ShivaniWhen you enter the field of marketing, it’s become crucial to comprehend the seven marketing functions and their roles. Each function defines a key component of the marketing process and underlines how marketers help their businesses succeed.
Therefore, becoming acquainted with these components as a marketing professional can let you better understand your industry, develop effective marketing campaigns and promote your brand.
This article lists the 7 functions of marketing and describes why they’re important.
What are marketing functions?
Marketing functions act as a work foundation that marketing professionals do. Each function contains a set of responsibilities and tasks for a marketing team to create, organize and execute a successful campaign. There are 7 functions of marketing that contribute to the overall work of marketers.
What makes the 7 functions of marketing important?
The seven marketing functions are essential since each of them symbolizes a category of activities that happens in marketing. Marketing strives to promote and sell products in a competitive marketplace and to direct to the seven marketing functions frequently while designing a campaign lets marketing teams remain focused on their goals. In addition, the seven marketing functions are essential for understanding marketing strategies, processes, and tools. These functions perform cohesively to let professionals develop consistent marketing strategies for several brands and organizations.
7 Functions of Marketing
We have to understand seven marketing functions to discover the marketing intent. Such functions represent all aspects that are part of the marketing effort. This section will look at the 7 functions of marketing more precisely.
1. Sell
Building value and delivering value for buyers are linked mainly by selling. Sales showcase the change in value ownership and provide consumers with the services and goods they desire. It possesses business-to-business sales to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers’ retail sales.
Sales operations and methods include identifying customer requirements and satisfying them through planned, personalized communication. In addition, the sales process has a lot to do with the customer’s purchasing decision and prospective business development.
Marketing and sales are added functions. For instance, marketing builds awareness and branding for a product, allowing a company’s sales staff or retail staff to sell more products.
2. Promotion
Promotions make current customers and potential customers familiar with your product and company. Utilizing marketing strategies, such as direct marketing, telemarketing, advertising, or public relations, you can share product benefits and build interest in your products.
Promotion usually uses integrated marketing communication (IMC) – which suggests using different ways of communication to share a brand’s message from the business to the consumer.
Mentoring can be used to help new marketing professionals develop their skills in promotion. Mentors can teach them how to create effective marketing messages, how to target their messages to the right audiences, and how to measure the success of their marketing campaigns.
Marketers usually use promotion in two main methods:
- Above the line: activities to encourage and build a brand image with an endurable and long-term purpose through mass media such as TV, Radio, Print & Outdoor Ads. The Brand team usually undertakes these activities.
- Below the line: activities strived at expanding the distribution market, promoting retail consumption for short-term purposes, and making direct effects, such as sample delivery, direct marketing, organization events, promotions for consumers, promotions for agents and retailers.
3. Distribution
Distribution defines how and where your customers can buy your products. If you are marketing products to a small number of business customers, you can transact instantly with them through the sales team. However, if the business expands to other regions or countries, it can be more cost-effective to reach consumers through local distributors. Customer product marketing companies are dispersed through retail stores or over the Internet.
Distribution Channels are companies and individuals bringing products or services to customers. To put it simply, Distribution is shown through consumers’ places to purchase products or services. For example, it could be traditional store affiliates or online sales sites.
There are four main types of distribution channels: Direct Distribution Channels, Indirect Distribution Channels, Wholesale / Retail Distribution Channels, and Electronic Distribution Channels.
4. Financing
We all understand that finance is mainly about having the money needed to establish and run a business. Then, however, the question occurs: Why is it important and a marketing function?
Finance and marketing work closely with each other. Without marketing, it would be challenging for a company to sell products, convey value to customers, and not have stable and growing finances.
Several business owners prefer to borrow from a bank to start a business. On the other hand, some customers rely on selling shares or shares of the company. Besides, financing also impacts decisions such as whether to give credit to customers or not.
To ensure prudent financial management and facilitate informed decision-making, many business owners can utilize an online budget planner to track their expenses, evaluate the feasibility of extending credit to customers, and effectively allocate resources for sustained growth. Most retailers let customers pay with options like Visa or MasterCard, while others offer their credit.
In short, successful marketing delivers a regular revenue stream to pay for operating the business.
Marketing programs that improve customer loyalty further ensure long-term sales, while product development programs generate new revenue. Finance also plays a crucial role in marketing success by providing customers alternative payment methods such as loans, long-term credit, or leasing.
5. Market Research
Market research plays a critical role in creating and implementing business strategies to meet market needs. The importance of marketing in the business is to emphasize identity and satisfy customer requirements through communication. To determine customer requirements, thereby building and implementing market research strategies and programs to fulfill those needs, marketing directors require more information about consumers, competitors, and other information on the market.
Based on market research on consumer information and the factors affecting customers’ buying or not buying behavior, business manufacturers have designed products and goods that satisfy customers even if they are the most fastidious.
6. Product Management
Marketing delivers valuable input to product and service development. For instance, information about consumer needs identifies features to incorporate in new products and product upgrades. Marketing also recognizes opportunities to grow product reach or bring existing products into new areas.
Product Management is a vital function in an organization, ensuring priority tasks according to business goals. Therefore, the product manager’s position plays an integral role in startups and businesses. In addition, product Management helps you make decisions that match consumer needs and company goals.
As more and more companies are focusing on innovation, the role of Product Management has become a critical factor in the success of those organizations.
7. Pricing
Price plays a vital role in defining market success and profitability. If you market products with numerous competitors, you could encounter price competition. In that case, you need to target the lowest cost provider to bid low and still be profitable. You can overcome low-priced competition by distinguishing your products and offering customers benefits and values that your competitors cannot match.
This is the most critical function of the marketing manager to determine a price for the product. Then, of course, production costs, margins, competitive product prices, government policies, etc.
A marketer can do the function of pricing for its goods by developing pricing systems based on product life cycles or stages. Price is the actual value that customers perceive your product to be. Therefore, the price of a product should be fixed so that it is not too high, but at the same time, it must also be profitable enough for the company.
Conclusion
In this post, we have learned why marketing functions are important and what are the 7 functions of marketing you should know. By understanding marketing functions, you will do better and develop exciting marketing ideas.
