What are the 7 functions of marketing? All marketing functions are necessary for a business? This is a question that many owners or CEOs have at least thought about in their careers.
Some companies have marketing functions inside the sales area. Others outsource it. Others forget about it and go with the flow. But who doesn’t want to start a business and make it flourish? Or have a brand a fraction of what Apple is? This will happen only if people know and desire what you are selling.
That’s when the following question takes place.
Why Should You Implement Marketing in Your Company?
Marketing is a business area that helps inform and sell your products and services to the world. Your company may have the best product to offer, but it won’t be of much use if your potential customers do not know about it.
So, in this article, we will discuss the 7 functions of marketing in detail and how they can help you reach out to your customer the right way. Without further ado, let’s jump into the functions of marketing.
What Are The 7 functions of Marketing?
The 7 functions of marketing include different areas and skills, but they are related to delivering products or services to the end consumer in the best way possible. Below you can see the 7 functions of Marketing:
- Distribution
- Financing
- Marketing Information Management
- Pricing
- Product And Service Management
- Promotion
- Selling
And now that you know what they are, let’s detail each of them and help you understand their responsibilities and benefits.
#1 of 7 Functions of Marketing: Distribution
You have goods and services, and now you want to sell them to the public, obviously.
One of the primary steps to achieve that is to make sure that they reach the people looking to buy them. Although it seems separate from marketing at first glance, that is not the case. Without distribution, your product will not go anywhere.
Distribution planning involves decisions about the routes products and services need to take to get to the market. Physical transportation and storing of goods are also a part of distribution planning.
However, distribution can be digital as well. This is done by sharing information about someone’s goods and services on channels such as social media platforms and customer forums.
For instance, online stores, retail stores, and catalogs are a few other distribution channels.
It is essential to decide on the distribution channels such that it leads to the fulfillment of the firm’s marketing objectives. Hence it is necessary that the various departments of an organization coordinate to implement the distribution strategy successfully.
#2 of Functions of Marketing: Financing
Why are we talking about Finance in an article on marketing?
Well, firstly, no business can take off without an initial investment. Even after a business does well, it needs regular investments to sustain itself in the long run. One has to invest in a company using a mix of loans, personal capital, and investments.
Coming to the marketing team, they must secure sufficient budgets to run their campaigns successfully. The amount of funding depends on the nature of the campaign.
For instance, if a product targets the youth, it is better to advertise on Instagram and TikTok. Otherwise, the more conventional methods can do the trick. However, with the world becoming smaller because of the Internet, most services are being advertised digitally.
Higher marketing budgets also mean that the campaigns carried out will be more elaborate in nature, and the marketing team will have more freedom to work with different media.
Moreover, higher budgets are also likely to result in campaigns that align with current industry trends. They could also be trendsetters or pioneering efforts. This is an iterative process. The greater the number of high-quality campaigns a team executes, the greater the return on investment.
The demonstration of value will help them gain funding quickly for future projects. For achieving a high ROI, the team needs to allocate their resources optimally across brand awareness and lead generation campaigns.
Financing also means offering customers various means of payment such as credit. One can do so through vendors like Visa or MasterCard. Businesses can also provide alternate forms of credit.
#3 of Functions Of Marketing: Marketing Information Management
The key to success in marketing lies in understanding one’s customer. If there exists a lack of clarity about the end customer in your business, then the knowledge of the 7 functions of marketing will not take you anywhere.
Therefore, businesses must know their target audience through focus groups and other methods. These include surveys, online reviews, social media interactions, and market research reports.
These methods provide unique data and specific feedback about your marketing efforts, product, or service.
For instance, form fills or the number of followers are appropriate measures for the effectiveness of a social media campaign.
Current, past, or potential data from customers often requires online forms. Here, it becomes crucial to create crisp and to-the-point forms.
However, they must also collect all relevant information, and additionally, they must be intuitive and user-friendly.
Apart from customer data, marketing information management comprises data collection related to competitors and industry trends. This focus on data and information enables firms to optimize their marketing strategies, and it also helps them make other vital decisions such as product design, pricing, and campaign strategy.
#4 of 7 Functions Of Marketing: Pricing
Pricing is one of the most important of the 7 functions of marketing. It is also one of the most complex decisions to make.
There are many factors to consider before firms can arrive at the price for their offerings.
These include:
- How much can a person spend
- What amount is the person willing to spend
- How much does the offering cost
- What is the cost of the alternatives
- The current expectation of the market
- Are there any government policies in place to regulate pricing?
While setting the price of a product, it is crucial to account for a mix of cost and value. Price plays a significant role in deciding the perception of your offering in people’s minds.
A very high price might drive customers away from the product. On the other hand, an extremely low price point might deprive the company of profits.
However, in the case of luxury brands, the point is entirely different. People are willing to pay extra for the brand along with the product. But in return, they want the premium experience. A classic case of this is the iPhone. Users are ready to pay a premium for the unique features of the Apple ecosystem.
In many cases, luxury brands are a status symbol, and they are a way of establishing yourself as a part of a select few. Owning a Louis Vitton handbag or a Harley Davidson bike are examples where consumers display this behavior.
The information required to arrive at the pricing, such as the spending power of the consumers or competitor pricing, is obtained through the market research conducted earlier.
The data from the marketing information management systems feed into this step. This information is critical and comes in extensive use when finalizing the price.
#5 of 7 Functions Of Marketing: Product And Service Management
The product or service is at the core of the 7 functions of marketing. If the offering is not good, no marketing can salvage it. You can get a learning course on the same here from Udemy.
Firstly, the company needs to perform an in-depth gap analysis before introducing a product or service in the market. Once that is done and the product developed, a small pilot launch is given, and feedback is obtained.
Analyzing competitor products is crucial as it provides a frame of reference. Customer feedback and competitor reaction are closely followed even after the product is launched. This is then incorporated into future versions of the product.
Additionally, it allows one to develop superior products and have significant differentiation. This can then help create a unique identity for one’s brand.
The marketing team must be highly proactive in collecting feedback to add to the product roadmap, and this activity will immensely help the product teams.
Also, the potential features of a product can be obtained from market research studies. Product management, in general, is a role that requires a very high degree of cross-functional collaboration.
Given that the product is central to the whole process, it is not surprising that product managers have a pivotal role in most organizations today. Their work helps in meeting both consumer needs and company goals.
#6 of 7 Functions Of Marketing: Promotion
Promotion involves informing the customers about your product through various channels. Then you also go ahead and persuade them to buy it. It also plays a crucial role in educating the audience about the nuances of your brand.
As promotional strategies can make or break your brand, they must be well planned. These usually include a whole gamut of activities across a range of channels. Some of the tasks involved are:
- Field Marketing
- Designing and printing collaterals
- Managing social media and e-mail campaigns
- Publishing e-books, infographics, and whitepapers
- Participation in industry events
- Public relations
- Brand Partnerships
- Analyst Relations
- Influencer Marketing
- Digital Marketing
It is imperative to be flexible in coming up with promotional strategies. Also, one must remember that the messaging and medium have to be customized to appeal to the target demographic. This means that the decision of the promotion mix is exceptionally crucial.
Apart from disseminating information, the other objective that promotion aims to achieve is creating a buzz around the product or service. The more positive hype or excitement around an offering, the better the sales are, typically seen in cases where previous products have done well.
For instance: The Harry Potter books or the Marvel movies.
Word of mouth publicity also works wonders for certain products and services. This is observed in the service industry: Hotels, salons, amusement parks, and the like benefit immensely from offering a memorable experience to their customers.
#7 of 7 Functions Of Marketing: Selling
We have come to the last one among the 7 functions of marketing – selling. Now, many may argue that selling or closing the deal is the sales team’s job, and yes, they are correct.
However, marketers constantly work behind the scenes to enhance the brand’s reputation. They also help to build a customer base and nurture it.
Marketers know how to be subtle and not oversell their products and services. Also, a salesperson should be the last touchpoint in the entire process of selling. The customer should already be aware of the benefits of your offering and should have made up his mind about your product.
Additionally, selling is dependent on other factors as well. If an incorrect distribution channel is chosen, the sales team will not accomplish much as the product will not reach the intended audience.
Effective selling methods help distinguish a brand from the rest of the playing field. This is because selling is all about striking that delicate balance between effective communication and the product’s pricing.
Selling effectively is also about teamwork. The marketing team can help build a story that convinces the customer, and the sales team can then relate that story to the actual offering.
As marketers, one must never sell the product or service to the end-user but rather how their lives will become more accessible.
In Conclusion
So, what do we garner from all of this? Some key takeaways are that businesses need to perform their due diligence while conducting research, resulting in a clearer understanding of the target market.
Subsequently, business owners and marketing teams can use the collected information to develop a specific marketing strategy. This is bound to deliver better results than a spray and pray approach.
Formulating and implementing a well-thought marketing strategy will also help enhance ROI and the overall KPIs of the marketing efforts. The improvement in quantifiable results also opens the doors to more funds that allow teams to expand their marketing efforts.
When it comes down to tangible results from marketing, businesses need to look at things from a long-term perspective. This holds especially true in the case of B2B businesses.
The aim of marketing should be to maximize profits for the business. This can be achieved by optimally pricing your products or services to feel that they are getting their money’s worth.
As a marketer, one must be open to re-evaluating and modifying their strategy as and when needed for better results. It is only when a firm’s efforts are rooted in these 7 functions of marketing that their businesses perform well in the long run.
Ranu Kumari is a Professional Writer and a Marketing enthusiast who currently runs her own Marketing Consultancy, LatitudeBOX. She has written promotional articles for multiple brands and has published her work in Scopus indexed journals. She is passionate about expressing her thoughts and ideas to connect with her readers in a voice that they understand.
I would add a new one: digital marketing, which is already the most important channel for marketing expenses.
That’s definitely an important part of the marketing functions.
No
It’s the 7 functions of marketing, not the 8.
Top ,.. top top … post! Keep the good work on !