Marketing according to ‘American Marketing Association’ is properly defined as the process

of creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing goods, services, and ideas to facilitate
satisfying exchanges with customers and develop and maintain favorable relationships with
stakeholders in a dynamic environment. In layman’s terms, marketing can be defined with 4
Ps. It’s all about ‘putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right
time. Is marketing plain common sense? Well to me, I’ve certainly learnt a thing or two based
on my past work experience and from my father’s business.

My father is a businessman. To be specific; he sells imported goods, mainly electronics to

suppliers and wholesalers. He has been running his business for about a good 13 years and he
has been giving me a lot of experiential insights about his work life. I used to think marketing
is just plain common sense. All you have to do is promote the product that you are selling to
everyone. This mindset was set in place because of the way my father handled his business.
He believed in the motto “telling and selling”. That was how he was running his business in
the last 13 years. But his business has dwindled at an excruciatingly fast rate because that
marketing motto does not apply to today’s generation anymore. So I strongly believe
marketing is not common sense. My father did not have proper education in the business, he
learnt from his experiences therefore I take my education very seriously as I believe
foundation in marketing will be beneficial for us. Firstly, I told my father to change the way
he markets his products. He strongly believes in the selling philosophy. But this was not
working out in his favor, so I suggested him to follow the production philosophy. Instead of
selling expensive rare electronics that will only appeal to a small target audience (small
demographics), I suggested him to strongly emphasize his marketing efforts on the most
profitable segment of the market (middle class income people or millennials) and to start
selling many types of electronics that are affordable. This will then appeal to a larger target
audience which will in turn, boosts his profit. Technically speaking, he had lesser quantity to
sell to breakeven profit initially, but in the long run, because he has now catered to a larger
target audience, even if he needs to sell more electronics to breakeven his profit, it is easier
for him to do so. The second tip I suggested was to engage his target audience through social
media marketing. I felt that more emphasis should be placed on social media marketing rather
than having a brick and mortar outlet because millennials being one myself, I prefer reading
up reviews and looking through products online first before actually making the purchase in
reality.
 Fortunately, these marketing tips has proven to be really helpful as my father’s business
improved significantly compared to before. Learning marketing is definitely one of the key
foundations of being part of a business or owning a business. So is studying marketing
necessary? Yes, it is if you want to sustain a successful business in the long run.

References

a) Understanding the Marketing Mix Concept - 4Ps. (2018, January 31). Retrieved
August 22, 2019, from https://www.cleverism.com/understanding-marketing-mix-
concept-4ps/