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Marketing Management is one of the oldest forms of management, talking in crude terms we can say if one knows How to sell you can own a business and therefore a manager.
The functional area of Marketing involves the concept development and delivery of a quality product / service to cater to the emerging / existing needs of the consumers at an affordable price. It also involves the creation of awareness among potential consumers with regard to the existence and availability of the
product / service, its ability to satisfy their needs better than the competitors.
Marketing as a function comprises both Marketing and Selling. Marketing as an activity includes new product development,advertisement, brand management, development of channels of distribution to deliver a
product / service and providing promotional inputs for the sales team to ensure the success
of a brand.


The 4 Ps of Marketing

Product: By product we mean the physical attributes as well as the core and perceived values of the product. This involves conducting marketresearch and then going on to develop a qualityproduct / service that has all the attributes that are needed by consumers. It also includes packaging of the product in such a manner so as to attract the consumer to buy the product. It
also involves providing the customers the products in variants of packaging to enable ease
of usage / consumption. For example, most soft drink brands are available in products of 300ml,
500ml, 1litre, and 2 litres.
Price: By price we mean the price a consumer is willing to pay in monetary terms in exchange for goods and services purchased. This involves pricing the product after taking into account both
internal and external factors. Internal factors include manufacturing cost and overheads.
External factors include costs associated with advertising, setting up distribution channels and
its associated costs, margins, prevailing market prices for similar products of competitors, and
demand for the product in the market.
Place: By place we mean the distribution channel used to ensure the delivery of a product / service from the point of manufacture to the point of purchase. This involves deciding on the kind of distribution channel that a company wishes to employ to ensure availability of product / service
at a point closest to the consumer. The kind of channel a company decides to use will vary
depending on the kind of product / service it wishes to market. While Eureka Forbes uses the
direct marketing approach to sell its vacuum cleaners, Hindustan Lever uses a channel
consisting of C&F agents, distributors, sub-distributors, and retailers to sell its soap bars
and detergents. However, given the ever-changing market scenario in the country,
companies are willing to look at alternative channels of delivery. For example, HLL today tries
to market some of its cosmetic products by using direct marketing.
Promotion: By promotion we mean the different media used by a company to achieve greater visibility and sales for any given product / service. The media used could be a mix of print media (such as newspapers and magazines), visual media (television), outdoor media (billboards, banners, pamphlets, posters, customer contact programmes), audio media (radio), etc.
The different components of the 4 Ps that a company uses to market its product are known as the marketing mix.

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