Focus on Customers: The “Marketing Orientation” The purpose of marketing is to gain a balance between creating more value for customers against making profits for the organization. To achieve this, many firms have adopted a marketing philosophy or what is generally termed a “marketing orientation.” A marketing orientation can be defined as focusing the organization on identifying and understanding the customers’ preferences in terms of needs and wants and delivering… Read More »Focus on Customers: The “Marketing Orientation”

Introduction to the Importance of Customers What you’ll learn to do: explain why the customer is the cornerstone of marketing As we dive into the mechanics of marketing, we begin by locking our focus on the customer. “Customers” are the people or organizations with needs or wants that a business aspires to address. The act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something of value in return is called the exchange… Read More »why the customer is the cornerstone of marketing

Why It Matters: Marketing Function Why learn about the marketing function? It’s springtime. You’ve just graduated from college, and the Instagram photos of you wearing your cap, gown, and huge smile are still fresh. But your mind has quickly turned to other things, or rather, to one major thing: a job. You have a newly minted degree and a new skill set you’re fired up to use (and possibly a few unpaid… Read More »Marketing Function

Putting It Together: What Is Marketing? Marketing is a powerful tool that serves a variety of functions for organizations, individuals, and society. Let’s take a moment to revisit some notable examples of marketing activity from earlier in the module.  What’s happening to make each of these examples effective? Marketing sells products. Marketing informs organizations about what people want, and it informs people about products and services available to feed our wants… Read More »Putting It Together: What Is Marketing?

The Value of Marketing LEARNING OBJECTIVES Explain the benefits consumers derive from marketing activity Explain the benefits companies and organizations derive from marketing activity Explain the benefits society derives from marketing activity Describe how an understanding of marketing makes people more informed as both consumers and participants in society Marketing can mobilize attitudes and behavior around a common vision. It is a powerful medium for expression, creativity, and sharing across… Read More »The Value of Marketing

how marketing creates value for the consumer, the company, and society For some people, marketing has a reputation as being fluffy, superficial, and light. Certainly a lot of marketing activities have earned that reputation over the years. One goal of this course is to help you understand the important role marketing plays in business and everyday life in today’s globally connected world. Are we arguing that marketing is an inherently good… Read More »how marketing creates value for the consumer, the company, and society

How Organizations Use Marketing LEARNING OBJECTIVES Explain the difference between a customer and a consumer Define different types of organizations including B2C, B2B, and nonprofit organizations Provide examples of how each type of organization uses marketing Although we often think of marketing in the context of for-profit businesses and product sales, a wide variety of organizations use marketing to achieve their goals. For-Profit Marketing Versus Nonprofit Marketing For-profit organizations are… Read More »How Organizations Use Marketing

Introduction to the Way Organizations Use Marketing What you’ll learn to do: describe how different types of organizations, such as nonprofits, consumer product (B2C) firms, and business-to-business (B2B) organizations, use marketing Although marketing activities come in many different forms, the fundamental principles of marketing apply, regardless of what you’re trying to sell, advocate, or promote. Grounding your marketing efforts in a customer-oriented mindset and staying focused on the relationships you build… Read More »how different types of organizations, such as nonprofits, consumer product (B2C) firms, and business-to-business (B2B) organizations, use marketing

Introduction to Marketing and Customer Relationships What you’ll learn to do: describe the role of marketing in building and managing customer relationships The marketing concept provides exactly the right mindset for what we ultimately want to achieve: building strong relationships with customers. Next we’ll explore how marketing plays a central role in each stage of building and managing customer relationships. Marketing and Customer Relationships LEARNING OBJECTIVES Define the concept of customer… Read More »Marketing and Customer Relationships

Introduction to the Marketing Concept What you’ll learn to do: demonstrate a clear understanding of the marketing concept You’re probably very skilled at recognizing the signs of marketing. We’ve all had the experience of being on the receiving or customer end of marketing efforts—whether through advertising or sales tactics. In this section you’ll get to understand the marketing orientation, or marketing concept, from the standpoint of setting priorities and doing business. You’ll learn that the… Read More »Introduction to the Marketing Concept