What Does Marketing Involve?

At a basic level, marketing isn’t that complex.  It includes the following important elements:

• Becoming customer focused rather than self or product orientated   Understanding (through researching) the market and finding out what customers value.  That is – what do they want enough to exchange their own value for? (money, time and risk )
•  
• Developing and designing a value proposition (a combination of product, price, and promotion) and delivering that offering so that it satisfies customers value perceptions

 This means:

• Producing the right amount, of the right quality, to the right target (customer) at the right place (availability)
•  
• Getting the price right so that the product is affordable to customers but also allows the business to make a profit (quality specifications also need addressing) 
• Making sure that through effective marketing communication, that the customer knows about our value proposition (product) 
•  
• Ensuring the product is available in a manner (quality, quantity, size, appearance, packaging) and in a place convenient to the customer

To accomplish this requires a marketing plan.