According to the definition of American Marketing Association, marketing is an organizational function and procedure that creates, communicates and delivers value for customers and manages customer relationships to benefit organizations and their stakeholders.
Philip? Kotler's definition emphasizes the value orientation of marketing: marketing is a social and management process in which individuals and collectives meet their needs and desires by creating and exchanging products and values with others, while Gronlos's definition emphasizes the purpose of marketing: marketing is to establish, maintain and consolidate the relationship with consumers and other participants through mutual exchange and commitment, so as to achieve the goals of all parties.
3. Marketing theory
The development of marketing theory has the following four stages:
The first stage: the initial stage. Marketing was founded in the United States from the end of 19 to the 1920s, and originated from the development of industry. At that time, the research scope of marketing was very narrow, only studying the setting of advertising and commercial outlets. And set up related courses in universities in Illinois and other States. The change from "American Advertising Association" to "National Association of Advertising and Marketing Teachers" provides organizational guarantee for marketing research. At this time, the research characteristics of marketing are as follows: a. Paying attention to promotion and advertising, but the theory, concept and principle of modern marketing have not yet appeared; B. Research activities are basically confined to university classrooms and professors' study rooms, and have not been paid attention to by society and business circles.
The second stage: the application stage. The application stage was from the 1920s to the end of World War II, and began to take shape. American domestic enterprises began to use marketing means to operate enterprises on a large scale and open overseas markets, and European countries followed suit. 193 1 set up "American marketing association" to preach marketing. 1937 The merger of the above two organizations attracted the participation of academic and business people, and marketing began to move from university platform to society. The development of marketing at this stage is manifested in application. Because of the unprecedented economic crisis in the capitalist world from 65438 to 0929, the economy experienced the Great Depression and great contraction, the purchasing power of society dropped sharply, and the market problems were unprecedentedly acute. This crisis has dealt a great blow to the whole capitalist economy. At this stage, the research characteristics of marketing are: a. There is no narrow concept of product promotion; B. Study promotion and advertising on a deeper and broader basis; C. study the organizational structure of enterprises conducive to promotion; D. Marketing theory research has begun to move towards the society, which has attracted the attention of the broad business community.
The third stage: the formation of the development period. The 1950s and 1980s were the development stages of marketing. The American military economy began to turn to the people's economy, with a sharp increase in social goods and a sharp increase in social productivity, while the corresponding consumption level of residents did not get much improvement, and the market began to appear in a state of oversupply. At this time, American marketing experts W.Aderson and R.Cox put forward that "generalized marketing is any activity that promotes producers and consumers to trade potential goods or services." This view makes marketing enter a new stage. Originally thought that the market is the end of the production process, now it is considered as the starting point of the production process; Originally thought that marketing is selling products, now thought that marketing is to understand consumers' needs and desires through investigation, to produce goods or services that meet consumers' needs and desires, and then to meet consumers' needs and desires; So that marketing can get rid of the enterprise framework and enter the social field of vision, with obvious management orientation.
The fourth stage: the mature stage. Since 1980s, it has been a mature stage of marketing, which is manifested in the following aspects: a. Association with other disciplines, such as economics, mathematics, statistics, psychology, etc. B. Start to form its own theoretical system; The 1980s was the revolutionary period of marketing, and it began to enter the field of modern marketing, which made the marketing look brand-new.
At present, China is still in the primary stage of socialist market economy. Restricted by the development degree of social productive forces, the market development trend, the situation of economic system reform and the income of ordinary residents, China's business concept is still in the stage of sales promotion and coexistence of various concepts.
[Edit this paragraph] 5. Marketing function
According to the requirements of modern marketing environment, modern marketing function system should include five functions: commodity sales, market research, production and supply, creating market demand and coordinating and balancing public-private relations. The functions are introduced as follows:
(1) Commodity sales
The empirical method of studying marketing function is to start with commodity sales. The Definition Committee of American Marketing Association published this definition in 1960: "Marketing is an enterprise activity that guides goods or services from producers to consumers or their users." Although this definition does not admit that marketing is sales, it thinks that marketing includes sales and also includes the improvement and perfection of commodity sales process. Many scholars believe that this definition is too narrow to give full play to the function of marketing. However, whether it is appropriate or not, this definition clearly reveals the relationship between marketing and commodity sales.
For enterprises and society, commodity sales have two basic functions: one is to push the goods produced by enterprises into the consumption field; The second is to obtain money from consumers to compensate for labor consumption in commodity production. Enterprises are the products of socialized mass production in order to improve people's living standards. In the real economy with shortage of resources, by realizing resource concentration and production specialization to a certain extent, production efficiency can be improved, and new living standards can be created and spread. Commodity sales is the last link to improve production efficiency, that is, through this link, the products produced by enterprises are transferred to consumers to meet their living needs. On the other hand, the society chooses the market and commodity exchange mode, and at the same time allows enterprises to obtain money when transferring products to consumers, because society needs to maintain the continuity of production and operation of enterprises in order to obtain more benefits to improve production efficiency. By selling commodities and converting them into money, society can supplement and increase the factors of production for enterprises, and enterprises have thus obtained the conditions for survival and development.
Commodity sales are very important. Enterprises need to do their best to strengthen this function. Its specific activities include: finding and identifying potential customers, contacting and transmitting information of commodity exchange intention, negotiating, signing contracts, delivering goods and collecting money, and providing sales services. However, there are conditions for selling goods. The relevant conditions for the smooth exchange of goods include: ① at least two subjects, who own valuables (currency of goods and services) that are relatively low in their own view but high in the other's view, and are willing to exchange what they own for what the other has; (two) mutual understanding of the quality and production cost of goods owned by the other party; They can communicate with each other effectively. For example, negotiate the terms of sale and reach a contract; (4) After the transaction, they can all consume and enjoy the income. However, it is often found that these conditions are not everywhere, so enterprises often face sales difficulties. In order to effectively organize commodity sales and sell more goods produced by enterprises, the marketing department should not only do sales work, but also conduct market research, organize overall marketing, develop market demand and other activities, and wait until the later work has achieved certain results before selling goods.
(2) Market investigation and research
Market research and research, also known as market research, refers to the research that enterprises need to systematically and objectively collect and analyze information about marketing activities in the process of marketing decision-making.
One of the necessary external conditions for enterprises to sell goods is that there is market demand for goods. People call goods with this condition marketable. Only when there is market demand can goods be sold. The market demand of a commodity refers to the number of potential customers who have purchasing power for the commodity in a certain period of time. If the market demand for a commodity does exist, enterprises can sell the commodity smoothly if they know who and where the customers are.
Because the division of production and commodity production itself are constantly creating market demand, generally speaking, potential market demand always exists. The question is whether the goods people actually need are the goods supplied in the market. The source of frequent difficulties in commodity sales lies in the fact that the commodities supplied in the market are not what people actually need, or that the commodities on the market are different from people's actual needs (expectations). On the one hand, this problem makes it difficult to sell goods, on the other hand, it leads to the unsatisfied needs of some customers.
Rational producers and operators will certainly not produce and operate goods that no one needs. Choose to produce goods that people buy. However, the problem is that the demand for a certain commodity in a certain range of markets is constantly changing. There are many factors that will affect the needs of potential customers. For example, the increase of residents' income will make people gradually give up the consumption of low-grade and outdated goods, and then shift their purchasing power to high-grade and novel goods; When the price of a commodity is too high, many people think that it is not cost-effective to consume it and rarely buy it. However, when its price drops, people will have the idea of cost-effective consumption and are willing to buy more and consume more. The desire of potential customers to buy a commodity is always unstable. The change of purchasing desire will inevitably affect the payment direction of purchasing power and lead to the change of market demand. For this change, producers and operators may lack information, so they are in a passive state after the change.
In order to effectively realize the sales of goods, the marketing manager of an enterprise needs to study the market demand frequently, find out who the potential customers are, what kind of goods they need, why, how much they need, when and where they need them, study the suitability of the enterprise in meeting the needs of customers, study the possible sales difficulties and sources of difficulties, and formulate marketing strategies to meet the needs of each customer accordingly. This is the basic content of market research and research functions. It is not difficult to find that market research is not only the leading function of organizing commodity sales, but also the basic function of the whole enterprise marketing.
(3) Production and supply
How to make full and effective use of the market sales and profit opportunities that have come? How to flexibly adapt to the upcoming changes in market demand? The key lies in whether production and sales are carried out internally and whether the management between internal and external is coordinated. As producers and operators, enterprises need to adapt to the changes in market demand and often adjust the production direction of products to ensure that the products they produce and operate are always marketable. In other words, efforts should be made to make use of the market demand in different periods to maintain the stability and growth of the sales revenue of enterprises, and to make use of the profit opportunities of every commodity produced and operated. Under the condition of frequent changes in market demand, this adaptability of enterprises comes from their close monitoring of the market, strict internal management, preparation for changes and strict use of opportunities. All these functions generally become the production and supply functions in enterprise management. This function name actually follows the traditional saying. In modern marketing theory, this function is called overall marketing.
Overall marketing is reflected by the integration of various business functions within the enterprise. In order for the sales department to sell marketable products to the market in various periods, the market research department should provide accurate market demand information; The management department should convert the market demand forecast data into production instructions and guide the cooperation between the production department and other departments. In order for the sales department to provide customers with the products they need in time, the production department must produce the corresponding products before the customer's demand comes; In order to enable the production department to do this, the technology development department should complete the product design and technical preparation earlier, and be able to provide production technology to the production department; The finance department raises funds in advance and provides them to the production department for the adjustment of production lines or machinery and equipment, and to the purchasing department for the procurement and supply of raw materials, materials and spare parts; Personnel departments should also provide technical training and post responsibility education to workers as early as possible to stimulate their enthusiasm and initiative to improve productive labor. In order for the sales department to open the market quickly and expand the quantity of goods sold, the public relations department should establish a noble corporate image and corporate product image in the eyes of customers before this, and expand the spread of prestige and credibility in serving customers; The advertising department will effectively launch an advertising campaign before this; The promotion department should organize promotional activities that are attractive to potential customers; Sales channels and network management departments should strive for as many middlemen as possible to distribute or sell the goods of enterprises before this. In this way, all departments in Qi Xin work together to do a good job in marketing, which is the overall marketing.
The implementation of overall marketing needs to change the traditional practice of each functional department, and even change the setting of some functional departments. In marketing, we should let the technical development department develop the goods that people are willing to buy according to the needs of customers; Let the financial department raise funds according to the marketing demand, supply funds and supplement "materials"; Let the production department produce the products that customers need in time, and ensure that the sales department can get the right products in time and sell them to customers in need in a way that customers like. In this way, the technology development department, the production department, the finance department and the sales department are combined to jointly promote the sales of goods. Only in this way can the overall marketing effect be formed.
(4) creating market demand
The social responsibility of constantly improving social living standards requires enterprises to strive to meet the needs of consumers more. In other words, it is not enough to just sell the goods that consumers intend to buy at present. Consumers generally have "potential demand", that is, for some reasons, consumers do not intend to buy goods to meet short-term demand. For example, consumers are not satisfied with the quality level of a commodity in the current market, and even if there is demand, they may not necessarily buy this commodity; For the non-daily necessities that are relatively expensive in the current market and people think that more consumption will produce some luxury goods, consumers may not buy them even if there is demand, or rarely buy them; Some consumers have saved some money because of some worries, which will not be used for current living consumption, which has formed a "potential demand"; Although some other consumers have a certain source of income, they can't buy some goods they need because of the limitation of the current amount of money, which also forms a kind of "potential demand". Of course, there are still quite a few customers who can't buy the goods they need with money, thus forming a "potential demand". The objective existence of potential demand is determined by the extensiveness and expansibility of consumers' living needs. Potential demand is essentially unsatisfied customer demand, which represents the shortcomings in improving people's living standards, and is also a market "new continent" that enterprises can explore.
Enterprises should not only meet the real customer needs that have appeared in the market, so that every customer who is willing to buy enterprise products can actually buy products, but also strive for those customers with potential needs to provide the goods and services they need, create some conditions that can make them affordable and useful, relieve their worries, let them establish the belief of cost-effective purchase and reasonable consumption, and turn their potential needs into real needs to buy enterprise products. This is "creating market demand". For example, through appropriate price reduction, consumers who could not afford this commodity in the past can buy and consume this commodity, so that consumers who felt that it was uneconomical to spend more money in the past are willing to buy and consume more, so as to truly meet their own needs; Through advertising, let those consumers who don't understand a commodity and therefore don't buy it understand it and have the desire to buy it; By introducing new products, consumers who can't meet their needs in the past have the opportunity to buy goods that suit their needs and satisfy them; By providing sales services, consumers who feel that it is inconvenient, dissatisfied and unsafe to consume a certain commodity, so they seldom buy it, can also buy and consume this commodity as much as possible. Creating market demand can expand the actual market demand and improve the satisfaction of customer demand. It can also enable enterprises to break into a new world of their own and vigorously develop production; At the same time, enterprises can advance and retreat freely in the existing market, greatly enhancing their adaptability to changes in market demand.
(5) Coordinate and balance the relationship between public and private interests.
Open * * * relationship activities have long existed. At the beginning of this century, professional public relations consulting companies appeared in the United States. In 1930s, enterprise management theorists realized the importance of employee relationship and customer relationship. However, under the backward production concept and sales concept, the relationship between public and private is not regarded as an "internal function" of marketing. It was not until the movement of protecting consumers' rights and interests broke out again in the 1960s that the role of public relations was widely valued. In 1980s, people no longer regarded public relations as an "extra burden" for enterprises, but regarded it as a function of marketing. 198 1 year, christian gronroos put forward the theory of "internal marketing"; By 1985, Barbara B. Jackson proposed "relationship marketing". Taken together, these new viewpoints are that the marketing function needs to add a new item: coordinating and balancing various public relations.
As a member of society, enterprises have an objective relationship with customers and other aspects of society. Improving and developing these connections can not only improve the social image of enterprises, but also bring marketing benefits to enterprises, that is, increase the safety and convenience of marketing. According to Jackson, commodity sales are only a part of the marketing relationship between enterprises and customers. In fact, they can also develop economic, technological and social contacts and exchanges. Through these non-commodity exchange contacts, the two sides can enhance mutual trust and understanding, and develop into a partnership of interdependence, mutual help and sharing weal and woe, so that enterprises can gain a loyal customer base, and they can also turn cumbersome negotiations in past transactions into routine transactions and save transaction costs. This idea of "relationship marketing" is also suitable for developing and improving the relationship between enterprises and distributors, suppliers, transportation and storage companies, financial institutions, propaganda media and internal employees, so that enterprises can find reliable and helpful strategic partners in the marketing process. To coordinate and balance public relations, we need to correctly handle three relationships, namely, the relationship between commodity production and management and enterprise "socialization", the relationship between obtaining profits and meeting customers' needs, and the relationship between meeting customers' individual needs and promoting social welfare.
[Edit this paragraph ]6. market strategy
Marketing strategy is a process in which an enterprise takes the customer's demand as the starting point, obtains the customer's demand and purchasing power information and the expectations of the business community according to experience, organizes various business activities in a planned way, and provides customers with satisfactory goods and services through coordinated product strategy, price strategy, channel strategy and promotion strategy, thus realizing the enterprise's goals.
(2)4Cs, including: customer, cost, communication and convenience.
With the opportunity of market opportunity, the market change is 6C.
Do not sell finished products, sell products that meet the needs of consumers; Don't price according to competitors or their own profit strategies, but through a series of tests to understand the cost that consumers are willing to pay to meet demand; Don't take yourself as a starting point to think about how to arrange outlets and what kind of access strategy to adopt, but pay attention to the convenience of consumers to buy products; We should interact with consumers instead of thinking about how to increase sales through media communication.
(3)4R marketing theory is a new marketing theory put forward by American scholar Don Schultz on the basis of 4C marketing theory. 4R refers to relevance, reaction, relationship and return respectively. Marketing theory holds that with the development of the market, enterprises need to establish a new type of active relationship between enterprises and customers from a higher level and in a more effective way.
(A) 4R marketing operation points
1. Close contact with customers
Enterprises must establish the relationship between business and demand with customers through some effective ways, form the relationship of mutual assistance and mutual demand, connect customers with enterprises, reduce the loss of customers, thus improving customer loyalty and winning long-term and stable markets.
2. Improve the response speed to the market.
Most companies tend to tell customers, but often ignore the importance of listening. In the market of mutual penetration and influence, the most realistic problem for enterprises is not how to formulate and implement plans and controls, but how to listen to customers' hopes, wishes and needs in time and respond in time to meet customers' needs. This is beneficial to the development of the market.
3. Pay attention to the interaction with customers.
4R marketing theory holds that the key to seize the market now is to establish a long-term and stable relationship with customers, turn transactions into responsibilities, and establish an interactive relationship with customers. And communication is an important means to establish this interactive relationship.
4. Return is the source of marketing
Because the marketing goal must focus on the output and the return of enterprises in marketing activities, enterprises should meet customer needs and provide value to customers, and cannot do nothing. On the one hand, returning goods is a necessary condition to maintain market relations; On the other hand, the pursuit of return is the driving force of marketing development, and the ultimate value of marketing lies in whether it brings short-term or long-term profitability to enterprises.
(B) the characteristics of 4R marketing
1.4R marketing is competition-oriented, and puts forward new marketing concepts at a new level.
According to the increasingly fierce market competition, 4R marketing focuses on establishing an interactive and win-win relationship between enterprises and customers, which not only actively meets customers' needs, but also actively creates them, and establishes a unique relationship with them through association, relationship and response, connecting enterprises with customers and forming a unique competitive advantage.
2.4R marketing truly embodies and implements the idea of relationship marketing.
4R marketing puts forward a specific operation mode of how to establish relationships, have customers for a long time and ensure long-term interests, which is a great progress in the history of relationship marketing.
3.4R marketing is the guarantee to achieve mutual benefit.
The reaction mechanism of 4R marketing provides the foundation and guarantee for establishing the relationship, interaction and win-win between enterprises and customers, and also extends and sublimates the convenience of marketing.
4.4R marketing returns enable enterprises to balance costs and win-win.
In order to pursue profits, enterprises must implement a low-cost strategy, fully consider the costs that customers are willing to pay, achieve cost minimization, and gain more customers' share on this basis to form economies of scale. In this way, the products provided by enterprises to customers and the pursuit of returns will eventually integrate and promote each other, thus achieving a win-win goal.
(3) Summary
Of course, 4R marketing, like any theory, also has its shortcomings and defects. For example, establishing relationships with customers requires a strong foundation or some special conditions, which is not easy for any enterprise to do. But in any case, 4R marketing provides a good idea that operators and marketers should understand and master.
Element resistance
In the world-famous game Diablo II, 4R represents the resistance of four elements, namely, resistance to electricity, ice, fire and poison. The default maximum resistance is 75. It means resisting 75% damage. You can improve the maximum resistance through various equipment, but you can't achieve complete immunity. Resistance is not punished at the normal level, but will be punished at the nightmare and hell levels -50 and-100 respectively. That is to say, your resistance is 50 at normal level, 0 and -50 in nightmare and hell respectively. When the resistance is negative, increase the opponent's attack.
Online games often use 4R now. Of course, the form may be inconsistent.
[Edit this paragraph ]7. Types of marketing
(1) Integrated marketing communications: refers to the comprehensive integration of various communication modes of enterprises, including general advertising, direct communication with customers, promotion, public relations, etc. And seamlessly integrate scattered communication information, so that the overall communication effect of enterprises and their products and services is clear, continuous, consistent and enhanced.
(2) Database marketing: the marketing behavior of collecting consumer behavior information and manufacturer's sales information on the network or entity in a specific way, accumulating these information in a fixed format in the database, and using this database for statistical analysis at appropriate marketing opportunities.
(3) Internet marketing: Internet marketing is an integral part of an enterprise's overall marketing strategy, and it is a variety of activities that are carried out to achieve the overall business objectives of the enterprise and create an online marketing environment with the Internet as the basic means. The functions of network marketing include website promotion, network brand, information release, online research, customer relationship, customer service, sales channels and promotion.
(4) Direct marketing: In the absence of an intermediary marketer, direct consumer (CD) channels are used to contact and deliver goods and services to customers. Its biggest feature is "direct communication with consumers or sales activities without going through dealers", which is a marketing model to measure the response or transaction results by using one or more media to reach the area where any target object is located in theory, including regional and positioning division.
Usually, the media communication tools used in direct marketing are different from the mass or specific multi-mass marketing media (such as TV advertisements), but mainly focus on a few or non-mass marketing media (such as printing advertising information on tissue packaging and then distributing it to potential consumers, as well as catalogues, telemarketing, TV shopping, online sales, etc. ).
⑤ Relationship marketing: In many cases, companies cannot seek instant transactions, so they will establish customer relationships with long-term suppliers. What the company wants to show its customers is excellent service ability. Nowadays, most customers are large global companies. They prefer suppliers who can provide supporting products or services in different regions and solve problems in different regions quickly. When implementing the customer relationship management plan, the organization must pay attention to both customer and product management. At the same time, companies must understand that although relationship marketing is important, it will not be effective in all cases. Therefore, the company must evaluate which department and which specific customers are most conducive to adopting relationship marketing.
⑥ Green marketing refers to the marketing activities that enterprises strive to meet consumers' demand for green products in order to meet their consumption habits of green consumption, with green environmentalism as the value orientation of products and green culture as the production concept.
⑦ Social marketing is based on the dual characteristics of "economic man" and "social man", and uses means similar to commercial marketing to achieve the purpose of social welfare; Or use social welfare value as a means to promote its goods or commercial services.
Like general marketing, the purpose of social marketing is to consciously change the behavior of the target population (consumers). But different from the general commercial marketing model, the motivation of behavior change pursued by social marketing is more from non-commercial motivation, or simulating non-commercial behavior as a commercial selling point.
⑧ Virus marketing is an information dissemination strategy, which quickly expands its influence by copying information cheaply by the public and informing other audiences. Compared with traditional marketing, the characteristics of voluntary acceptance by the audience make the cost less and the income more obvious.