The primary objective of any business is to find and keep customers. The creation of competitive advantage helps an organization to successfully find and keep customers. An organization ought to convince its potential buyers that the product it is offering will meet their particular need at a given point in time ( Urbonavičius et al., 2008 ). With that said, marketing is a kind of constructive engagement- a societal function and a systemic set of steps for creating, communicating and delivering value to consumers, and for managing consumer and external relationships in a manner that satisfies the interest of local and global stakeholders of these processes (Gamble et al., 2011). The primary role of marketing within an organization is the provision of assistance in identifying, satisfying, and retaining customers ( Urbonavičius et al., 2008 ). Through various activities, including product management, price management, distribution, communications, marketing research, and marketing planning, the marketing department help the organization to maintain a positive relationship with its market. The application of marketing concepts in the aforementioned activities helps an organization to increase its performance in the market. This is particularly true for organizations that base their core strategy on quality.
Case Study: Apple, Inc.
Apple’s markets for its product and services experience high levels of competition; the organization is confronted by high levels of competition across its areas of business. The frequent introduction of new products and the rapid advancement in technology has necessitated the need to refresh the relationship between the company and its market (Apple Inc., 2019). The primary competitive factors that directly impact on Apple’s marketing activities include price, product and service features, and marketing and distribution capabilities, among others. Besides, the organization’s need to expand into other highly competitive markets with many well-funded participants necessitates the need for marketing.
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Apple’s marketing department participate in activities such as research and development, and marketing and distribution. As an organization that is always introducing new products into the market, the exploration of the needs of consumers is key in determining what products the organization should produce next. Besides, upon production, a clear distribution channel is needed to ensure that the product reaches the intended consumers. In 2019, the organization’s selling, general, and administrative expenses increased by 9% to reach $ 18,245 million (Apple Inc., 2019). The organization attributes the increases in expenses to the increased spending on marketing and advertising. Apple relies on commercial and print advertising to promote its products. When new products first enter the market, apple runs commercial advertising to emphasize on how superior and different its products are from those of its competitors. In addition, print advertising is run throughout the product’s life.
Lifelong Learning in Marketing
In marketing, it is important for people to be open to lifelong learning. The rapid changes in the marketing field necessitate the need for consistent exposure to new information and methods to remain relevant (Turner-Gionet, 2015). In the current era of digital technology, digital marketing dominates the marketing field. People have taken up digital technology in marketing due to its ability to reach out to a wider audience. One primary characteristic of digital technology is its proneness to change and updates that render existing technology rather archaic quickly. Digital is currently a core factor in marketing and communication strategy for any organization. It is, therefore, vital for organizations and their marketing departments to keep themselves up to date and relevant with new information pertaining to digital technology and marketing (Turner-Gionet, 2015). Organization are required to conduct consistent training to ensure that their marketing personnel remain competent despite the changing times. Therefore, lifelong learning in the marketing field will ensure that marketing achieves its core role of identifying, satisfying, and retaining organizations’ consumers.
Conclusion
Marketing helps businesses to achieve their primary objective of finding and keeping customers. By providing assistance in identifying, satisfying, and retaining customers, marketing can help the organization in achieving higher sales. Besides, as it is evident in the case of Apple Inc., where the marketing department is heavily funded, marketing activities play a significant role in promoting business activities. Moreover, marketing is a volatile field that is consistently changing as new technology advances. It is therefore imperative, as the committee, to fund the activities of the marketing department in promoting lifelong learning through consistent training, along with other activities that increase sales. The increase in funds will facilitate the effective running of various marketing activities, such as product management, price management, distribution, communications, marketing research, and marketing planning, which are primal in achieving the business objective of finding and retaining consumers.
References
Gamble, J., Gilmore, A., McCartan-Quinn, D., & Durkan, P. (2011). The Marketing concept in the 21st century: A review of how Marketing has been defined since the 1960s. The marketing review , 11 (3), 227-248.
Urbonavičius, S., & Dikčius, V. (2008). Importance of marketing activities in a company: the management perspective. Ekonomika , 83 , 41-50.
Apple Inc. (2019). Form 10-K. Retrieved 5 November 2020 from https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_AAPL_2019.pdf
Turner-Gionet, J. (2015). Lifelong learning; in marketing it’s a must! Retrieved 5 November 2020 from https://www.business2community.com/marketing/lifelong-learning-in-marketing-its-a-must-01342793
