Marketing is typically defined as the creation, promotion, and delivery of goods and services directed towards consumers and businesses.

Marketing is all about building a relationship with customers and requires a deep understanding of consumer behavior.

Marketing strategy is the way of doing marketing towards a certain positioning.

(1) Generic marketing strategy

(2) Segmentation and targeting

Scale economies state that a company can produce at a lower cost per unit of production if it is able to use the capacity further.

Differentiation refers to offering extra value in addition to the basic features offered in the product.

Cost-leader companies try to minimize the cost, not the price. They can offer the product with low price (through which they maximize their profit margins) or with an ongoing, average price (through which they maximize their market share).

The reasoning behind cost leadership strategy is that in each industry, customers are looking for a few basic things being offered in a product.

Focus strategy attempts to capture a smaller segment in the market.

Companies with a focus strategy do not focus on a specific product, but rather focus on a specific segment of customers with particular needs/ wants/desires.

Segmentation is the task of dividing this population into sub-groups in a way that can meaningfully separate consumers in terms of their consumption patterns.

Psychographics enable marketers to closely “know” consumers and understand their psychological and social predispositions.

An ideal segmentation approach combines different strategies (including demographics and psychographics) to arrive at groups with the highest level of differentiation.

Targeting involves the careful selection of at least one segment by considering a variety of different factors.

Marketing mix, also known as the 4Ps of marketing, constitutes the set of all marketing activities a company engages itself in pursuing its marketing goals and objectives.

Product (good or service) is the offering in the market, created and sold in order to solve a problem or satisfy a need or want.

The simplest pricing method is cost-based pricing where companies first figure out the cost of producing one item, and then add a profit margin to arrive the price to be used in the marketplace.

Retailing is simply the process of selling consumer goods and services to customers, also the term often refers to a physical shop with a service provider filling the small orders of a large number of individuals.

Promotion entails the activities that attempt to establish some sort of a relationship with target customers, and all shareholders involved, and try to win the heart and loyalty of consumers.

Advertising is the most expensive but the most effective (in terms of the number of people reached with one message) contact method. It is the most well-known mass method of conveying a message.

Public relations (PR) involves gaining exposure in the mass media and other types of contact channels and proactively managing the dispersion of information between organizations and individuals.

Branding involves a set of marketing and promotion activities that promote the brand, aiming to have a persistent image in consumers’ minds. Branding is the most strategic investment of the company.

Brand equity is a term reflecting the brand’s worth in the eyes of consumers, usually reflected in the price.

Brand identity is the set of all individual components of a brand, specifically including the imagery, slogans, colors, and all other types of imagery.

Positioning is how the brand is perceived by the consumers and the “position” in their minds.

Perceptual maps are based on consumer perceptions showing the position of the product/brand so that the firm can see its position as perceived by consumers, take corrective action if necessary, compare its position with competitors, and make strategic, future-oriented decisions.

Brand value reflects brand equity (being a well-known brand will generate more revenue) or strength of a brand, the financial strength (the net present value of the estimated future cash flows), and/or the effective attachment consumers have with the brand due to functionally, emotionally, and experientially strong aspects.

Brand personality refers to the set of human characteristics attributable to a brand.

“Big-data” in this new era represents large and complex sets of data collected through primary data collection methods and data readily available on the web.

Content marketing refers to the creation, publishing, and distribution of digital content for a targeted audience online.

Marketing ethics deals with the moral principles behind marketing activities. One of the newest eras in marketing involves the concept of societal marketing, for instance, which tries to discuss creative ways to optimize consumer satisfaction and preserve society and nature as a whole.