Before a company can get customers to purchase its products, there are processes such as product development, production, sales, and sales, and marketing has the role of integrating these functions.
Nowadays, there is an abundance of products and it is no longer easy to sell them, so marketing has become increasingly important for companies.
This time, let’s think again about why marketing is necessary.
Corporate purpose and marketing
The meaning of the term
marketing
varies depending on the subject to which it is used, so definitions are often ambiguous.
Marketing is often confused with “market research” and “promotion of products using TV commercials and advertisements.”
Research and promotion are part of marketing methods and functions, but they are not marketing itself.
What is marketing?
According to the Japan Marketing Association’s definition,
“Marketing is a comprehensive activity undertaken by companies and other organizations from a global perspective, gaining mutual understanding with customers, and creating markets through fair competition.”
I am.
Simply put, this can be said to be “an activity by which a company sells its products to more customers and continues to earn profits.”
If you write it like this, you might think that marketing is a tool for companies to sell a lot of things and make money, but that is not the case.
In the first place, the purpose of a company’s existence is not to “make money” or “increase profits.”
What is the purpose of a company’s existence?
It is the customers who purchase products and bring profits to the company, and companies that prioritize profits will gradually decline even if they temporarily make profits.
Profit is a condition for a company to survive, but it is not the purpose of its existence.
Peter Drucker, a world-famous management scholar and author of “Management”, famously said, “The purpose of a company is to create customers.”
Customers may not actually know what they want.
Therefore, Drucker preached that the purpose of a company is to create a market and convert the latent desires of customers into demand.
Marketing is based on the mutual relationship between companies and customers.
Let’s look at the Japan Marketing Association’s definition of marketing again.
“…It is a comprehensive activity for market creation while gaining mutual understanding with customers.”
It says.
The important thing here is that not only the company but also the customers need to continue to make profits.
Companies make profits by selling products and services for a higher price than the cost, but customers should feel satisfied by saying, “I’m glad I bought this” or “I was able to get more value than I paid for it.” profit from.
Marketing is all about creating a process that allows companies and customers to continue to earn profits, and that is why it is needed.
* Regarding the definition and basics of marketing
Please refer to
Why is marketing so important now?
So why is
marketing
so important now?
After the war, Japan was experiencing a period of high economic growth, and the “Three Sacred Treasures” of televisions, washing machines, and refrigerators, as well as other electrical appliances and automobiles, were sold one after another.
However, economic activity is currently slowing down due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and there are many impacts such as entering an era of negative growth after the bursting of the bubble economy and the recession following the Lehman Shock, and customers’ purchasing power and desire to purchase are decreasing.
Furthermore, in modern society, the world is filled with a wide variety of products, and the market environment and society are changing rapidly, making it difficult to sell things easily.
Furthermore, with the spread of IT and the Internet, business models are changing, and traditional marketing methods used by large companies are no longer applicable.
We no longer live in an era where flashy advertisements, good performance, and low prices necessarily lead to sales.
Therefore, in order for a company to survive and grow in the future, it is necessary to conduct “market research and analysis”, decide in what market, what kind of value to provide, how to sell products, and decide on your own marketing. The key is how to establish this.
*For the “market research and analysis” necessary for marketing
, we will explain in an easy-to-understand manner “STP analysis” that marketing beginners should know!
Please refer to
Marketing is not just the job of the marketing department.
The important thing about
marketing
is that it’s not something the marketing department does alone.
Philip Kotler is known as the “God of Marketing”.
“Marketing is a social and business process used by individuals and groups to obtain what they need or want by creating and exchanging products and values with others.”
It is defined as
“Exchange of value” refers to the “reciprocal relationship between a company and its customers” mentioned above, in which a company provides a product to a customer, and the customer, after being satisfied with the product, pays money in return.
Marketing is a “management process”
What is important to note is that marketing is a “managerial process.”
Marketing is a process that is directly connected to management and involves every department within a company, from product development to image, brand strategy, advertising and sales strategy.
Furthermore, marketing can be said to be management and corporate activities itself.
It is an important process in which the company’s top executives decide on a vision, and each department must pool their knowledge and experience, formulate strategies, and execute them in order to achieve the goals.
*For marketing execution strategies
, what is the marketing mix? Learn the basics of marketing execution strategy
.
The ideal of marketing is to make sales unnecessary.
As Dragger said, “The ideal of marketing is to make sales unnecessary.” It is important to understand customer needs and create a system that allows sales to occur naturally without the need for sales (sales pitches, etc.). can be said to be the ultimate marketing ideal.
Eliminating the need for sales reduces operating costs and increases profits.
It would be a win-win for the customer as well, as they would be buying what they want rather than being sold to buy.
In order to achieve this ideal, it is important to take a long-term view of marketing. Pursuing short-term profits does not lead to sustainability.
A company must be clear about its goals and what it is trying to deliver to its customers, and must guide all corporate activities.
And I think this is exactly the type of marketing that companies need.
summary
◆Marketing is the creation of a process that allows both companies and customers to continue to earn profits.
◆Conventional marketing methods are becoming obsolete due to the effects of the declining birthrate and aging population, economic recession, changes in the market environment and society, and the spread of IT and the Internet.
◆For a company to survive and grow, establishing its own marketing is the key.
◆The ideal of marketing is to make sales unnecessary, and to achieve this, it is necessary to take a long-term view.