Apparently, the purpose of marketing is to promote the product or service of a company to help the business manifold its sales. However, the horizon of the functions of marketing is not limited to merely boosting sales. In fact, the primary function of marketing is to identify customer needs while formulating strategies to capitalize on customer’s unmet needs. Plus, marketers also strive their best to deliver customer needs.
So, it is not wrong to say that marketing performs multiple functions. Thus, the marketing experts have categorized the overall phenomena into 7 functions of marketing. Let’s dive in together to develop a better understanding of the interconnected 7 seven functions of marketing.
Promotion
Marketing research experts ranked promotion on top of the list of 7 functions of marketing. Moreover, experts are also of the view that marketers cannot achieve marketing objectives unless they devise a comprehensive plan for promoting the product or service.
You must be wondering that why promotion has been deemed exceptionally significant in the marketing process. It lies in the fact that promotion brings your product to the spotlight while building awareness for your brand.
In addition to this, promotion helps businesses to build and grow their profiles. The promotion has been viewed from a broader perspective by marketers. So, it may incorporate digital media marketing, content marketing, email or mobile phone marketing campaign, and much more.
However, promotional activities can overlap with other marketing functions, such as advertisements, societal campaigns, and public relations.
In short, promotion is the backbone of any marketing plan, and undermining promotional strategy is not affordable at any phase.
Selling
The ultimate goal of a profitable organization is to maximize its sales in one way or another. This is not a toothless statement. From brand building to public relations to societal campaigns, companies are striving to sell their products.
So, experts could never imagine missing selling on the list of 7 functions of marketing. Marketers tend to increase sales for their employers by attracting potential customers. Once the potential customers find your product right for them, your selling technique determines either they end up buying your product or drops the plan.
Selling is not just convincing potential customers to invest in your product. The selling strategy also determines your target customer segment. Furthermore, how you capitalize on your competitor’s weaknesses may also be a part of the selling plan.
In brief, selling is another crucial component that is in line with the functions of the marketing department.
Getting insight into the market
As already discussed, marketing is the art of identifying customer needs to make maximum profits by serving the unmet need of customers. However, the process is not organic, and it needs to be directed by external factors rather than relying on coincidences or luck.
Market research is one of the notable factors that have an individual standing on the list of 7 functions of marketing. Marketing teams may yield optimized results by acquiring relevant market information.
You must be thinking about the reasons behind the exceptional importance of marketing research. Let us dig out for you. Marketing research helps you develop a strong marketing strategy by equipping marketers with key insights. Plus, marketing research also helps to analyze your competitors prior to entering the market.
Moreover, once you get the relevant information, you will be better positioned to design and formulate the marketing mix for your business. So, who is likely to buy your product or service? What can provide an impetus to your potential customers for making a final decision for your product? And how long is the customer to remain loyal to your company? It all depends upon the market insights you acquire through marketing research.
In a nutshell, marketing research is pertinent to achieve marketing objectives while paving grounds for sustainable business growth.
Marketing Information management
Comparing to the other functions of marketing, it is the most essential one. A good marketer will always gather the information and data first because it helps to identify the target market and potential customers. Moreover, information also aids you to identify the market trends and customers’ changing interests which further leads to a successful business.
Another exciting fact about collecting data and information for marketing is that the sales and marketing team do not solely use data for itself; instead, it is one of the significant most functions of the marketing to share the data with other departments and equally help them.
For example, the data provided by the marketing team will be used by the production department to make or alter the product according to the changing needs of the consumer.
Pricing
Pricing is equally important as the above-mentioned functions of marketing are. However, numerous brands ignore the fact of an effective pricing strategy, which results in loss of customers and revenue. Therefore, it is essential to keep the balance between the cost of production and the profit margin. Moreover, before setting up the price, it is compulsory to keep the prices and value of the competitors’ goods.
It is a well-known fact that what people perceive about the value of the good directly impacts the pricing strategy. It is vital to survey the market and see how people will value your product. If you own an established brand like Hermes or MK, it doesn’t matter if your cost of production matches your selling price or not. However, if you are going to compete with the established brands, you need to set attractive prices in order to grab customers from other sellers.
Financing
This function of marketing is not as important as the above-mentioned functions seven functions of marketing. However, it holds a special place when it comes to business objectives. Financing is not a big deal for most businesses, but let’s just think for a while: if your department does not have enough funds to support your next marketing campaign, how are you supposed to achieve your goals?
Whenever people talk about financing, they try to focus on the new business expenses or the upfront costs. However, financing is also concerned with the day-to-day concerns of the business, and company owners have to make difficult decisions for budgeting at the end of every month or quarter.
Effective marketing strategy is the key in this regard; marketing can help to generate more revenue by expanding into the other markets and reaching more customers. In this way, they can secure the financing for their department and create revenue for the other departments.
Moreover, a concrete marketing strategy also helps to get the funding for the third parties and most of the financing firms and top national banks to see if you have an appropriate marketing plan for the successful business. It builds up a good brand image and reasonable revenue in the long run.
Distribution
Most of us think that distribution is supply chain management. However, just like the above mention functions of marketing, it is also considered important. Although it comes into the supply chain section, how your product reaches your customer and where you are selling your product comes into the marketing segment.
You will not find a titan watch, a grocery shop, or one dollar shop because these two brands represent different markets. People visiting one dollar shops will never buy expensive Rolex because they are a dollar store to shop within the budget.
Therefore, marketing managers also take care of the placement of the product; you will always find Rolex watches in expensive wristwatch outlets. A good marketer will know where the potential customers will reach their product.
Even if we take the example of digital space, nobody will expect to find a dermatologist at Fiver. Therefore, it depends on the nature of the job and then the distribution channel.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, we have written seven functions of the marketing department with real-life marketing functions examples. However, the marketing department of any business is the most important department, and behind every successful business, there is a hard-working marketing team. Yet, the marketing department is not restricted to the above-mentioned functions of marketing, and they have multiple other functions as well.
