Importance of Marketing (Coursework Sample)

MarketingStudent's Name:Course:Instructor:Name of the Institution:
Marketing
Marketing refers to the process of management through which services and goods move from producer to the consumer. The process of marketing involves the identification, selection and creation of product, price determination, distribution, and product promotion. The process of marketing focuses on how the product meets and satisfies customer needs. These days, marketing has become more specialized along production (Bose, 2010). This essay will discuss the importance of marketing, the concept of customer value and the relationship between marketing and customer value.
Importance of marketing
Marketing is a helpful process to both the producer and consumer because it facilitates the movement and exchange of goods and services from the producer to the consumer (Bose, 2010). Marketing provides the producer with the information pertaining the exact needs and preferences of the customers. To customers, marketing provides them with the information about the products that can be offered by the manufacturers. It is, therefore, clear that marketing plays an important role in designing the products in a manner that is acceptable to customers and also facilitate the transfer of ownership between the manufacturers and the consumers.
Marketing facilitates the continuous, uninterrupted supply of goods and services to the consumers at affordable prices. By facilitating the continuous supply of goods and services at reasonable price to the community, marketing plays a vital role in the maintenance and raising living standards of the members of the community. Marketing makes goods and services available to the rich, middle class and also to the poor members of the society (Slater, Hult, & Olson, 2010). Large scale production and low prices of products have revolutionized the living standard of all people in the community irrespective of their social classes.
Marketing has created employment for various groups of people in the society. Up to 40% of all people in the community are either directly or indirectly employed by marketing. Buying, selling, insurance, transport, financing, warehousing, and standardization have provided employment opportunities to a large group of individuals in the society (Slater, Hult, & Olson, 2010). Continuous marketing has to be there as far continuous production and consumption of products is there.
The process of marketing is important because it generates revenue for all people in business activities. Any activity that is meant to obtain income qualifies to be a marketing activity. Employees of a business organization can always operate in ways that would make the company realize high margin of profits. Marketing provides a vast range of opportunities to earn revenue through buying and selling of products by creating possession, time and place utilities. The process of marketing should be given high regard as it forms the basis for the survival of all firms.
Marketing provides the basis for decision making to both the producer and the consumer. Producers largely depend on the mechanism of marketing to decide on the type products they should produce and sell. The producer can use marketing techniques to regulate the amount of products he produces depending on the market trend (Slater, Hult, & Olson, 2010). In these days, marketing has become a specialized task just like production. Marketing has also helped the consumer to choose what and when to buy products depending on their use. For example, during winter consumers would prefer buying winter boots instead of open shoes.
Marketing acts as a pool of ideas to all individuals along the chain of distribution. Through marketing, producers can gather relevant ideas regarding the current tastes and preferences of consumers in the market. Consumers also get ideas about the use of new products in the market. Marking, therefore, provides vital information regarding the changes in demand for a given product in the market. Apart from being a good source of ideas, marketing is also a vital tool in the development of the economy. Organized marketing helps the economy to grow strong. The economy of a country becomes weaker when there is lesser stress in the marketing domain. Marketing also enables small businesses to compete with larger companies. Health competition results into overall economic growth.
The concept of customer value
Customer value refers to the customer preferences and evaluation of product attributes and consequences that arise from the use of the product and that bring about or block customer's satisfaction. Customer value can also be defined regarding the value of the product to the customer and the cost he incurs to obtain the product (Prahalad, & Ramaswamy, 2004). Customer value can be classified into functional, epistemic value experimental or symbolic.
Functional value concern how useful is the product and whether the product has the desired characteristics. It also focuses on whether the product can perform the desired function. The functional value of products encompasses the features, performance, and outcomes of using the product.For example, Smiggle stores in Australia have the majority of their products in colors purple, blue, pink, green, white, black to make then appealing to children and young demographics who are their major customers. The shape and colors products of single stores have a played a vital role in promoting their products aesthetic value. They also have a modem that has a shape of a dinosaur meant to attract young buyers. (Elliott, Percy, & Pervan, 2015).
The experience value refers to the extent to which a product creates the desired feelings, emotions and experiences to the customers. For example, Smiggle stores have utilized this aspect of the customer value by ensuring that their products come in five bright colors. Bright colors have helped in raising their customers' sensitivity to their products (Elliott, Percy, & Pervan, 2015). In the entertainment industry, the focus is on the creation of emotional effects such as fun, humor, excitement, adventure or pleasure. The symbolic value is also referred to expressive value, and it is concerned with the extent to which customers relate psychological meaning to the product. Some brands appeal customer's self-worth (Ballantyne, & Varey, 2006). For example, some products like Mercedes and BMW are bought because of their status in the market. Epistemic value is produced by a sense of simple fun or novelty that arouses curiosity to know more about the product. For example smuggle, stores use specifics types of colors to create unique shopping environment. The dinosaur shaped modem sold in these stores is meant to generate a sense of simple fun to the customers. (Elliott, Percy, & Pervan, 2015).
The link between customer value and marketing
Markets consist of customers who come with different incomes, tastes, and cultures, motives, beliefs, norms, and expectations. The Differences bring about differences in the values owned by these people. It is through marketing that the needs of these people are met depending on the differences above. It, therefore, becomes important for the marketing manager to consider these values before developing the marketing strategy. The delivery of superior customer value is based on the establishment of a strong link between the requirements of customer value and major activities of the firm that produce that value. This is the very reason as to why customers are considered to be the assets of the company. Customers should be given regard according to their long-term profitability in the firm. The company's preoccupation with the customer's individualized knowledge is guided by the importance each customer has for the company (Prahalad, & Ramaswamy, 2004).
A firm has to keep familiar with changes in tastes and preferences of their customers to be able to compete fairly with its rivals. The customers' change in tastes and preferences are customer values that influence the marketing strategy of the firm. The consumer's perceptions towards products influence the market status for such products (Soman, & N-Marandi, 2010).