What is Marketing?

What do you think of when you hear marketing?  Are you thinking of advertising?  Anything else?

From what I have learned, marketing is a very broad topic that is responsible for more than just the advertisements you see in either magazines or on television.  And even within that, what is considered marketing differs from industry to industry and company to company.  According to Wikipedia, “marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services.”  Within this process, there are multiple aspects.

The aspects that fall under marketing include but are most definitely not limited to:

• Advertising
• Branding
• Product Development
• Market Research

Now, let me give you a few examples of these terms.

Advertising would include creating that page in a magazine or the billboard you see driving down the highway.  However, something important to realize is how much work actually goes into this.  Each part of the advertisement must align with the company’s mission and goals, as well as match the vision of the design.

Branding, as I have understood it, has more to do with the basics and how the company is perceived.  The font used and how the company presents itself.  When a company is rebranding themselves that means they are trying to reinvent how people perceive them through changing the way they look.

Now, product development does involve the R&D and productions of improving and creating the actual product, however, there is also a marketing aspect.  This part deals more with the look and feel of the product.  What colors will be available and how the packaging will work and look.

The market research portion deals with understanding the customers.  Here, the company or a hired company will speak to customers who fit the ideal target market about what it is they are looking for in the products they buy.  This can be done in a variety of ways including focus groups and shop-a-longs.  With market research, the company is able to learn what it is their products must be able to do and how they can best cater to their customers needs to get the business they are looking for.

Within each of these parts that make up marketing, there is usually a strategy portion and a design portion to create the best possible campaigns.

What else makes up the field of marketing?  I would love to hear about it!