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Marketing
Marketing can be defined in many ways but I choose to define marketing as the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably. That definition looks not only at identifying customer needs as most people would define marketing, but also satisfy and anticipating them in the future.
However, in any given business, success cannot be guaranteed if the marketing team does not know the following:
? Who are the existing / potential customers ?
? What are their current / future needs ?
? How can we satisfy these needs ?
? Can we offer a product / service that customer would value ?
? Can we communicate with our customers ?
? Can we deliver a competitive product or service ?
? Why should customers buy from us ?
After answering these questions to yourself, then you will be assured you know what customers want or expect from you.
Marketing functions:
Buying and Selling - This two functions go hand in hand. First, it takes more than just a good product to be successful. You must buy the best raw materials available at the best possible pricing to produce your product. (Pricing to be covered later). If you don't produce a product then you need to select products that will fill your target market's needs that your sales staff (probably you) can sell at a profit.
Transporting and Storage - If you purchase products for sale or resale, they must be moved to you or to customers by some means. In the case of inventory storage, the seller may inventory the product for you or you may be required to take delivery and incur inventory costs yourself.
Each of these two functio ...