demand analysis. We’ll be interested in understanding our customers’ purchasing habits, who they are, demographics, and more.
- Product and price research. Such as product and price testing, elasticity of demand, etc.
- Distribution studies. Distribution channels, points of sale, warehouses, suppliers, etc.
- Sales research. Sales team organization, compensation, intermediaries, sales systems, etc.
- Advertising research. We may be interested in finding out the best slogan for a product, pretest, posttest, whether our advertising is effective, etc.

The research aims to contribute knowledge about a specific population. A population is the set of people, objects, events, etc., about which a specific phenomenon is to be studied. However, instead of conducting the study on all elements of the population, it is common to conduct it on a portion of the population, or sample, and then extrapolate the results to the entire population.