Entrepreneurial Finance: Fundamentals of Financial Planning and Management for Small Business

CHAPTER 18 MARKETING, PROMOTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

Marketing is the process to bring about sales through identifying the right consumers and the right market. It would strive further to know consumers more so as to satisfy their needs and wants, and hope to make them loyal to the firm and its products. Marketing involves recognizing and utilizing what is called the “market mix” with its four major elements (the 4Ps): Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Market mix is defined as the four P-legs on which an integrated marketing strategy can stand to best satisfy the needs and wants of the target customers. This chapter will discuss these elements as they generally sum up the traditional topics of marketing, distribution, and promotion. But before discussing these elements of market mix, we shall briefly review the market and customer.

18.1 Market and Customer

A market is not necessarily a place where buying and selling occurs, although it could be. From an economic point of view, a market is where consumers (buyers) interact with producers (sellers). It is a reflection of the interaction between demand and supply of goods and services. In a business perspective, a market would be any group of consumers who have something in common related to their needs and wants. For example, the college kids who drink Red Bull and other energy drinks, people who shop at the Salvation Army Stores, men who drive sports cars, women who buy romance novels, and so on. Each of these groups is a ...