Marketing is a social moment aimed at satisfying the needs and desires of people and organizations by ensuring the free and competitive exchange of goods and services of value to the customer.
The marketing policy of the company is based on two complementary approaches - strategic and operational. Strategic is a systematic and continuous analysis of the needs and requirements of key groups.
Operational is the organization of sales, sales and communication policies to inform potential customers and demonstrate product differentiation while reducing the cost of finding customers. Operational marketing is an active process with a short-term planning horizon aimed at the already existing markets. It is a classic commercial process for obtaining a given volume of sales through the use of tactical means related to product, sales, price and communication.
The main purpose of operational marketing is the generation of income from sales, target turnover. The goal of achieving a certain volume of sales is transformed into a production program for the operations department and into a storage and physical sales program for the sales department. Thus, it is a defining element that directly affects the short-term profitability of the company. Activity is a decisive factor in the company's operations, especially in markets where competition is intense. Any product that is even of excellent quality must have a price that is acceptable to the market, be available in a sales network adapted to the habits of the target customers and have communication support that promotes the product and emphasizes its distinctive qualities.
It is the most dramatic and visible aspect of marketing, mainly because of the important role that advertising and promotion activities play. However, it is clear that without a solid strategic framework, there is no absolutely cost-effective operational marketing. No matter how powerful the operational marketing plan may be, it cannot create demand where there is no need, and it cannot maintain a direction that is doomed to disappear. Therefore, in order to ensure profitability, operational marketing must be based on strategic thinking, which in turn is based on the needs of the market and its expected evolution.
Strategic marketing is first of all the analysis of the needs of individuals and organizations. From the point of view of marketing, the buyer does not need the product so much as wants to solve the problem, which can provide the product. The solution can be found with the help of various technologies, which themselves are constantly changing. The role of tracking the evolution of a given market and identifying the different existing or potential markets or segments of them based on the analysis of needs to be met.
The commodity markets identified are economic opportunities that should be evaluated for their attractiveness. The attractiveness of the commodity market is quantitatively measured by the concept of the market potential, and dynamically characterized by the duration of its existence, or life cycle. For a particular firm, the attractiveness of the commodity market depends on its competitiveness, in other words, on its ability to meet the needs of customers better than its rivals. Competitiveness will continue to exist as long as the firm retains a competitive advantage either because of the special qualities that distinguish it from its rivals or because of the higher productivity that provides it with a cost advantage. The role is to focus the firm on attractive economic opportunities, adapted to its resources and innovations, providing potential for growth and return on investment.
The process of strategic marketing has a medium- to long-term result; the objective is to clarify the mission of the firm, define objectives, develop a development strategy and ensure a balanced structure of the product portfolio, these two functions are interrelated in the sense that the structure of the plan must be closely linked to operational marketing. Operational marketing focuses on variables such as price, sales system, advertising and promotion, while its unit focuses on the choice of commodity markets in which the firm has a competitive advantage and on the forecast of overall demand in each of the target markets.
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