What is marketing? There are many definitions given; many scientific articles written on this issue. Our university professors say that marketing is "the art of finding out what the other person wants, then manufacturing it for him". But I believe that marketing is something more than that. Marketing is a magic power that puts our dreams into reality by transforming our needs, wants and demands into tangible and useful things. Marketing is like a genie that executes people's wishes.
According to Henry Ford, a money-making business is all about delivering to people something useful and bringing them a feeling of satisfaction. As soon as people who are potential customers want something, a great number of companies start doing their best to satisfy those needs and wants. There is a good example. Many of us dreamed of being kings, presidents, war leaders or heroes, like Rambo, and now you can be anybody you like when playing computer games like "Age of Empires", "Heroes" or "Quake", produced by different computer companies. And that's marketing! Companies try to discover you wishes, then put them into reality and make a profit.
Every kind of magic has its own secrets. How does the process of marketing go? It is based on the marketing mix that consists of the 4 PS (product, price, place and promotion). First of all, you should identify your opportunities. Imagine, you have a sum or money, and your friend possesses an amazing voice and brilliant music abilities. So working together you can create a CD with magnificent pieces of music which appeal to people's hearts and penetrate their minds.
But before you start producing something, decide on your target audience. Let it be teenagers. Then you should conduct marketing research and discover their problems and interests. You can conduct some structured or unstructured surveys by using mail, e-mail, telephones or personal interviews. You can also find needed information in newspapers and magazines, or other sorts of mass media.
Having collected the information, you've got some themes for composing songs. They can be about first love, relationships with friends, parents, teachers, about disco clubs, about drugs and so on.
Then comes the decision on a brand name. In this case it is the name of the pop group. The brand name should be sensitive, memorable and easy to pronounce. After that, design the label of your CD and style its package.
As soon as you have developed the product, it's time you decide on your price strategy considering the customers' and competitors' behavior. This depends on many factors, including the type of competition, demand, and supply, various non-price factors, etc. But bear in mind that your goal is to cover all expenses and make a profit. So think over how to minimize costs and increase sales of your product.
After this you should make a decision considering the placement of your product. Your CD can be sold in different multimedia shops, in disco clubs, and through other distribution channels.
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Next comes the promotion of your CD. No matter how talented and gifted you or your singers are, you will never meet success until you are promoted. The promotion mix includes advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations.
You can advertise your CD in TV commercials, run your video-clips on music channels, broadcast your songs on radio and play the CD in disco clubs. You can also place the information about your group and its music in magazines and papers for teenagers.
Sales-promotion involves some contests, coupons and lotteries. For example, those, who buy your CD, take part in a lottery and the winners get tickets to a concert of your group. Then comes personal selling - if your group has fans you can recruit them as salespeople. They buy your CDs (and in this case you sell to them cheaper than usual) and distribute them among their friends at a higher price. So they acquire communication skills, a good chance to earn money, and you get an increasing number of actual and potential customers.
At the same time your group can take part in presentations, various celebrations and ceremonies. You can give interviews and express your opinion on different issues. That is called public relations.
Having done this, your CD finds its consumers. They acquire delight and happiness, and your group earns money and wins public recognition. That is the result of marketing magic.
We could stop on this optimistic point, but... some people have a negative attitude towards marketing, for they are victims of low-grade products that were launched, marketed and promoted. And there is one more problem. Our television commercials contain much rubbish, violence and senselessness. Critics blame marketing and marketers for these negative tendencies. But my answer is that they mix marketing with salesmanship this means manufacturing something and making another person want it. We cannot consider salesmanship to be a kind of magic, but we must regard it as a manner of cheating if the product is of low quality and is promoted by misleading commercial.
The main idea of marketing strategy is all about understanding people's needs and a company's mission that should come before designing, manufacturing, placing and promotion of any product.
By Mikhail Odinokov, the State University of Management
Task 2.Answer the questions:
1. What is marketing?
2. How does the process of marketing go? What is it based on?
3. What does the marketing mix consist of?
4. What would you do first of all?
5. What should you do before you start producing something?
6. What should you do having collected the information?
7. What should you do as soon as you have developed the product?
8. What should you do after this?
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9. What comes next?
10. What does the promotion mix consist of?
11. Where can you advertise?
12. What is sales-promotion?
13. What is personal selling?
14. What is public relations?
15. What is the result of marketing magic?
16. What is salesmanship?
17. What is the main idea of marketing strategy
Task 3. Retell the text.
What Is The Brand?
A brand is a special trade mark, sign, symbol, design of the product that distinguishes it from other products. Products can have sub-brands. People have some beliefs and perceptions about a particular product that is they have the brand image.
Consumers get used to some brands, and prefer to buy them. Some people drink only Nescafe; prefer mayonnaise produced by Moscow fat-producing plant (MZHK) and chocolate of Krasny Oktyabr factory and so on. In this case we can speak about brand loyalty that is commitment to a particular brand, which people regularly buy. Some brands have names of people. Tea brand Dilmah is composed of the parts of names Dilhan and Malik, sons of the tea producer.
Some brands have mistakes in their names. Brand of vegetable oil is called "Zolotaya semechka", but according to the rules of the Russian language, it should be called "Zolotoye semechko".
It takes up to ten years to create a brand in the West. In Russia it can only take two years. It is known that 80 to 90% of new brands fail within their first six months.
If a company gives the name of the brand to its other products it's called brand-stretching. By putting their familiar trademarks on attractive and fashionable new products, companies can both generate additional revenue and increase brand-awareness. So there is Pepsi Maxwear, Camel watches and Cadberry jewellery. Brand-stretching is not always successful.
A brand like Coca-Cola has been around a long time, and dominates the fizzy drink market in almost every country, outselling local brands. One of the exceptions is Scotland, and their marketing specialists are trying to find out why this is.
One of the possible solutions is that people in Scotland are more conservative and keep to their traditions.
One of the most successful brands in the world is Barbie. Created in 1959, it targeted girls who wanted to have dolls which were like young women. Its unique selling proposition is that Barbie looks like a young woman, not a baby. Barbie has had seventy five careers — from astronaut to presidential candidate. In 1961 Ken, the man in Barbie's life was introduced. She has got little sisters and friends from different ethnic groups. Now there are 15,000 different items for Barbie. Costume variations and in and-stretching have been the key to her continued popularity. Her life cycle never ends. One Barbie is bought every two seconds.
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Vocabulary:
to distinguish — отличать, проводить различие
brand image — имидж торговой марки
perception — восприятие
brand loyalty — лояльное отношение к торговой марке
commitment — приверженность
brand-stretching — «расширение» торговой марки
brand awareness —информированность о торговой марке
fizzy drink — шипучий напиток
to outsell — продаваться больше / лучше
exception — исключение
unique selling proposition (USP) — уникальное торговое предложение
item — здесь: вид товара, товар, изделие