Marketing is a relatively broad term, defining several different processes. Marketing is actually the act of deliberately stimulating demand for and sales of products and services; including the creation of a targeted market; careful choice of certain characteristics or themes to advertise or market a product. Marketing is a systematic process, and marketing is rarely a single activity but often includes several separate activities. Marketing involves research, development of potential markets, testing and evaluating new designs or products, gathering information about customer needs and expectations, and communicating these facts to the target market. Marketing involves an interactive process with customer and business partners.
Marketing is a very broad discipline and there are numerous subtopics that fall under it. For instance, marketing practices that directly influence the buying decisions of consumers include direct marketing, such as mail, telemarketing, and making discounts available on advertised items, and indirect marketing, such as providing the consumer with information about a product or service, and then asking them to make a purchase. Marketers also use brand quality in marketing, especially when a product is over-produced or if it is highly recognizable. Brand quality can be determined by objective means, such as customer satisfaction surveys, product performance reviews, or target group analysis, and marketers use different techniques to enhance brand quality. Marketing also involves researching and gathering information about potential customers and their buying habits. Marketing professionals use a variety of data, including customer response rates, to evaluate marketing strategies, including the impact of marketing on the quality of a product or service, and to learn what kinds of marketing are most effective.
The marketing concept of targeted marketing is related to the marketing concept of selling to a niche market. This concept refers to the identification of a small segment of the overall population who are more likely to buy a specific product than are the rest of the population. This segment is called a “niche” market and marketers concentrate on offering products and/or services to this particular group. The marketing concept of demand generation is related to the concept of supply chain management and this concept focuses on developing and marketing products and services that will meet the supply needs of consumers within a particular industry. Both of these concepts are important components of the sales process and have an impact on the quality of the final product or service that is sold.