What is Marketing and what are its different techniques?
Definition of Marketing:
Philip Kotler, professor of marketing strategy and international marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago and author of several books, defines it as:
Both the activity, the set of institutions and processes involved in creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offers that have value for customers, consumers, partners and society at large.
Under the pressure of the market and competition, marketing forces the company to always do better than the previous time for the needs of customers and the development of its offer. It brings together a set of analysis methods and tools suitable for:
guide the company towards the most promising markets,
guide the development of future offers in terms of products and services,
support commercial action for current offers.
It has a major role in the success of the company's present and future products and services in its various markets and in the face of competition.
Marketing espouses the strategic approach but is not the business strategy.
This management discipline aims to:
build a clientele,
make her faithful,
enhance their satisfaction.
Its objective, for a company, is to act on the market and win the offer against its competitors. It encompasses several methods and tools at the service of the company's strategy.
The origins of marketing:
Its origins date back to post-war United States.
From the 1960s, it developed in Europe with the appearance of:
mass industrial production,
general improvement in the standard of living,
the emergence of new needs.
The term “marketing” has been translated into French with the words: mercatique and merchandising, expressions that were finally abandoned.
In the 1980s, it became global and accompanied the dissemination of information by television and radio. It extends to products and services sold to organizations.
From the 1990s, its techniques, practices and specificities were perfected.
Since the 2000s, its methods have continued to evolve and new areas have been explored, in particular with the rise of the generation of "digital natives" and the global success of companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon,… It was also in the 2000s that Web Marketing (or e-marketing) emerged.
Since 2004, it has been both participative and social, interacting with consumers via social networks. The Internet is used in a participatory marketing logic: the customer/consumer is associated with the development and evolution of the product. He may, for example, be asked to choose a new logo or slogan. Participatory marketing is also called collaborative marketing.
Marketing specialization:
It evolves and specializes according to the areas of marketing. This specialization allows, among other things, to develop new sales techniques.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of different marketing approaches:
The strategic
This is the process of analysis and reflection to achieve the adequacy "supply-demand".
operational marketing
It is the concretization by the action having to be constantly adapted to the evolution of the trade and the variations of the market.
BtoC or BtoB marketing connects a business to the wants and needs of its customers. Marketing techniques and strategies are used according to the target and the objective.
btoc and btob marketing
BtoC “Business to Consumer” marketing,
This marketing policy is directed towards customers and consumers who directly use or consume the products or services.
BtoB “Business to Business” marketing,
It concerns business-to-business activities. An organization can have a B to B or B to C branch and operate in both branches.
Marketing and communications
Communication is "one of the key pieces of the puzzle" of marketing. The quality of a company's communication directly impacts the sales of its products and services.
For a company, its communication values:
his identity,
its trademark(s),
its products or service
The different techniques:
There are many marketing strategies, you will find below the most used:
The relational
It aims to develop a personalized and friendly relationship with the consumer client in order to build loyalty. This relationship is built through dialogue between the brand and the consumer.
direct marketing
It is the set of approaches aimed at establishing personalized and measurable contact between the company and its prospects according to certain criteria.
The promotional
This approach combines a set of techniques and means of communication set up in the company's action plan. The objective is to encourage the creation or change of purchasing or consumption behavior among the targeted targets.
Marketing buzz
Viral marketing aims to create a media buzz before releasing the product.
growth hacking
Growth hacking is an unconventional marketing strategy, sometimes bordering on legality. It quickly generates the growth of a base of captive Internet users thanks to the couple virality and creation of habits among the Internet user.
Online marketing (e-marketing or digital marketing)
It is the set of means aimed at promoting an offer thanks to internet technologies (web marketing, natural referencing, SEO, SEA, AdWords campaign).
Its scope is twofold: creation and optimization of websites and traffic generation.
The emotional
Emotional marketing seeks to make a link between your product and the emotions it will bring to your customers. Conversely, pragmatic marketing will focus on promoting your product for its appearance, useful, practical, aesthetic, etc.
permission marketing
Permission marketing is a technique where the authorization of the targeted people is required before sending them an advertising message. It is associated with another marketing term, Opt In. One of the levers of permission marketing is to turn strangers into friends, then friends into consumers.
content marketing
Content marketing is a strategy for producing informative content, it aims to promote the history, identity and values of the company and its brand. Content marketing makes it possible to deliver informative, relevant and interesting content to a targeted audience.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a technique that aims to bring the customer to you rather than going to canvass him. This new approach bridges the gap between consumer behavior and business tactics.
ethnic marketing
It consists of segmenting the market based on the homogeneity of an ethnic strain of consumers. Thus, the products offered are adapted to the physical and cultural characteristics of the target.
Geomarketing
It is the cartographic representation and analysis of socio-demographic, behavioral and economic data of one or more populations of a territory.
The objective is to improve the strategic knowledge of the territory analyzed to optimize management and commercial development.
sensory marketing
Sensory marketing helps strengthen the identity and differentiation of a product or service. It enhances one or more of the consumer's senses to optimize their appeal and encourage them to buy. Sensory marketing focuses on your 5 senses with tactile, gustatory, visual, auditory and olfactory marketing.
alternative marketing
It brings together all the "non-traditional" marketing techniques such as mobile marketing, guerrilla marketing.
Street marketing
Also called street marketing, this marketing technique consists of carrying out operations to promote a brand in public places.
Tactical Marketing
Tactical media offer direct and privileged contact between the company, the brand and the consumer, such as promotional items.
There are other marketing techniques, some of which are very confidential such as neuromarketing or nurturing marketing.
Storytelling or the art of telling stories
Storytelling is a tool whose main goals are to capture attention, to convey a message to a target by arousing emotion. Taken from a true story or simply from a legend, a story brings the image of a brand or a product closer to its target and offers it added value.
In short,
With all these techniques, marketing is a decision-making tool to best meet the expectations of consumers and customers. By the way, do you know the marketing mix?
A word of advice: to develop your business, take the time to brainstorm before opting for one or more marketing techniques!
Sources: emarketing.fr, Manager go, Applied Marketing: From tools to strategies by Michel Perrin and Abderrazak Benyahia