Marketing

Abstract

Rapidly increasing global competition, the emergence of new markets, and technological advancements make today’s marketplace a highly dynamic and challenging environment for companies. From start-ups to well-established firms, increasingly, effective marketing separates organizations that survive and prosper from those that do not. Marketing is the process through which organizations identify customer needs and then develop and distribute products and services to satisfy these needs. The recent flourishing of social media, review websites, and more generally user-generated content have made the consumer more powerful than ever, providing them with an immense amount of information and leverage. At the same time, these developments have created new channels of communication and new sources of customer data for marketers. This new landscape makes marketing as a profession much more exciting. Marketers now need to learn new techniques, make more data-driven decisions, and be knowledgeable about consumer psychology and use intuition to take advantage of the emotional aspects of consumption. Marketing in this new age means blending customer data with understanding of psychological theories to create greater value for the customers. Understanding marketing is crucial for succeeding in any business role, as marketers interact with all areas of business to create value for customers and find ways to capture value (i.e., make money) for the business.