Marketing is complex. It encompasses tons of different disciplines, strategies, and tactics. As a result, developing a basic understanding of how it works can be difficult. Learning the trade can take years of dedication and honing your craft, oftentimes in a handful of specific areas (such as strategy, copywriting, or analytics). Like a lot of things, though, future success starts with solid fundamentals. And if you’re looking to learn, you’ve come to the right place. This post will cover everything you need to get started on your marketing journey. Think of it like the ultimate 101 guide, packed full of actionable advice you won’t learn in the classroom. It’s also laid out to be easy to understand, turning complicated concepts into easily digestible chunks of information. Bookmark this page, then get down to learning.
What is Marketing?
In simplest terms, marketing is the act of driving profitable customer action. It spans the full scope of strategies and tactics organizations use to position products and services in the marketplace, and motivate target audiences to make a purchase.
Understanding the Marketing Mix and the 4 P’s of Marketing
For all its complexity, at its core, marketing revolves around four things: product, price, promotion, and place. Tactics and channels change, but these are the concepts everything else revolves around, and they’re principles that never change. Some models expand these basic principles to 7 P’s, or another variation. But, for your purposes, these four should be sufficient for developing an understanding of how marketing works.
Product
This is what a company sells, whether that means a physical good, or a service (such as consulting, a subscription, or something else). From a marketing perspective, the following would need to be determined:
- How many different product variations or lines should be sold? For example, a car manufacturer might strategize on which vehicle categories to build (such as family cars, SUVs, crossovers, or pickup trucks).
- How should they be packaged or presented? To make another example, if a company made replacement car floor mats, should they come in a box? A bag? Something else?
- How will it be serviced? This could include warranties, handling returns, and so forth.
Marketers might even have some involvement in determining how products are designed and which features they might include (here at CoSchedule, for instance, marketers and product developers communicate closely).
Price
This is just “how much stuff costs,” right? Well, sure. But there’s more to it than that.
If marketing is all about driving profitable action, then prices need to be set at a level the market will support. Here are some marketing considerations with prices:
- What is the market rate per unit of a product? This requires some market analysis and competitive research to determine what’s a fair price for a product, given its cost to produce, and what people are willing to pay.
- How should discounts be timed and applied? Should the product be put on sale at certain times of year?
- Does it make sense to give customers options for payments? A car dealership might offer financing options, rather than expecting people to pay the full price up front.
Promotion
If a product launches but no one cares, does it even exist? Well, yeah, technically it does, but it’s just taking up space if no one’s buying it. Once a product is out there, it needs to be promoted so people know it exists.
- Which channels will be used to promote the product? This includes online and offline channels.
- Where will it be promoted? Online? Offline? In stores? At events?
- What message needs to be communicated? What copy and verbiage will tell audiences what the product is all about, and encourage them to buy it?
Place
The right product needs to be in the right place for people to find it and buy it.
- Where is the product distributed? Online? Offline?
Will specific locations get the product? For example, if you sell cold weather clothing, you might not distribute as much to Florida and you might in Minnesota.