Marketing, Competition and the Customer
What is marketing?
It refers to the identification of customer’s needs and wants so as to satisfy them and influnece the level of competition to make profit.
The role of Marketing is to:
- Identify customer’s needs and wants
- Maintain customer loyalty
- Gain information about customers
- Anticipate changes in customer’s needs and wants.
How to maintain the level of competition and increase customer’s spending?
- Maintain good customer relationships
- Better advertising strategies
- Minimise the cost of production
- Improving the product packaging
Why do customers spending pattern change?
- Changes in tastes and fashion
- Changes in technology
- Changes in Incomes
- Age structure
What is a market?
It is a place where buyers and sellers meet. It is a place where buyers and sellers get together to trade.
Types of market
- Mass Marketing- It is a place where the market is large due high demand.
| Advantage | Disadvantage |
| High market share | Standardised products |
| Economies of scale | Too much competition |
| High cost of advertising |
2. Niche Marketing– It is a place where the market is small due to low level of demand.
| Advantage | Disadvantage |
| Personalised products | Limited sales potential |
| Lower cost of advertisement | No diversification |
Market Segmentation– It refers occurs when a market is divided into indentifiable sub-groups in which customers have similar characteristics or preferences.
Ways of segmenting a market
- Socio-economic groups
- Age
- Gender
- Location
Advantages
- identify the gap
- Reduce risk
- Higher sales potential