We all know that marketing is an extremely vital role in any working business. It contributes greatly to the success of almost all organisations as any form of production or distribution relies majorly on marketing. Marketing can alternatively be known as advertisement of products and services to the market place.  

A lot of people are under the impression that Sales and Marketing are the same thing, or play the same roles, but in many aspects the two roles are completely different, although both are closely coordinated. Marketing covers a number of areas such as advertising, promotions, public relations, and sales. Marketing is the process used when introducing and promoting either a product or service in a market, which leads to encouraging sales from the buying, consumer public. Marketing is the presentation of the products and services and making them available to the customers with the goal of generating profits. Sales, on the other hand, is the output of marketing implementations, which are when the act of purchasing takes place, that final step that you need to take to really convince the buyer to part with their money for the product or service being provided. A business produces good product sales out of effective marketing programs while poorly planned marketing plans end up in low sales generation.

The overall goal of a marketing strategy is to make the product or service at hand widely known and recognisable to the consumer market, this is actually not as easy as it may seem, and marketers must be extremely creative and innovative in their marketing ideas and activities. From a strategic point of view, the company’s main focus must be the customers, rather than the product. Although having a worth while and quality product is essential, it is the consumer public that you need to convince into buying these products, and each of those members of public will have their own personal preference. You will find that if you target the needs and wants of the consumer public they will come back time and time again, which will spark off a form of domino effect, because they will then bring with them new recruits as followers of your product. However, if your main aim is to push the product as much as you can, disregarding the publics wants and needs they will disappear in no time at all, and that leads to the hardest part, which is actually getting them back.

Promotes Product/Brand Awareness 

As we have already established, getting the service or product of a company recognised by the consumer market is the primary goal of any business. No business in their right mind would have the idea to just let people find out about their company at their own leisure, unless you already have an established reputation within your industry.

However, if you are a company that is only just starting out, the only possible means of making yourself known is through constant advertising and promotion. This may mean your business is spending out a fair amount on these methods but it will be worth it in the long run and it is getting you straight into the eye of the buying public. It is crucial that a company invests in marketing, so they do not miss that opportunity of being discovered. If expenses are an aspect of the company that needs to be considered, there are cost-effective marketing techniques that any company can embark on, for example, pay-per-click ads and blogging.

There are many various types of marketing approaches that can by put into place by any organisation. All forms of marketing no matter what it is, promotes product awareness to the consumer market.  Both online and offline marketing make it possible for the public to become aware and educated about any products or services that are available to them.

Offline Marketing- Modern marketing has been very helpful to the majority of business in the past few years, but traditional marketing is still as strong and effective as it always has been. It is advised to many businesses not to overlook offline marketing, because it is still widely used by many successful businesses. Advertising through sources such as television, printed adverts and radio have always proven to be an extremely effective form of marketing, and increasing product awareness right up till this way day. Television is viewed on a continuous and daily basis, and newspapers are still actively and widely circulated worldwide, however, companies tend to reap many benefits from combining both online, and offline marketing strategies.

Online Marketing-

Online marketing is a continuously expanding powerful marketing tool, but is still equally effective as offline marketing. The only bonus of online marketing over offline marketing would be the fact that companies can save a lot more money when they launch marketing campaigns via the Internet. This means small-scale businesses where budget is an issue could benefit greatly from this form of advertising. Online marketing also gives companies a chance to advertise their products alongside larger companies. A common type of online marketing is known as affiliate marketing, which is when a company ties up with an affiliate or online advertiser who will take care of advertising the company’s products to thousands of the online users. Another example of the bonus of online marketing is that of video campaigns, the production cost of using online video is a lot less then television advertising. Online marketing has a number of advantages over traditional forms of marketing. Advertising online can easily reach a huge number of individuals in an extremely short span of time, with the advertisement lasting longer and on an unlimited time scale.

Word of Mouth- One of the best forms of advertisement that a company could invest in would be work-of-mouth. Not one single penny’s worth of the company’s money needs to be invested in this marketing tool; the only effective payment is excellent customer satisfaction. A constant proactive approach towards your customer base builds good relationships. They will then tell their friends and people they know about your company, and how you are willing to go that extra mile. This effortless process will then increase your customers, which turns into an increasing company profit.

Accelerates Product Sales and Company Profit

Marketing is useful for much more than just creating public awareness. Marketing also helps boosts sales and budget growth. Whatever products or services the business is selling, it will automatically generate sales once the public has learnt about what is on offer. Whether it is via radio commercials, newspapers, online ads or TV adverts they are all strong forms or marketing that will get you noticed. The more the consumer public see of your and hear about you, the more interested they will become in your company and services, which will lead to a higher interest to buy.

If a company intends to increase their sales and be able to double their production, then they need to have a very strong marketing team that will be able to come up with the effective marketing strategies to grab the public’s attention and keep it.

Builds a Company’s Reputation

A vital part of marketing within any business is creating bran name recognition or product recall. In non-marketing terms this is when consumers can easily associate a brand with a select image, caption, logo or tune that they may hear or see on a regular basis from any of the above marketing possibilities.

An example of this would be the electronics company Apple Inc, their logo is simple an apple with e bit taken out of the side. As soon as people see this logo they automatically think of a number of products such as the iPhone, iPod, and the iPad they have created such powerful brand awareness through marketing strategies that by simple seeing that logo on it’s own can attract people.

Once a company manages to reach the stage where they have created an established name for themselves within their chosen industry, their business can continue to grow and expand with ease. This is because the more brand awareness they have created, the more customers they will attract, and the more profit they will make.

Final Words of Wisdom

All in all when it comes to business, companies must know that everything comes with a risk, even investing money into an advertising campaign is a risk, because nothing is ever at a guarantee to succeed. However… the company that does not take the risk will be at a risk of losing their business because they lack public awareness. Any type of marketing can be effective as long as a proper marketing strategy is designed.

A business MUST invest in numerous marketing activities to advance against the stiff competition that exists in all industries. Marketing is there to introduce your products and services to the potential consumer market that will keep your company afloat, and is therefore a vital factor in any business. So to sum up, when people say, no advertising is the worst kind of advertising, they are speaking the truth.