Marketing

Marketing
Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer. Our starting point for learning about marketing is to begin with the basics and that starts with defining marketing. Since marketing has been an important part of business for a long time we could consult one of the many hundreds of books written on the subject to locate a definition. Or, as is more the custom today, we could search the Internet to see how marketing is defined. Whether we search print or electronic form we will find that marketing is defined in many different ways.

Some definitions focus on marketing in terms of what it means to an organization, such as being the key functional area for generating revenue, while other definitions lean more toward defining marketing in terms of its most visible tasks, such as advertising and creating new products.

There probably is no one best way to define marketing, however, whatever definition is used should have an orientation that focuses on the key to marketing success – customers.

History
It is hard for many to believe, but when compared to economics, production and operations, accounting and other business areas, marketing is a relatively young discipline having emerged in the early 1900s. Prior to this time most issues that are now commonly associated with marketing were either assumed to fall within basic concepts of economics (e.g., price setting was viewed as a simple supply/demand issue), advertising (well developed by 1900), or in most cases, simply not yet explored (e.g., customer purchase behavior, importance of distribution partners).

Led by marketing scholars from several major universities, the development of marketing was in large part motivated by the need to dissect in greater detail relationships and behaviors that existed between sellers and buyers. In particular, the study of marketing led sellers to recognize that adopting certain strategies and tactics could significantly benefit the seller/buyer relationship. In the old days of marketing (before the 1950s) this often meant identifying strategies and tactics for simply selling more products and services with little regard for what customers really wanted. Often this meant companies embraced a “sell-as-much-as-we-can” philosophy with little concern for building relationships for the long term.

But starting in the 1950s, companies began to see that old ways of selling were wearing thin with customers. As competition grew stiffer across most industries, organizations looked to the buyer side of the transaction for ways to improve. What they found was an emerging philosophy suggesting that the key factor in successful marketing is understanding the needs of customers. This now famous Marketing Concept suggests marketing decisions should flow from FIRST knowing the customer and what they want. Only then should an organization initiate the process of developing and marketing products and services.

New Media on Marketing
New media today enhances the experience of marketing to consumers on a whole new level. In the past decade, the number of smartphone users have sky rocketed and will keep increasing. Adults that belong in the Generation X category are vastly known to follow the latest technological trends. This leads to their families following trends as well, so there are even more smartphone users. With this rise in technology, companies are taking advantage and marketing through new media. You will frequently see ads on various websites and social networks of new products and services offered by different companies. This increases product awareness and people will recognize a brand more if they've seen it frequently on the internet, whether it is an ad on the side bar of Facebook or Google search. With the rise of technology and new media, companies feel the need to invest time and money into their marketing department to make moves on the internet to reel in customers. In the past few years, it has worked for many companies and now they are quite wealthy. New media has a great impact on marketing today.

Facebook
Facebook is very widely used in the social media world. It is a social network where people interact and play games daily. As Facebook expanded from your typical social site, they changed their layout every now and then. With this layout change, they added more space on the sides which allowed companies to place their ads for people to see. These ads are clickable and lead to the company's website. This is a great way to market your products or let people know your company exists because there are millions of users that check the site daily. People that have Facebook accounts tend to check it more than once throughout the day, so missing an ad on the side is quite inevitable. Facebook has been a tool for companies to use so they can expand their business through the world wide web.

Twitter
Twitter has not been around for a long time, but it has expanded very rapidly. Many celebrities and companies have Twitter accounts. This is a great tool because you can interact with customers and fans through a social network site without the hassle of making long winded responses. Twitter only allows you to tweet 140 characters, so you must keep you speeches to a minimum. Twitter is a great marketing tool because companies can find out what they are doing wrong and fix problems through a series of angry tweet from customers. Customers may complain about problems with orders made online or store transactions where they have had bad experiences. The opportunities are endless with Twitter because you interact in a non hostile, friendly environment. Companies also use Twitter to showcase new products they will have for the upcoming season and promotion deals to increase customer base and product awareness.

Instagram
Instagram is a relatively new application launched to share photos on the web. This application is great when it comes to marketing products because you can simply snap a picture and it can link to other social networks. A great feature that Instagram offers is the hashtag. When you hashtag your photo with a popular tag, many people will like the photo and it spreads throughout the web where others can view it. Companies can look into this amazing feature and possibly incorporate a marketing strategy around it. Instagram is used by all age groups and people check it frequently to see any new posts by the people they are following. The marketing department for big companies could definitely use the hashtag to their advantage and start campaigns to promote their new products to the general pubic.

Immersive Labs
Immersive Labs has developed anew technology that allows a digital billboard to identify the person standing in front of it and in turn show them an advertisement that they would most likely want to watch. For example, if the billboard identifies a man over 21, he will be more likely to see a beer ad than a woman who is likely to see an advertisement for feminine products. This allows advertisers to more directly reach their consumer, making them more likely to buy the product being advertised. There are obviously privacy issues with this, as technology improves it may not only recognize gender and age, but also be able to recognize a person's face. Collecting this data would make it easier for advertisers to track and compile data about a consumer's habits and where they go. Although the more an advertiser knows about you the better they can present you with a product you want to buy, they can also invade consumer's privacy.

Brands
Some brands have used social media today to promote their products. The world is changing and people are frequently using new media tools to support this new lifestyle. Companies have realized that people are always on the web searching for the next big thing, so they have shifted their attention from marketing over old media such as newspapers, magazines, and television to new media like the internet and social media sites. Here are a few brands that have used new media to their advantage to increase sales and stay competitive in the market.



Starbucks
Starbucks is widely known for their exquisite coffee and unique cold drinks. People of all ages enjoy their drinks and they have definitely built some customer loyalty. It was not always like this though. There was a period of time where Starbucks were closing down stores and decrease in sales. But Mr. Schultz stepped back in his rightful place as CEO of the company and transformed it to appeal to the public. Starbucks now heavily uses social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote new seasonal products and to gain insight from customers on their fan page. This is great for the company because they have totally reversed their situation and now business is booming. Starbucks app has also encouraged Starbucks to drink more coffee and use their app by placing unique promotional codes and discounts for the unique drinker as well as giving free food or drinks in their app.



Trek Bikes
Maybe you have noticed and maybe you haven’t but there are a lot more people riding bikes to work and for exercise than ever before thanks to sky rocketing prices for gas. Trek is the market leader in bicycles and they have done a wonderful job with an integrated marketing message. They have bikes for everyone from casual riders to professional racers and right now they capitalizing on the Amgen tour of California with a tent at the start and finish lines while handing out goodies. They are always adding new models and their social media presence is what anyone would expect it to be.



SoBe Beverages
In society today, people are drinking less and less carbonated soda drinks. This could be the case because many people are getting sick with diabetes or simply gaining a lot of weight. A lot of people are converting to drinking non carbonated drinks so they can be a tad bit more healthy. SoBe beverages is a great alternative to soda and is non carbonated. They provide a wide variety of drinks and are marketing the fact that SoBe is a great alternative to those soda drinks. SoBe also has great packaging which appeals to customers and seem to increase their sales. The label on the bottle is quite unique as well. It is an easy read and this is convenient to consumers that have a hard time searching for the vitamins in your typical bottle drinks. SoBe is definitely on the right path.



BMW
The ultimate driving machine is still reminding consumers that driving a BMW is more that a status symbol. It means you have arrived and won’t settle for just a “car”. Their social media presence it great along with their websites and other digital marketing. They have also introduced new models to stay relevant to new demographics and young professionals on their way up still want to drive their Beamers.

Campaigns
As Marketing to consumers get harder, marketers have to find a new way to grab the attention of their target market. To do this, many marketers are approaching the online sphere where many of the current generation spend a majority of there time. Over the past decade, there has been a huge amount of wonderful marketing campaigns, particularly those online. Some of these marketing campaigns are mentioned below.

Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches
As Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather produced a short video inspired by market research that suggested only 4% of women describe themselves as beautiful. A criminal sketch artist was hired to draw the sketches of several women (whom he could not see) based on how they described themselves. He then created sketches of the same women as described by strangers who had met them briefly. When the sketches were compared, the ones formed with strangers’ opinions were shown to be invariably more flattering and accurate.

Since its release April 14, 2013, the video quickly became viral on online social media. More than 15 million people downloaded the video within a week. On YouTube, the shorter 3-minute version was viewed 30.6 million times. It garnered 660,000 shares on Facebook during its first ten days.

Oreo's Daily Twist
Oreo's Daily Twist campaign has made the cream-stuffed sandwich a social-media darling and sometime daredevil. It kicked off June 25 with a polarizing image of the cookie, sextuplet-stuffed with rainbow filling to celebrate Gay Pride Month -- a bold move for a brand that topped $2 billion in revenue last year. Since then, we've seen a Shark Week Oreo, a Mars Rover Oreo and a tribute to panda Shin-Shin's newborn cub -- just a handful of 100 iterations that will roll out daily through October.

Oreo has established itself as a current and creative brand on social media. With 34 million fans on Facebook (and counting), how did Oreo raise the bar and increase engagement. By deploying a social media campaign that got everyone talking! Celebrating 100 years of the Oreo cookie, they launched the “Oreo Daily Twist”. One post every day (for 100 days concluding on February 3, 2013) celebrating current and historic events. Something similar to Google’s Doodles but spread daily through Facebook and more viral.

Human Rights Campaign: How Red Changed everything
Human's Right Campaign launched one of the most visible campaigns in Facebook history, to accompany real life demonstrations outside the Supreme Court on the eve of two historic marriage equality hearings. Millions of Facebook users adopted a red version of the HRC's equal sign logo.

According to Facebook, some 120% more users changed their profile pictures on Tuesday, March 26 than on the previous Tuesday. The logo received 10 million impressions, 189,177 shares, 95,725 likes and appeared more than 18 million times in News Feeds. Millions of fair-minded Americans changed their logo to the Human Rights Campaign’s red logo demonstrating a visible outpouring of support for LGBT equality. In this session, attendees learn more about how digital strategy helped to make it happen, how to manage a brand identity following a viral moment, and how one little logo changed the Internet.