Hubbry Logo
MarketingMarketingMain
Open search
Marketing
Community hub
Marketing
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Marketing
Marketing
Marketing
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Marketing
Management
Key concepts
Account-based marketing · Activation · Annoyance factor · Attribution · Distribution · Brand licensing · Brand management · Cannibalization · Co-creation · Communications · Consumer behaviour · Consumer culture · Digital marketing · Dominance · Effectiveness · Ethics · Horizontal integration · Influencer marketing · Mix · Pricing · Product marketing · Promotion · Retail · Segmentation · Service · Social marketing · Strategy · Vertical integration
Promotional content
Advertising · Ambush marketing · Branding · Corporate anniversary · Direct marketing · Franchising · Gender in advertising · Label · Loyalty marketing · Mobile marketing · On-hold messaging · Personal selling · Premiums · Prizes · Product placement · Propaganda · Publicity · Sales promotion · Sex in advertising · Underwriting spot
Promotional media
Behavioral targeting · Brand ambassador · Counter display unit · Display advertising · Display stand · Drip marketing · Endcap · Gondola · In-game advertising · Mobile advertising · Native advertising · New media · Online advertising · Out-of-home advertising · Point of sale · Product demonstration · Promotional merchandise (merchandising) · Promotional representative · Visual merchandising · Web banner · Word-of-mouth
Research
Market research · Marketing research · Mystery shopping · Consumer research
Steve Jobs's marketing skills have been credited for reviving Apple Inc. and turning it into one of the most valuable brands.[1][2]

Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers.[3][4] It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.[5]

Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or manufacturer. Products can be marketed to other businesses (B2B) or directly to consumers (B2C).[6] Sometimes tasks are contracted to dedicated marketing firms, like a media, market research, or advertising agency. Sometimes, a trade association or government agency (such as the Agricultural Marketing Service) advertises on behalf of an entire industry or locality, often a specific type of food (e.g. Got Milk?), food from a specific area, or a city or region as a tourism destination.

Market orientations are philosophies concerning the factors that should go into market planning.[7] The marketing mix, which outlines the specifics of the product and how it will be sold, including the channels that will be used to advertise the product,[8][9] is affected by the environment surrounding the product,[10] the results of marketing research and market research,[11][12] and the characteristics of the product's target market.[13] Once these factors are determined, marketers must then decide what methods of promoting the product,[6] including use of coupons and other price inducements.[14]

Definition

[edit]

Marketing is currently defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".[15] However, the definition of marketing has evolved over the years. The AMA reviews this definition and its definition for "marketing research" every three years.[15] The interests of "society at large" were added into the definition in 2008.[16] The development of the definition may be seen by comparing the 2008 definition with the AMA's 1935 version: "Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods, and services from producers to consumers".[17] The newer definition highlights the increased prominence of other stakeholders in the new conception of marketing.

The 18th century retail entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, who devised a number of sales methods for his tableware, is "credited with inventing modern marketing" according to the Adam Smith Institute.[18]

Recent definitions of marketing place more emphasis on the consumer relationship, as opposed to a pure exchange process. For instance, prolific marketing author and educator, Philip Kotler has evolved his definition of marketing. In 1980, he defined marketing as "satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process",[3] and in 2018 defined it as "the process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships, and create customer value in order to capture value from customers in return".[19] A related definition, from the sales process engineering perspective, defines marketing as "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions of a business aimed at achieving customer interest and satisfaction".[20]

Some definitions of marketing highlight marketing's ability to produce value to shareholders of the firm as well. In this context, marketing can be defined as "the management process that seeks to maximise returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating a competitive advantage".[21] For instance, the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing from a customer-centric perspective, focusing on "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably".[22]

In the past, marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry, which included advertising, distribution and selling, and even today many parts of the marketing process (e.g. product design, art director, brand management, advertising, inbound marketing, copywriting etc.) involve the use of the creative arts.[23] However, because marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science.[24] Marketing science has developed a concrete process that can be followed to create a marketing plan.[25]

Concept

[edit]

The "marketing concept" proposes that to complete its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of potential consumers and satisfy them more effectively than its competitors. This concept originated from Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations but would not become widely used until nearly 200 years later.[26] Marketing and Marketing Concepts are directly related.

Given the centrality of customer needs, and wants in marketing, a rich understanding of these concepts is essential:[27]

Needs: Something necessary for people to live a healthy, stable and safe life. When needs remain unfulfilled, there is a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as the need for food, water, and shelter; or subjective and psychological, such as the need to belong to a family or social group and the need for self-esteem.
Wants: Something that is desired, wished for or aspired to. Wants are not essential for basic survival and are often shaped by culture or peer-groups.
Demands: When needs and wants are backed by the ability to pay, they have the potential to become economic demands.

Marketing research, conducted for the purpose of new product development or product improvement, is often concerned with identifying the consumer's unmet needs.[28] Customer needs are central to market segmentation which is concerned with dividing markets into distinct groups of buyers on the basis of "distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviors who might require separate products or marketing mixes."[29] Needs-based segmentation (also known as benefit segmentation) "places the customers' desires at the forefront of how a company designs and markets products or services."[30] Although needs-based segmentation is difficult to do in practice, it has been proved to be one of the most effective ways to segment a market.[31][28] In addition, a great deal of advertising and promotion is designed to show how a given product's benefits meet the customer's needs, wants or expectations in a unique way.[32]

B2B and B2C marketing

[edit]

The two major segments of marketing are business-to-business (B2B) marketing and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.[6]

B2B marketing

[edit]

B2B (business-to-business) marketing refers to any marketing strategy or content that is geared towards a business or organization.[33] Any company that sells products or services to other businesses or organizations (vs. consumers) typically uses B2B marketing strategies. The 7 P's of B2B marketing are: product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.[33] Some of the trends in B2B marketing include content such as podcasts, videos, and social media marketing campaigns.[33]

Examples of products sold through B2B marketing include:

  • Major equipment
  • Accessory equipment
  • Raw materials
  • Component parts
  • Processed materials
  • Supplies
  • Venues
  • Business services[6]

The four major categories of B2B product purchasers are:

  • Producers - use products sold by B2B marketing to make their own goods (e.g.: Mattel buying plastics to make toys)
  • Resellers - buy B2B products to sell through retail or wholesale establishments (e.g.: Walmart buying vacuums to sell in stores)
  • Governments - buy B2B products for use in government projects (e.g.: purchasing weather monitoring equipment for a wastewater treatment plant)
  • Institutions - use B2B products to continue operation (e.g.: schools buying printers for office use)[6]

B2C marketing

[edit]

Business-to-consumer marketing, or B2C marketing, refers to the tactics and strategies in which a company promotes its products and services to individual people.

Traditionally, this could refer to individuals shopping for personal products in a broad sense. More recently the term B2C refers to the online selling of consumer products.

C2B marketing

[edit]

Consumer-to-business marketing or C2B marketing is a business model where the end consumers create products and services which are consumed by businesses and organizations. It is diametrically opposed to the popular concept of B2C or business-to-consumer where the companies make goods and services available to the end consumers. In this type of business model, businesses profit from consumers' willingness to name their own price or contribute data or marketing to the company, while consumers benefit from flexibility, direct payment, or free or reduced-price products and services. One of the major benefit of this type of business model is that it offers a company a competitive advantage in the market.[34]

C2C marketing

[edit]

Customer to customer marketing or C2C marketing represents a market environment where one customer purchases goods from another customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction. C2C companies are a new type of model that has emerged with e-commerce technology and the sharing economy.[35]

Differences in B2B and B2C marketing

[edit]

The different goals of B2B and B2C marketing lead to differences in the B2B and B2C markets. The main differences in these markets are demand, purchasing volume, number of customers, customer concentration, distribution, buying nature, buying influences, negotiations, reciprocity, leasing and promotional methods.[6]

  • Demand: B2B demand is derived because businesses buy products based on how much demand there is for the final consumer product. Businesses buy products based on customer's wants and needs. B2C demand is primarily because customers buy products based on their own wants and needs.[6]
  • Purchasing volume: Businesses buy products in large volumes to distribute to consumers. Consumers buy products in smaller volumes suitable for personal use.[6]
  • Number of customers: There are relatively fewer businesses to market to than direct consumers.[6]
  • Customer concentration: Businesses that specialize in a particular market tend to be geographically concentrated while customers that buy products from these businesses are not concentrated.[6]
  • Distribution: B2B products pass directly from the producer of the product to the business while B2C products may additionally go through a wholesaler or retailer.[6]
  • Buying nature: B2B purchasing is a formal process done by professional buyers and sellers, while B2C purchasing is informal.[6]
  • Buying influences: B2B purchasing is influenced by multiple people in various departments such as quality control, accounting, and logistics while B2C marketing is only influenced by the person making the purchase and possibly a few others.[6]
  • Negotiations: In B2B marketing, negotiating for lower prices or added benefits is commonly accepted while in B2C marketing (particularly in Western cultures) prices are fixed.[6]
  • Reciprocity: Businesses tend to buy from businesses they sell to. For example, a business that sells printer ink is more likely to buy office chairs from a supplier that buys the business's printer ink. In B2C marketing, this does not occur because consumers are not also selling products.[6]
  • Leasing: Businesses tend to lease expensive items while consumers tend to save up to buy expensive items.[6]
  • Promotional methods: In B2B marketing, the most common promotional method is personal selling. B2C marketing mostly uses sales promotion, public relations, advertising, and social media.[6]

Marketing management orientations

[edit]
Main article: History of marketing § Orientations or philosophies that inform marketing practice

A marketing orientation has been defined as a "philosophy of business management."[7] or "a corporate state of mind"[36] or as an "organizational culture."[37] Although scholars continue to debate the precise nature of specific concepts that inform marketing practice, the most commonly cited orientations are as follows:[38]

  • Product concept: mainly concerned with the quality of its product. It has largely been supplanted by the marketing orientation, except for haute couture and arts marketing.[39][40]
  • Production concept: specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service in order to achieve economies of scale or economies of scope. It dominated marketing practice from the 1860s to the 1930s, yet can still be found in some companies or industries. Specifically, Kotler and Armstrong note that the production philosophy is "one of the oldest philosophies that guides sellers... [and] is still useful in some situations."[41]
  • Selling concept: focuses on the selling/promotion of the firm's existing products, rather than developing new products to satisfy unmet needs or wants primarily through promotion and direct sales techniques,[42] largely for "unsought goods"[43] in industrial companies.[44] A 2011 meta analyses[45] found that the factors with the greatest impact on sales performance are a salesperson's sales related knowledge (market segments, presentation skills, conflict resolution, and products), degree of adaptiveness, role clarity, cognitive aptitude, motivation and interest in a sales role).
  • Marketing concept: This is the most common concept used in contemporary marketing, and is a customer-centric approach based on products that suit new consumer tastes. These firms engage in extensive market research, use R&D (Research & Development), and then use promotion techniques.[46][47] The marketing orientation includes:
    • Customer orientation: A firm in the market economy can survive by producing goods that people are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern.
    • Organizational orientation: The marketing department is of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from the marketing department is used to guide the actions of a company's other departments. A marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a product/service based on consumers' new desires. The production department would then start to manufacture the product. The finance department may oppose required capital expenditures since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization.
  • Societal marketing concept: Social responsibility that goes beyond satisfying customers and providing superior value embraces societal stakeholders such as employees, customers, and local communities. Companies that adopt this perspective typically practice triple bottom line reporting and publish financial, social and environmental impact reports. Sustainable marketing or green marketing is an extension of societal marketing.[48]

Marketing plan

[edit]
Main article: Marketing plan

The area of marketing planning involves forging a plan for a firm's marketing activities. A marketing plan can also pertain to a specific product, the introduction of a new product, the revision of current marketing strategies for existing products, as well as an organisation's overall marketing strategy. The plan is created to accomplish specific marketing objectives, outlining a company's advertising and marketing efforts for a given period, describing the current marketing position of a business, and discussing the target market and marketing mix to be used to achieve marketing goals.

An organization's marketing planning process is derived from its overall business strategy. Marketing plans start by identifying customer needs through market research and how the business can satisfy these needs. The marketing plan also shows what actions will be taken and what resources will be used to achieve the planned objectives.

Marketing objectives are typically broad-based in nature, and pertain to the general vision of the firm in the short, medium or long-term. As an example, if one pictures a group of companies (or a conglomerate), the objective might be to increase the group's sales by 25% over a ten-year period.

The marketing mix

[edit]
Main article: Marketing mix

A marketing mix is a foundational tool used to guide decision making in marketing. The marketing mix represents the basic tools that marketers can use to bring their products or services to the market. They are the foundation of managerial marketing and the marketing plan typically devotes a section to the marketing mix.

The 4Ps

[edit]

The 4Ps refers to four broad categories of marketing decisions, namely: product, price, promotion, and place.[8][49] The origins of the 4 Ps can be traced to the late 1940s.[50][51] The first known mention has been attributed to a Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, James Culliton.[52]

The 4 Ps, in its modern form, was first proposed in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy; who presented them within a managerial approach that covered analysis, consumer behavior, market research, market segmentation, and planning.[53][54] Phillip Kotler, popularised this approach and helped spread the 4 Ps model.[55][56] McCarthy's 4 Ps have been widely adopted by both marketing academics and practitioners.[57][58][59]

The 4Ps of the marketing mix stand for product, price, place and promotion
One version of the marketing mix is the 4Ps method.

Outline

[edit]
Product
The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The product element consists of product design, new product innovation, branding, packaging, and labeling. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support. Branding, a key aspect of the product management, refers to the various methods of communicating a brand identity for the product, brand, or company.[60]
Pricing
This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, or attention or any sacrifices consumers make in order to acquire a product or service. The price is the cost that a consumer pays for a product—monetary or not. Methods of setting prices are in the domain of pricing science.[61]
Place (or distribution)
This refers to how the product gets to the customer; the distribution channels and intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers who enable customers to access products or services in a convenient manner. This third P has also sometimes been called Place or Placement, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.[61]
Promotion
See also: Integrated marketing communications and Promotional mix
This includes all aspects of marketing communications: advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, public relations, personal selling, product placement, branded entertainment, event marketing, trade shows, and exhibitions.[6] Common examples of advertising media include: TV, Radio, Magazines, Online, Billboards, Event sponsorship, Advertising mail (direct mail), Transit ads. Social media is used to facilitate two-way communication between companies and their customers. Outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok. LinkedIn and YouTube allow brands to start a conversation with regular and prospective customers. Viral marketing can be facilitated by social media.[62]This fourth P is focused on providing a message to get a response from consumers. The message is designed to persuade or tell a story to create awareness.[61][63]

Criticisms

[edit]

One of the limitations of the 4Ps approach is its emphasis on an inside-out view.[64] An inside-out approach is the traditional planning approach where the organization identifies its desired goals and objectives, which are often based around what has always been done. Marketing's task then becomes one of "selling" the organization's products and messages to the "outside" or external stakeholders.[60] In contrast, an outside-in approach first seeks to understand the needs and wants of the consumer.[65]

From a model-building perspective, the 4 Ps has attracted a number of criticisms. Well-designed models should exhibit clearly defined categories that are mutually exclusive, with no overlap. Yet, the 4 Ps model has extensive overlapping problems. Several authors stress the hybrid nature of the fourth P, mentioning the presence of two important dimensions, "communication" (general and informative communications such as public relations and corporate communications) and "promotion" (persuasive communications such as advertising and direct selling). Certain marketing activities, such as personal selling, may be classified as either promotion or as part of the place (i.e., distribution) element.[66] Some pricing tactics, such as promotional pricing, can be classified as price variables or promotional variables and, therefore, also exhibit some overlap.

Other important criticisms include that the marketing mix lacks a strategic framework and is, therefore, unfit to be a planning instrument, particularly when uncontrollable, external elements are an important aspect of the marketing environment.[67]

Modifications and extensions

[edit]

To overcome the deficiencies of the 4P model, some authors have suggested extensions or modifications to the original model. Extensions of the four P's are often included in cases such as services marketing where unique characteristics (i.e. intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and the inseparability of production and consumption) warrant additional consideration factors. Other extensions include "people", "process", and "physical evidence" and are often applied in the case of services marketing.[68] Other extensions have been found necessary in retail marketing, industrial marketing and internet marketing.

The 4Cs

[edit]

In response to environmental and technological changes in marketing, as well as criticisms towards the 4Ps approach, the 4Cs has emerged as a modern marketing mix model. Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a 4 Cs classification in 1990.[69] His classification is a more consumer-orientated version of the 4 Ps[70][71] that attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing.[69][72][73]

Outline

[edit]

Consumer (or client)

The consumer refers to the person or group that will acquire the product. This aspect of the model focuses on fulfilling the wants or needs of the consumer.[9]

Cost

Cost refers to what is exchanged in return for the product. Cost mainly consists of the monetary value of the product. Cost also refers to anything else the consumer must sacrifice to attain the product, such as time or money spent on transportation to acquire the product.[9]

Convenience

Like "Place" in the 4Ps model, convenience refers to where the product will be sold. This, however, not only refers to physical stores but also whether the product is available in person or online. The convenience aspect emphasizes making it as easy as possible for the consumer to attain the product, thus making them more likely to do so.[9]

Communication

Like "Promotion" in the 4Ps model, communication refers to how consumers find out about a product. Unlike promotion, communication not only refers to the one-way communication of advertising, but also the two-way communication available through social media.[9]

Environment

[edit]
Main article: Market environment

The term "marketing environment" relates to all of the factors (whether internal, external, direct or indirect) that affect a firm's marketing decision-making/planning. A firm's marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are:

  • The macro-environment (Macromarketing), over which a firm holds little control, consists of a variety of external factors that manifest on a large (or macro) scale. These include: economic, social, political and technological factors. A common method of assessing a firm's macro-environment is via a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological) analysis. Within a PESTLE analysis, a firm would analyze national political issues, culture and climate, key macroeconomic conditions, health and indicators (such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), social trends/attitudes, and the nature of technology's impact on its society and the business processes within the society.[10]
  • The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not necessarily total) control, typically includes: Customers/consumers, Employees, Suppliers and the Media. In contrast to the macro-environment, an organization holds a greater (though not complete) degree of control over these factors.[10]
  • The internal environment, which includes the factors inside of the company itself.[10] A firm's internal environment consists of: Labor, Inventory, Company Policy, Logistics, Budget, and Capital Assets.[10]

Research

[edit]
Main article: Marketing research

Marketing research is a systematic process of analyzing data that involves conducting research to support marketing activities and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing environment and to attain information from suppliers. A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research involves gathering information about a particular target market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Market research is a subset of marketing research.[11] (Avoiding the word consumer, which shows up in both,[74] market research is about distribution, while marketing research encompasses distribution, advertising effectiveness, and salesforce effectiveness).[75]

The stages of research include:

  • Define the problem
  • Plan research
  • Research
  • Interpret data
  • Implement findings[12]

Well-known academic journals in the field of marketing with the best rating in VHB-Jourqual and Academic Journal Guide, an impact factor of more than 5 in the Social Sciences Citation Index and an h-index of more than 130 in the SCImago Journal Rank are

These are also designated as Premier AMA Journals by the American Marketing Association.

Segmentation

[edit]
Main article: Market segmentation

Market segmentation consists of taking the total heterogeneous market for a product and dividing it into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to be homogeneous in all significant aspects.[13] The process is conducted for two main purposes: better allocation of a firm's finite resources and to better serve the more diversified tastes of contemporary consumers. A firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Thus, it must make choices (and appreciate the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers. Moreover, with more diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are noting the benefit of servicing a multiplicity of new markets.

Market segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.

Segmentation involves the initial splitting up of consumers into persons of like needs/wants/tastes. Commonly used criteria include:

  • Geographic (such as a country, region, city, town)
  • Psychographic (e.g. personality traits or lifestyle traits which influence consumer behaviour)
  • Demographic (e.g. age, gender, socio-economic class, education)
  • Gender
  • Income
  • Life-Cycle (e.g. Baby Boomer, Generation X, Millennial, Generation Z)
  • Lifestyle (e.g. tech savvy, active)
  • Behavioral (e.g. brand loyalty, usage rate)[76]

Once a segment has been identified to target, a firm must ascertain whether the segment is beneficial for them to service. The DAMP acronym is used as criteria to gauge the viability of a target market. The elements of DAMP are:

  • Discernable – how a segment can be differentiated from other segments.
  • Accessible – how a segment can be accessed via Marketing Communications produced by a firm
  • Measurable – can the segment be quantified and its size determined?
  • Profitable – can a sufficient return on investment be attained from a segment's servicing?

The next step in the targeting process is the level of differentiation involved in a segment serving. Three modes of differentiation exist, which are commonly applied by firms. These are:

  • Undifferentiated – where a company produces a like product for all of a market segment
  • Differentiated – in which a firm produced slight modifications of a product within a segment
  • Niche – in which an organization forges a product to satisfy a specialized target market

Positioning concerns how to position a product in the minds of consumers and inform what attributes differentiate it from the competitor's products. A firm often performs this by producing a perceptual map, which denotes similar products produced in the same industry according to how consumers perceive their price and quality. From a product's placing on the map, a firm would tailor its marketing communications to meld with the product's perception among consumers and its position among competitors' offering.[77]

Product life cycle

[edit]
Further information: Product life-cycle management (marketing)
Product lifecycle, with the assumption of four major phases: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Curve of sales as a function of the time of the product on the market. After a plateau in sales at product maturity, a steep decline can follow.

The product life cycle (PLC) is a tool used by marketing managers to gauge the progress of a product, especially relating to sales or revenue accrued over time. The PLC is based on a few key assumptions, including:

  • A given product would possess introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stage
  • No product lasts perpetually on the market
  • A firm must employ differing strategies, according to where a product is on the PLC

In the introduction stage, a product is launched onto the market. To stimulate the growth of sales/revenue, use of advertising may be high, in order to heighten awareness of the product in question.

During the growth stage, the product's sales/revenue is increasing, which may stimulate more marketing communications to sustain sales. More entrants enter into the market, to reap the apparent high profits that the industry is producing.

When the product hits maturity, its starts to level off, and an increasing number of entrants to a market produce price falls for the product. Firms may use sales promotions to raise sales.

During decline, demand for a good begins to taper off, and the firm may opt to discontinue the manufacture of the product. This is so, if revenue for the product comes from efficiency savings in production, over actual sales of a good/service. However, if a product services a niche market, or is complementary to another product, it may continue the manufacture of the product, despite a low level of sales/revenue being accrued.[6]

Ethics

[edit]
These paragraphs are an excerpt from Marketing ethics.[edit]
Marketing ethics is an area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Some areas of marketing ethics (ethics of advertising and promotion) overlap with media and public relations ethics.

See also

[edit]
Main article: Outline of marketing

Types of marketing

[edit]

Marketing orientations or philosophies

[edit]

References

[edit]

Bibliography

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Marketing

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Central to this discipline are foundational principles such as the marketing mix, commonly framed as the 4 Ps—product, price, place, and promotion—which guide decisions on developing goods or services, setting their costs, distributing them, and publicizing their benefits. Historically, marketing shifted from production-focused efforts during the , prioritizing mass output, to a consumer-oriented paradigm post-World War II, where understanding and satisfying buyer needs became paramount. Empirically, marketing investments function as intangible capital that bolsters economic output, contributing roughly 0.18 percentage points annually to U.S. growth, comparable to contributions from software and . While enabling efficient and diffusion, marketing has encountered scrutiny over practices like potentially manipulative tactics, though rigorous analysis underscores its net role in facilitating voluntary exchanges that enhance welfare.

Historical Development

Pre-Industrial and Early Modern Marketing

In ancient civilizations, marketing primarily involved direct and exchange in marketplaces, with rudimentary emerging through inscribed messages. Mesopotamian merchants recorded transactions on clay tablets as early as 1750 BCE, facilitating records that supported commercial exchanges. In around 1500 BCE, documents served as sales promotions, such as a weaver's announcement offering a reward for returning a slave, marking one of the earliest known advertisements. Roman traders employed wall paintings and posters in public spaces like Pompeii to advertise goods, including fish sauce producer Aulus Umbricius Scaurus's mosaics and inscriptions promoting his products' qualities and varieties around the 1st century CE. During the medieval period, marketing centered on periodic markets, fairs, and guild-regulated trade in , emphasizing local exchange and . Town markets and annual fairs, such as the Champagne fairs from the 12th to 13th centuries, drew merchants from across regions to trade textiles, spices, and metals under chartered protections that reduced risks and standardized practices. Guilds enforced product standards to build trust, while town criers announced sales, lost items, and proclamations in marketplaces, serving as oral broadcasters in illiterate societies from the 13th century onward. Word-of-mouth and visual cues like shop signs dominated promotion, with direct haggling at stalls handling most transactions. In the early from the 16th to 18th centuries, the enabled wider dissemination of promotional materials, shifting toward targeted consumer appeals. Handbills, trade cards, and early ads from the late advertised shop locations and specialties, fueling demand in growing urban centers. Potter exemplified innovative techniques in the 1760s-1790s, creating branded catalogs, direct mail campaigns, and showrooms to target , while offering money-back guarantees, free delivery to , and replacements for damaged goods to assure quality. His use of newspapers, pamphlets, and billboards demonstrated systematic and segmentation, predating industrial .

Industrial Revolution and Mass Production Era

The , commencing in Britain around 1760, transformed production from artisanal craftsmanship to mechanized systems, generating surpluses that required expanded markets beyond local economies. This shift necessitated innovative approaches to distribution, promotion, and consumer persuasion, marking the inception of systematic marketing practices. Factories enabled consistent output of standardized goods, but producers faced the challenge of reaching distant buyers, prompting reliance on intermediaries like wholesalers and the development of transportation networks such as canals and railways. Josiah Wedgwood exemplified early marketing ingenuity in the ceramics industry during the 1760s. He implemented division of labor and molds for of high-quality , reducing costs while maintaining uniformity, and targeted affluent consumers through illustrated catalogs, , and money-back guarantees. established showrooms to display wares, fostering direct customer engagement, and secured endorsements by gifting samples to Queen Charlotte, resulting in official designation as supplier of "Queen's Ware" in 1765, which boosted prestige and sales. These tactics differentiated his products in competitive markets, leveraging and exclusivity for luxury items while scaling volume production. Advertising emerged as a core tool amid rising competition from the onward, with newspapers, posters, and billboards disseminating product information to urbanizing populations. Branding gained prominence to distinguish identical mass-produced goods, as seen in firms adopting trademarks and to build consumer loyalty. By the late , advancements in printing and facilitated illustrated ads, while expanded rail networks enabled national distribution, aligning supply with demand through targeted promotion. The era, extending into the early 20th century, intensified these trends, with assembly lines like Henry Ford's 1913 Model T implementation slashing costs to $850 per vehicle initially, necessitating aggressive sales strategies to absorb output. Emphasis remained on production efficiency, but marketing evolved to include installment plans and dealer networks, reflecting a producer-oriented where demand was assumed abundant. This period laid groundwork for consumer culture, as verifiable increases in output—such as U.S. rising from $1.9 billion in to $13 billion by 1900—drove imperatives for systematic demand generation.

20th Century Shifts: From Sales to Consumer Orientation

In the early decades of the , marketing practices transitioned from a production orientation—characterized by efficient amid excess —to a orientation as industrial output began exceeding purchasing power. This shift was evident by the , when economic saturation post-World War I and the prompted firms to prioritize aggressive promotion over product improvement, assuming required to buy available goods. Companies invested heavily in and forces, with U.S. advertising expenditures rising from $1.6 billion in 1920 to $2.8 billion by 1930, reflecting a focus on distribution and rather than assessment. The sales era persisted through the 1930s and 1940s, reinforced by wartime production constraints that limited consumer goods and delayed market saturation. Firms like and emphasized selling existing products through radio broadcasts and door-to-door sales, achieving short-term volume gains but often at the expense of long-term , as evidenced by rising consumer complaints and product returns during economic recovery. This approach's limitations became apparent post-1945, when pent-up demand from gave way to abundance, , and rising incomes—U.S. per capita disposable income increased 50% from 1945 to 1955—intensifying and enabling consumers to exercise choice based on quality, value, and needs rather than mere availability. By the mid-1950s, a orientation gained traction, formalized as the "marketing concept," which posited that firms should identify and satisfy customer needs profitably through integrated planning, diverging from sales-driven tactics. adopted this in 1952 under CEO Ralph Cordiner, reorganizing around market segments rather than products, while executives like Robert J. Keith of Pillsbury articulated the shift in a 1960 Journal of Marketing article, "The Marketing Revolution," crediting research for profitability gains—Pillsbury's sales grew 75% from 1948 to 1958 under this model. Scholars such as critiqued sales myopia in his 1960 essay "," arguing that railroads declined by focusing on selling transport rather than meeting mobility needs, urging a customer-centric pivot supported by empirical data from growing firms like Nielsen, which tracked from the 1930s onward. This reorientation was causally linked to macroeconomic factors: GDP growth averaging 4% annually in the U.S. from 1946 to 1960 fostered diverse preferences, compelling firms to use tools like surveys and focus groups to anticipate , as opposed to reactive selling. Empirical comparisons showed marketing-oriented companies outperforming sales-focused peers; for instance, DuPont's emphasis on insights in fibers and chemicals yielded higher returns on investment than competitors clinging to production efficiencies. By the , frameworks like E. Jerome McCarthy's 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) codified this approach, integrating data into strategy. Despite widespread adoption rhetoric, implementation varied; smaller firms and industries with inelastic demand, such as utilities, retained sales-heavy methods into the late , highlighting that the shift was not uniform but driven by competitive pressures in consumer goods sectors where indicated superior long-term profitability from need fulfillment over .

Post-2000 Digital Transformation

The digital transformation of marketing post-2000 accelerated with the recovery from the dot-com bust, driven by broadband internet expansion and advancements. Google's launch of AdWords in October 2000 introduced (PPC) models, enabling advertisers to bid on keywords for targeted visibility, which by 2002 accounted for a significant portion of online ad revenue as internet users grew to over 500 million globally. This shift emphasized measurable (ROI) through click-through rates and conversions, contrasting prior reliance on estimates, with (SEM) evolving alongside (SEO) techniques to prioritize organic traffic based on algorithmic relevance. Social media platforms revolutionized consumer engagement by enabling real-time, interactive campaigns from the mid-2000s onward. Facebook's 2004 launch and Twitter's 2006 debut facilitated and viral sharing, allowing brands to cultivate communities rather than passive audiences; by 2010, social media ad spending reached $1.3 billion in the alone, rising to dominate digital budgets as platforms introduced sophisticated targeting via user data. Empirical data from platform analytics tools underscored causal links between engagement metrics—like likes and shares—and sales uplift, prompting a pivot from interruptive ads to strategies that aligned with user interests. The 2007 introduction further catalyzed , with app ecosystems and location-based services enabling hyper-personalized pushes, as smartphone penetration exceeded 50% in developed markets by 2013. Big data analytics and infrastructure amplified these capabilities, grounding strategies in empirical consumer behavior patterns. Post-2010, tools for processing vast datasets from , transactions, and social interactions enabled predictive modeling and segmentation, with marketers reporting up to 20% ROI improvements from data-driven . sales, for instance, expanded from under $30 billion in 2000 to $1.192 trillion by 2024, reflecting a exceeding 15% amid platforms like Amazon's dominance and Shopify's rise for small businesses. Programmatic , automating ad buys via since around 2007, further optimized efficiency, though it raised issues addressed by regulations like the EU's GDPR in 2018, compelling evidence-based compliance over speculative targeting. This era's causal realism—via and multi-touch attribution—prioritized verifiable outcomes, diminishing intuition-based approaches amid institutional biases toward unproven "creative" narratives in some academic marketing .

Core Principles

Definition and Scope

is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for , clients, partners, and society at large. This , formalized by the American Marketing Association in 2017, reflects a shift from earlier emphases on distribution and to a broader focus on mutual value creation through voluntary exchanges grounded in identified needs and preferences. Prior formulations, such as the AMA's version, described as "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders," highlighting an evolution toward relational and societal dimensions. The scope of marketing extends beyond promotion or —subsets often conflated with the field—to encompass the full spectrum of activities facilitating efficient exchange in markets. Core elements include conducting empirical to assess demand and consumer behavior, developing and managing products or services aligned with those insights, establishing pricing strategies that balance costs, perceived value, and , managing distribution channels for , and employing promotional tactics to inform and influence purchasing decisions. This operational framework, commonly represented by the of product, price, place, and promotion, operationalizes 's objective of satisfying needs profitably while adapting to empirical feedback loops. Marketing's boundaries distinguish it from adjacent functions like pure (transaction-focused) or production (output-centric), integrating first-principles of supply-demand dynamics and causal incentives for exchange. It applies across for-profit businesses, nonprofits, governments, and even personal endeavors, provided value exchange occurs, though empirical effectiveness varies by context—e.g., B2C markets often prioritize emotional appeals backed by data showing higher conversion rates from targeted messaging. Exclusions include coercive or non-voluntary distributions, as marketing presupposes and mutual benefit, aligning with causal realism in human economic behavior.

Fundamental Concepts and First-Principles Reasoning

Marketing fundamentally originates from the human propensity for voluntary exchange, a process where parties resources—such as , , , or —to attain outcomes they value more than what they relinquish. This exchange paradigm, central to economic interactions since prehistoric systems, underpins all marketing activities by emphasizing mutual perceived gains over or unilateral imposition. Empirical evidence from transaction cost economics demonstrates that successful exchanges minimize frictions like and , fostering repeated interactions and market expansion; for instance, reductions in search costs via better signaling have historically correlated with volume growth, as observed in pre-industrial markets where mechanisms substituted for formal contracts. From first principles, value in marketing arises causally from addressing and human needs—defined as states of deprivation (e.g., , ) that propel action—by offering propositions where the delivered exceeds alternatives in or satisfaction. This reasoning derives from dissecting consumer behavior: individuals rationally weigh costs (monetary, time, effort) against benefits, selecting options that maximize net under constraints, as formalized in utility theory and validated through choice experiments showing preference reversals only under cognitive biases rather than inherent irrationality. Marketing thus operates by enhancing perceived value propositions, such as through differentiation that exploits comparative advantages, rather than assuming uniform demand; data from in product development confirms that heterogeneous customer valuations drive segmentation efficacy, with misaligned offerings leading to rejection rates exceeding 70% in tested markets. The American Marketing Association codifies this as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and at large," a refined in to prioritize exchange over mere promotion, reflecting empirical shifts toward relational and models. First-principles scrutiny reveals limitations in expansive societal claims, as value creation primarily incentivizes through self-interested exchanges rather than , with studies on showing profit correlations only when aligned with core competencies, not as standalone imperatives. Competitor dynamics further constrain strategies: all customers vary in preferences and evolve over time due to changing circumstances (e.g., fluctuations averaging 10-15% annually in U.S. households), while rivals respond to signals like price cuts, necessitating that anticipates reactions—principles empirically upheld in game-theoretic models of oligopolistic markets where naive strategies yield 20-30% lower returns.

Market Participants and Models

Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing encompasses the strategies, tactics, and processes employed by organizations to promote products or services to other businesses, rather than individual consumers. These transactions typically involve goods or services used in , operations, or resale, such as raw materials, machinery, software solutions, or consulting services. Unlike direct consumer sales, B2B exchanges often feature high-value contracts, customized offerings, and a focus on operational efficiency and . The global market reached $32.1 trillion in 2025, underscoring its scale relative to consumer markets. B2B marketing differs fundamentally from business-to-consumer (B2C) approaches in buyer , decision processes, and communication styles. B2B purchases emphasize rational, data-driven evaluations centered on savings, , and integration with existing systems, whereas B2C decisions frequently incorporate emotional or impulse factors. Sales cycles in B2B average 11.3 months, involving multiple stakeholders and iterative negotiations, compared to shorter B2C timelines. Buying groups in B2B have expanded to an average of 10 to 12 members, including influencers from , , and technical teams, requiring consensus-building and tailored demonstrations of value. Empirical patterns in B2B buyer journeys reveal self-directed dominating early stages, with 57% to 70% of the process completed via online content before engaging vendors. By 2025, 80% of B2B interactions occur through digital channels, and 75% of buyers prefer rep-free experiences, prioritizing accessible resources like case studies and ROI calculators. Stalls occur in 86% of deals due to mismatched expectations or incomplete information, leading to 81% buyer dissatisfaction in complex procurements. These dynamics necessitate inbound tactics that educate and build trust over aggressive outbound pushes. Core B2B strategies include (ABM), which targets high-value accounts with personalized campaigns; to address pain points through whitepapers and webinars; and (SEO) for visibility in niche queries, tailored to longer sales cycles and multi-stakeholder decisions through long-tail keywords and nurturing content, unlike shorter consumer-oriented approaches. Platforms like facilitate 80% of B2B via and networking, while nurturing sustains engagement across extended cycles. Trade shows and sales remain viable for relationship-building, though digital shifts post-2020 have accelerated hybrid models. Evolutionarily, B2B marketing transitioned from product-centric pitches in the mid-20th century to customer-centric models by the 2000s, incorporating data analytics for predictive targeting.
Key B2B vs. B2C DistinctionsB2B CharacteristicsB2C Characteristics
Sales Cycle Length11.3 months averageDays to weeks
Decision-Makers10-12 per group1-2 individuals
Purchase DriversROI, Emotion, convenience
Transaction VolumeFewer, higher valueHigh volume, lower value
Success in B2B hinges on measurable outcomes, with 2025 digital ad spend projected at $18.47 billion in the U.S. alone, reflecting investments in attribution tools to link marketing to revenue.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Marketing

![Steve Jobs introducing the Macintosh computer in January 1984][float-right] Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing encompasses the strategies and tactics employed by companies to promote and sell products or services directly to individual end-users for personal consumption, rather than to other businesses. This model emphasizes reaching a broad of consumers through channels that influence personal purchasing decisions, often driven by emotional appeals, , and immediate gratification rather than extended rational evaluation. Unlike transactions, B2C sales typically involve lower per-unit values but higher volumes, with shorter decision-making cycles averaging days or weeks compared to months or years in B2B contexts. Key characteristics of B2C marketing include a focus on mass and -centric messaging, leveraging on individual preferences to tailor offerings. Empirical comparisons reveal that B2C campaigns prioritize engaging, entertaining content to capture attention quickly, contrasting with B2B's -driven, technical approaches. For instance, B2C buyers are more susceptible to visual and narrative-driven , with studies showing emotional boosts purchase intent by up to 20-30% in segments. processes in B2C often rely on single decision-makers, facilitating impulse buys, whereas B2B involves multiple stakeholders and rigorous ROI assessments. Successful B2C strategies frequently integrate digital tools like , , and SEO, which deliver the highest ROI according to 2025 marketing benchmarks, with leading at an average return of $36 per $1 spent for consumer brands. Examples include Amazon's use of , which account for 35% of its sales by analyzing past behaviors to suggest relevant products. Netflix employs algorithmic content suggestions to retain subscribers, achieving a 75% viewing rate for recommended titles through data-informed . In 2025 trends, B2C marketers are scaling AI-driven , with 75% of consumers more likely to buy from brands offering tailored content, underscoring the causal link between perceived and conversion rates. B2C marketing's effectiveness hinges on understanding consumer psychology from first principles: purchases stem from fulfilling immediate needs or desires, amplified by , , and hedonic value, as evidenced by higher cart abandonment rates—averaging 70%—when disrupts emotional momentum. Challenges include market saturation and ad fatigue, prompting shifts toward approaches that unify online and offline experiences for sustained . Overall, B2C demands agile adaptation to fleeting trends, with empirical affirming that brands excelling in customer-centricity outperform peers by 20-30% in growth.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Models

The (C2B) model reverses the traditional flow of by enabling individual consumers to offer products, services, or value directly to businesses, often in exchange for payment, contracts, or other incentives. This approach leverages digital platforms where consumers, such as freelancers or content creators, market their skills or ideas to corporate buyers, allowing businesses to access specialized talent or innovative input without maintaining full-time staff. For instance, platforms like facilitate freelancers bidding on business projects, with over 12 million freelancers registered as of 2023, demonstrating how consumers actively promote their expertise to secure gigs. Another example is reverse auctions, pioneered by Priceline in 1998, where consumers name their desired price for services like tickets, compelling businesses to meet or beat those terms to win the sale. In C2B marketing, consumers employ , , or specialized portfolios to attract business interest, shifting power dynamics as businesses increasingly rely on crowdsourced solutions amid rising operational costs. exemplifies this, with individuals partnering with brands for sponsored content; global influencer marketing spend reached $21.1 billion in 2023, reflecting businesses' dependence on consumer-generated authenticity over traditional . Empirical evidence shows C2B's growth tied to expansion, with platforms reporting a 20-30% annual increase in user-generated service offerings from 2020 to 2024, driven by trends post-COVID-19. However, challenges include quality variability and transaction risks, as businesses must vet consumer proposals without standardized oversight. The consumer-to-consumer (C2C) model involves direct transactions between individuals for goods or services, typically facilitated by online platforms that provide infrastructure like listings, payments, and dispute resolution while earning fees. eBay, launched in September 1995 as AuctionWeb, pioneered this by enabling peer-to-peer auctions, evolving into a marketplace handling 1.7 billion listings annually by 2023 and generating $10.1 billion in revenue that year through commissions. Other examples include Craigslist, founded in 1995, which supports classified ads for local sales without auctions, and Depop for fashion resale, underscoring C2C's role in secondhand markets. C2C marketing relies on user-generated listings, ratings, and , where sellers promote items via photos, descriptions, and platform algorithms to reach buyers, fostering trust through community feedback rather than brand intermediaries. This model has surged with penetration, with global C2C transactions valued at $3,105.98 billion in 2025, projected to reach $7,442.78 billion by 2029 at a 24.4% CAGR, largely from apparel and resale. Secondhand C2C alone is forecast to hit $448 billion in revenue worldwide by 2025, up from $291 billion in 2024, as consumers prioritize and affordability amid . Platforms mitigate via and verification, but empirical studies note higher dispute rates—up to 5% of transactions—compared to B2C, attributable to individual sellers' inconsistent reliability. Both models emerged prominently in the late with , inverting industrial-era hierarchies by empowering consumers through low-barrier digital tools, though emphasizes resale efficiency while C2B focuses on service innovation. Their viability hinges on platform and regulatory adaptation, with indicating sustained growth as mobile access expands, yet persistent issues like in (estimated at 10-15% of listings on some sites) underscore the need for robust verification.

Key Differences and Empirical Comparisons

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing targets organizational buyers, emphasizing rational decision-making, long-term relationships, and ROI justification, often involving multiple stakeholders and complex processes. In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing focuses on individual end-users, prioritizing emotional appeals, impulse responses, and high-volume transactions to drive immediate purchases. (C2B) reverses the B2C dynamic, with individuals offering services or products directly to organizations, such as freelancers on corporate projects via platforms like . Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) enables exchanges without intermediary businesses owning inventory, as seen in marketplaces like where users list and sell personal goods. Empirical data highlight stark contrasts in scale and efficiency. B2B sales cycles typically span 2.1 months on , extending to 6-8 months for complex deals due to layers, while B2C cycles often conclude in days or weeks via simplified, personal decisions. B2B transactions yield higher values from bulk or enterprise-scale needs, fostering greater per-client lifetime value compared to B2C's lower-unit, higher-frequency exchanges. B2B marketing yields an ROI of 5:1, reflecting sustained from repeat contracts, though measurement challenges persist in attributing long-term gains. C2B markets, driven by gig economies, reached $6.56 billion in and are forecasted to grow to $14.17 billion by , underscoring rising consumer empowerment in pricing and selection. platforms, while enabling low-barrier entry, face higher risks and lower trust metrics than structured B2B or B2C models, with effectiveness tied to network effects rather than branded promotion.
AspectB2BB2CC2B
Decision ProcessRational, multi-stakeholder, ROI-focusedEmotional, individual, need-drivenConsumer-initiated bids/offersPeer , trust-dependent
Sales Cycle Length2.1–8 monthsDays to weeksVariable, project-basedImmediate to short-term
Avg. Transaction ValueHigh (enterprise scale)Low (per-unit retail)Medium (service fees)Variable (user-listed prices)
Marketing FocusContent, case studies, relationship-buildingAds, branding, promotionsPlatform visibility, Community trust, listings optimization
ROI Metrics5:1 average, long-term attributionHigher volume, shorter paybackGig growth (e.g., 116% projected to )Network-driven, variable scalability
These models' effectiveness varies by context: B2B excels in stable, high-margin sectors like , where empirical benchmarks show superior predictability over B2C's volatility in trends. C2B and C2C thrive in digital niches but lag in regulatory oversight and reliability compared to B2B/B2C, with 's peer dynamics amplifying risks from unvetted participants.

Strategic Frameworks

Marketing Orientations and Philosophies

Marketing orientations refer to the strategic philosophies that shape how organizations prioritize their activities in relation to the , evolving from internal efficiencies to and societal considerations. These orientations reflect adaptations to changing economic conditions, , and behaviors, with the marketing orientation emerging as dominant in mature markets due to its alignment with value creation through . Empirical analyses consistently link a strong marketing orientation to improved firm , including higher profitability and , as evidenced by studies across industries showing positive correlations moderated by environmental factors. The production orientation, dominant from the post-Civil War era through the , assumes consumers favor products that are readily available and inexpensive, prioritizing high-volume production, cost reduction, and widespread distribution over other attributes. This philosophy suited underdeveloped markets where demand exceeded supply, as seen in early examples like Samuel Colt's revolvers in 1835, enabling during the . However, it risks overlooking quality or preferences when supply catches up to demand. The product orientation, prominent in the to , emphasizes superior quality, performance, and continuous , assuming consumers will prefer better-made products regardless of promotional efforts. Firms invested heavily in to refine offerings, but this approach often led to "," where companies fixated on existing products and ignored broader customer needs or substitutes, as illustrated by railroads failing to adapt to air and bus travel competition. The selling orientation gained traction by the amid and , positing that consumers exhibit buying and require aggressive through , , and personal selling to stimulate demand. This inward-focused strategy suits or excess inventory scenarios but assumes effective promotion can override natural preferences, often resulting in short-term transactions rather than sustained relationships. It contrasts with earlier orientations by shifting emphasis from making products to pushing them. The marketing orientation, crystallized in the , centers on identifying and satisfying target customer needs more effectively than competitors, integrating , product development, and communication to deliver superior value. This customer-centric philosophy underpins in saturated markets, with from multiple studies confirming its association with enhanced , responsiveness, and financial outcomes, such as in analyses of Albanian firms where market-oriented practices boosted performance metrics. Unlike prior orientations, it views the market as the starting point for , fostering long-term over transactional . The societal marketing orientation extends the marketing concept by balancing customer wants, company profits, and long-term societal welfare, addressing issues like environmental sustainability and . Proposed as a refined , it advocates ethical practices that prevent short-term gains from harming broader interests, yet critics argue it risks undemocratic overreach by marketers presuming to define societal good, potentially conflicting with profit motives and when regulatory or ethical constraints diverge from demands. While theoretically appealing, its practical adoption remains limited, with evidence suggesting firms prioritizing it may face trade-offs unless aligned with market incentives.

Marketing Planning Process

The refers to the systematic sequence of activities undertaken by organizations to formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies that align marketing efforts with broader objectives, emphasizing data-driven to adapt to market dynamics. This process typically unfolds over annual or multi-year cycles, integrating internal assessments with external environmental scans to identify opportunities and mitigate risks. Empirical studies indicate that formal marketing planning correlates with improved organizational in 17 out of 24 reviewed analyses, though results vary by industry and firm size, with some evidence of no effect or even negative outcomes in highly volatile contexts where rigid plans hinder . Key stages commence with , which involves auditing internal capabilities—such as resources, competencies, and past performance—and external factors like market trends, competitor actions, and macroeconomic influences using tools like SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) or PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental) frameworks. This step grounds planning in empirical realities, as unsubstantiated assumptions lead to strategy failures; for instance, firms that skip rigorous analysis report up to 20% higher rates of unmet objectives. Subsequent to analysis, organizations define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives, translating high-level goals into quantifiable targets such as growth or revenue increases, often benchmarked against historical data or industry averages. These objectives guide and provide criteria for later evaluation, with research showing that firms employing SMART metrics achieve 15-25% better alignment between plans and outcomes compared to those using vague goals. Strategy development follows, encompassing , targeting viable segments based on profitability potential, and positioning the offering to differentiate from competitors through perceived value. This phase draws on customer insights to craft propositions that address unmet needs, as evidenced by Philip Kotler's framework, which links effective segmentation to sustained via targeted resource deployment. Tactical execution involves detailing the and action programs, including timelines, responsibilities, and budgets calibrated to objectives—typically 5-10% of projected sales for mature firms. Budgeting here prioritizes high-ROI channels, informed by cost-benefit analyses, while avoiding over-allocation to unproven tactics. Finally, implementation and control entail rolling out plans with cross-functional coordination, followed by monitoring via key performance indicators (KPIs) like return on marketing investment (ROMI) or customer acquisition cost (CAC), and iterative adjustments based on . Studies affirm that closed-loop control mechanisms enhance plan credibility and adaptability, reducing deviations from targets by up to 30% in structured environments. Variations exist across contexts; for example, Kotler's five-step model emphasizes value creation through customer relationships, while digital-era adaptations incorporate agile iterations to counter rapid technological shifts. Despite behavioral challenges like , which undermine up to 40% of plans, the process's causal efficacy stems from its emphasis on foresight and accountability over ad-hoc decisions.

Operational Tools

The Marketing Mix: 4Ps Framework

The 4Ps framework, comprising product, , place, and promotion, provides a tactical structure for managers to align offerings with market demands, originating from E. Jerome McCarthy's 1960 book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. McCarthy distilled earlier marketing concepts into this model to emphasize controllable variables in achieving objectives, which later popularized in his 1967 text by integrating it into broader . Empirical studies, such as those examining commercial applications in contexts, indicate the framework's effectiveness in enhancing outcomes when all elements are coordinated, outperforming promotion-only strategies by reinforcing behavioral change through integrated tactics. Product refers to the core goods or services offered, encompassing tangible attributes like , , features, , and branding, as well as intangible elements such as warranties and after-sales support, all calibrated to satisfy identified needs. Managers must evaluate product viability through lifecycle stages, ensuring differentiation via unique value propositions; for instance, Apple's iterations have sustained by prioritizing innovative features over commoditized hardware. Decisions here drive repeat purchases, with evidence from profitability analyses showing that robust product strategies correlate with higher margins when aligned with demand signals. Price determines the monetary cost to consumers, influenced by strategies such as cost-plus pricing, value-based pricing, penetration (low initial prices to gain volume), or skimming (high initial prices for premium positioning), factoring in production costs, competitor benchmarks, and perceived value. Elasticity analysis reveals that price adjustments can boost revenue by 1-2% per percentage point change in optimal conditions, though misalignments risk eroding loyalty; a 2025 study on marketing mix impacts found pricing as a key driver of customer satisfaction when reflective of quality delivered. Place, or distribution, governs how products reach end-users via channels like direct sales, retailers, wholesalers, or e-commerce logistics, optimizing availability, inventory management, and coverage to minimize friction in access. Effective placement reduces stockouts and expands reach; for example, Coca-Cola's global network ensures ubiquity in over 200 countries, contributing to sustained volume growth, with research affirming that streamlined distribution enhances overall mix performance in profitability models. Promotion involves communicating value through advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and digital tactics to inform, persuade, and remind target audiences, allocating budgets based on media efficiency and ROI metrics. Integrated campaigns yield measurable lifts, such as a 10-20% sales increase from coordinated efforts in tested scenarios, though isolated promotions underperform; e-marketing variants demonstrate significant satisfaction gains via targeted digital promotion. The framework's strength lies in iterative balancing of these Ps, adapting to empirical feedback for causal efficacy in revenue generation.

Extensions, Modifications, and Alternatives (e.g., 4Cs)

The traditional 4Ps framework, while foundational for tangible goods, has been critiqued for its producer-centric focus, prompting extensions and alternatives to better accommodate services, customer perspectives, and evolving market dynamics. One prominent modification is the 7Ps model, developed by H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner in 1981 specifically for , where intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability necessitate additional controllable elements beyond product, , place, and promotion. This extension incorporates (interactions between service providers and customers, influencing perceived quality through employee training and customer service scripts), (the systems and procedures for delivering the service, such as streamlined booking flows in to minimize wait times), and (tangible cues like facility design or branding materials that reassure customers of service reliability, e.g., clean uniforms in banking). Empirical applications in sectors like and healthcare demonstrate that emphasizing these elements correlates with higher scores; for instance, a 1980s study on service encounters found efficiency reduced variability in outcomes by up to 30% in tested firms. In contrast, the 4Cs model serves as a conceptual alternative, shifting emphasis from seller-controlled variables to buyer needs, as articulated by Robert Lauterborn in a 1990 Advertising Age article declaring the 4Ps "obsolete" amid consumer empowerment and media fragmentation. The 4Cs comprise consumer wants and needs (prioritizing solutions that fulfill customer solutions over standardized products, e.g., customizing software features based on user pain points rather than pushing generic offerings), cost (total ownership expenses including time and effort, beyond mere monetary price, such as subscription models reducing ), convenience (ease of access and purchase, supplanting distribution channels with availability like mobile apps for instant fulfillment), and communication (two-way via feedback loops and , replacing one-sided promotion to build trust and adapt offerings). This framework gained traction in the with the rise of , where data from systems showed that convenience-focused strategies increased retention rates by 15-20% in retail pilots, underscoring its utility in saturated markets over the inwardly focused 4Ps. Other modifications include hybrid approaches blending 4Ps with digital realities, such as adding partners (strategic alliances for , evident in ecosystem models like Apple's app developer network, which expanded market reach without direct control) or presentation (holistic branding consistency across touchpoints). These alternatives do not supplant the 4Ps but complement them; for example, surveys of European marketing academics in the early indicated 70% favored integrating 7Ps elements into general strategies, reflecting empirical recognition of service-like traits in modern goods marketing amid and customization demands. Practitioners must evaluate applicability based on industry context—7Ps for high-involvement services like consulting, 4Cs for consumer-driven sectors like —ensuring alignment with verifiable customer data rather than untested assumptions.

Analytical Methods

Marketing Research Techniques

Marketing research techniques involve the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data about markets, consumers, and competitors to support decision-making in , product development, promotion, and distribution. These methods originated in the early , with quantitative approaches emerging in agencies during the through creative testing of ad copy and consumer panels. By the 1930s, public opinion polling techniques adapted from political surveys began influencing consumer behavior studies, while focus groups developed in the 1940s as a tool for exploring in . Techniques are broadly classified into primary , which generates original data via direct interaction or , and , which analyzes pre-existing data from reports, databases, or . Primary methods dominate when specific, current insights are needed, as may be outdated or misaligned with the objective. indicates that firms employing rigorous primary achieve higher marketing ROI, with one study linking effective research utilization to improved financial outputs through better input allocation. However, overreliance on any single technique risks biases, such as self-selection in voluntary responses or aggregation errors in secondary datasets, necessitating across methods for causal validity. Quantitative techniques prioritize measurable data for . Surveys and questionnaires, often distributed online or via phone, enable large-scale sampling to quantify preferences, with response rates historically averaging 10-30% in studies but yielding generalizable results when samples exceed 1,000 participants under random selection. Experiments, including in digital environments, isolate variables like price elasticity; for instance, field trials have demonstrated causal links between packaging changes and lifts of up to 20% in controlled retail settings. These methods excel in predictive modeling but assume rational respondent , which first-principles analysis reveals is often undermined by cognitive heuristics. Qualitative techniques uncover underlying motivations through non-numerical exploration. Focus groups, typically involving 6-10 participants moderated in sessions lasting 1-2 hours, reveal attitudinal nuances via discussion, as pioneered in wartime morale studies adapted to consumer goods in the . In-depth interviews provide personalized narratives, effective for probing unmet needs, though interpreter subjectivity can introduce variability. Observational methods, such as ethnographic tracking in retail or eye-tracking in labs, capture unarticulated s; data from such techniques has informed product redesigns by identifying discrepancies between stated and actual preferences, with extensions using EEG to measure subconscious reactions showing correlations with purchase intent in 70-80% of cases. Limitations include small sample sizes precluding statistical power and potential Hawthorne effects where observed subjects alter . Secondary research techniques leverage cost-effective aggregation of external data, including government statistics, industry reports, and competitive filings. Competitive analysis scans rivals' strategies via tools like SWOT frameworks applied to public earnings calls, revealing market gaps; for example, analysis of Nielsen data has historically predicted category shifts with 85% accuracy when combined with econometric modeling. Digital-era advancements incorporate listening and analytics, scraping platforms for sentiment via , which processes millions of posts daily to forecast trends—evidenced by correlations exceeding 0.7 between online buzz and sales in . Yet, algorithmic biases in data sources, often stemming from platform moderation favoring certain viewpoints, demand critical validation against primary findings to avoid causal misattribution. Hybrid and emerging techniques integrate technology for enhanced precision. AI-driven analytics, utilizing on vast datasets, automate pattern detection in customer journeys, with empirical models showing 15-25% uplift in effectiveness over traditional surveys. Despite institutional enthusiasm in academia for these tools, real-world deployment reveals challenges like data privacy constraints under regulations such as GDPR, implemented in 2018, which limit scraping and require opt-in consent, potentially skewing samples toward tech-savvy demographics. Overall, technique selection hinges on objectives, budget, and timeline, with causal realism emphasizing experimental designs over correlational surveys for robust inference.

Market Segmentation and Targeting

Market segmentation involves dividing a heterogeneous market into smaller, more homogeneous groups of consumers or businesses sharing common characteristics, needs, or behaviors, enabling tailored marketing efforts. The concept was formalized by Wendell R. Smith in his 1956 article "Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies," which presented segmentation as a strategic response to differing consumer preferences rather than uniform . This approach contrasts with earlier practices dominant in the early , where standardized products were offered to all buyers without differentiation. Common bases for segmentation include demographic factors such as age, , , and level; geographic variables like , , or climate; psychographic elements encompassing lifestyle, values, and personality traits; and behavioral aspects including usage rates, , and purchase occasions. Demographic segmentation, for instance, underpins strategies like Procter & Gamble's targeting of disposable diapers to parents of infants under age 2, leveraging U.S. data showing approximately 4 million annual births as of 2023. , drawing from tools like the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) framework developed by in 1978, groups consumers by attitudes and aspirations, as seen in Nike's appeal to achievement-oriented individuals through motivational campaigns. Behavioral segmentation focuses on observable actions, such as segmenting frequent flyers for airline loyalty programs, where data from 2022 IATA reports indicated that top 10% of passengers accounted for 50% of revenue in the industry. Effective segmentation requires segments to meet specific criteria: measurability (quantifiable size and purchasing power), substantiality (sufficient scale for profitability), accessibility (reachable via distribution and promotion), differentiability (distinct responses to marketing mixes), and actionability (feasible implementation with available resources). For example, a segment must exceed a minimum viable size, often benchmarked at 1-2% of the total market for consumer goods, to justify dedicated efforts; otherwise, it risks inefficient resource allocation. Market targeting follows segmentation by evaluating and selecting one or more segments based on their attractiveness relative to the firm's objectives and capabilities. Attractiveness is assessed via factors like segment size (e.g., projected growth rates from ), profitability (margin potential after costs), competitive intensity, and alignment with company strengths, such as a 2021 McKinsey analysis showing segments with high digital adoption yielding 15-20% higher returns for firms. Targeting strategies include undifferentiated (, treating the market as uniform with a single offer, suitable for commodities like salt where & Gamble achieved scale efficiencies in the ; differentiated marketing, customizing offers for multiple segments, as does with diet and zero-sugar variants capturing 40% U.S. in carbonated beverages per 2023 Nielsen data; and concentrated (niche) marketing, focusing resources on a single segment for depth, exemplified by Rolls-Royce targeting ultra-high-net-worth individuals, where 2022 sales of 5,586 units generated over £1 billion in revenue despite comprising less than 0.1% of global luxury auto demand. Empirical studies, including a 2010 review of 68 segmentation applications, indicate differentiated and concentrated approaches enhance performance metrics like return on marketing investment by 10-25% in heterogeneous markets, though mass strategies persist in low-variability sectors due to cost advantages. Selection involves portfolio analysis, prioritizing segments via matrices weighing attractiveness against competitive position, ensuring causal links between targeting precision and outcomes like rates exceeding industry averages by 20-30% in targeted campaigns.

Product Life Cycle Analysis

The product life cycle (PLC) concept describes the progression of a product's and profits over time, typically divided into four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This framework, popularized by in his 1965 article "Exploit the Product Life Cycle," posits that products, like biological organisms, follow a predictable pattern influenced by market acceptance and , enabling firms to tailor marketing strategies accordingly. Levitt argued that recognizing these stages allows managers to anticipate shifts and adjust tactics, such as emphasizing awareness in early phases or defending later. Empirical observations support the PLC's descriptive utility for many consumer goods, where sales initially rise slowly, accelerate, plateau, and eventually fall due to saturation or . For instance, the exemplified rapid growth from its 2001 launch, reaching peak maturity by the mid-2000s before declining with integration. However, the model's predictive power is debated, as external factors like technological disruption or aggressive marketing can extend or alter cycles, challenging its universality.
StageSales PatternProfit CharacteristicsKey Marketing Strategies
IntroductionLow, slow growthNegative or low due to high R&D and promotion costsHeavy for awareness; selective distribution; skimming or
GrowthRapid increaseRising as reduce costsExpand distribution; differentiate features; build
MaturityPeak and stabilizationHigh but pressured by Product modifications; price promotions; intense competitive
DeclineFallingDeclining, potentially negativeHarvest profits; reduce costs; phase out or reposition
Critics, including Dhalla and Yuspeh in a analysis, highlight scant rigorous empirical validation, noting that few products exhibit the classic bell-shaped without managerial interventions distorting patterns. Studies on U.S. have tested international PLC variants, finding partial support for competitive shifts across stages but inconsistent duration predictions. Recent research confirms declining sales post-initial growth for most products, averaging under a year before stabilization or drop-off, underscoring the framework's limits in dynamic markets. Despite these shortcomings, the PLC remains a practical for , provided it is applied with -driven adjustments rather than as an inflexible dogma.

Environmental Factors

Macroeconomic and Regulatory Influences

Macroeconomic conditions profoundly shape marketing strategies by altering purchasing power, spending patterns, and business investment priorities. During economic expansions, firms typically increase expenditures to capture growing , with U.S. aggregate advertising spending rising from $139 billion in 1960 to over $240 billion by 2018 in nominal terms, correlating with GDP growth phases. In recessions, however, budgets contract sharply due to reduced consumer confidence and ; for instance, global ad markets saw declines during the 2008-2009 and the 2020 downturn, with recovery often lagging GDP rebound by one to two years as firms prioritize cost-cutting over promotional investments. Empirical analyses confirm that contractions heighten sensitivity, prompting marketers to shift from brand-building to short-term promotions, though sustained cuts can erode long-term as competitors who maintain spending gain disproportionate visibility post-recovery. Inflation and interest rate fluctuations further constrain marketing efficacy by elevating operational costs and compressing margins. High inflation, as experienced in the U.S. from 2021-2023 with rates peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, drives up media buying and production expenses while fostering consumer thriftiness, leading brands to emphasize value propositions and essential benefits over aspirational messaging. Studies indicate that inflationary pressures reduce volume sales targets, incentivizing price hikes that risk alienating budget-conscious buyers unless offset by targeted discounts or loyalty programs. Rising interest rates, such as the Federal Reserve's hikes from near-zero to over 5% between 2022 and 2023, similarly dampen borrowing for marketing campaigns and curb big-ticket consumer purchases, forcing segmentation toward resilient categories like groceries over durables. These dynamics underscore a causal link where macroeconomic volatility demands adaptive budgeting, with data showing firms in high-inflation environments reallocating up to 20-30% of marketing spend to digital channels for measurable ROI amid uncertain returns on traditional media. Regulatory frameworks impose structural limits on marketing practices, enforcing transparency and consumer protections that vary by jurisdiction and can constrain innovation or enable fair competition. In the United States, the (FTC), established in 1914, polices deceptive advertising under Section 5 of the FTC Act, mandating truthful claims and substantiation; violations, such as unsubstantiated health endorsements, have resulted in multimillion-dollar fines, compelling marketers to invest in compliance testing and legal reviews. Antitrust laws like the Sherman Act of 1890 further regulate promotional tactics that stifle competition, as seen in cases against or exclusive deals. In the , the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective May 25, 2018, restricts personalized marketing via stringent consent requirements and data minimization, reducing targeted ad efficiency compared to the U.S. and increasing compliance costs by an estimated 2-4% of marketing budgets for cross-border firms. EU directives on unfair commercial practices, harmonized under the 2005 Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, prohibit aggressive sales tactics more stringently than U.S. counterparts, influencing content localization and channel selection to avoid penalties that reached €2.5 billion in GDPR fines by 2023. These regulations, while aimed at safeguarding consumers, often favor established players with resources for adherence, potentially disadvantaging smaller entrants in data-driven or cross-jurisdictional campaigns.

Competitive and Technological Environment

The competitive environment in marketing encompasses the rivalry among firms within a market, influencing strategies such as , promotion, and to capture consumer demand. Businesses compete through various tactics, including and brand positioning, in structures ranging from to oligopolies. A key analytical tool is Porter's Five Forces, which assesses industry attractiveness by examining competitive rivalry among existing players, the threat of new entrants (e.g., low barriers in digital markets enabling startups), bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, and the threat of substitutes. In highly rivalrous sectors like , firms such as Apple and invest heavily in marketing to maintain , with global expenditures exceeding $50 billion annually as of 2023 data extrapolated to current trends. This rivalry compels marketers to monitor competitors' moves, often using frameworks like integrated with Porter's model to identify opportunities for differentiation. Technological advancements have transformed the marketing landscape by enabling precise targeting, , and real-time , shifting from to data-driven approaches. The rise of digital platforms has accelerated this, with global digital spend projected at $740.3 billion in 2024, growing 8.9% year-over-year and comprising over 70% of total ad expenditures in many markets. Innovations like programmatic automate ad buying using algorithms, reducing costs and improving efficiency, while allows segmentation based on behavioral patterns rather than demographics alone. In competitive tech-driven industries, such as , these tools lower entry barriers but intensify rivalry, as smaller firms leverage cloud-based marketing software to challenge incumbents. Artificial intelligence (AI) further amplifies technological impacts through hyper-personalization and predictive modeling, analyzing vast datasets to forecast consumer preferences. For instance, Amazon employs AI algorithms to generate tailored product recommendations, contributing to over 35% of its sales from such suggestions as reported in company analyses. Generative AI tools now automate content creation for campaigns, with adoption surging post-2023 amid tools like those from integrations, enabling marketers to scale personalized emails and ads at lower marginal costs. However, this environment raises challenges like data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR enforcement since 2018) and algorithmic biases, which can distort competitive equity if not managed through transparent practices. Overall, technology fosters innovation but demands adaptive strategies to mitigate risks like platform dependency on entities such as and Meta, which control over 50% of digital ad revenue in key regions.

Modern Innovations

Digital Marketing Channels

Digital marketing channels comprise the array of online platforms and strategies utilized to promote products, services, and brands to targeted audiences, facilitating precise measurement of engagement and conversions through data analytics. Unlike traditional advertising, these channels enable real-time adjustments, cost efficiency via performance-based models, and scalability across global reach, with global digital ad spending projected to exceed $700 billion in 2025. Key channels include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC), social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, and affiliate marketing, each leveraging distinct mechanisms to drive traffic and sales. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on enhancing website visibility in organic results through , content quality improvements, technical site optimizations, and acquisition, thereby attracting users actively seeking related information without incurring per-click costs. Empirical data from industry analyses show SEO delivering an average ROI of $22.24 per dollar invested, outperforming many paid alternatives due to sustained long-term traffic gains once rankings stabilize. Effectiveness hinges on algorithm adherence, with Google's updates—such as the March 2024 core update emphasizing helpful content—prioritizing user intent over manipulative tactics, though results often require 6-12 months to materialize. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and (PPC) involve bidding on keywords to display ads atop search results or on partner sites, charging advertisers solely for user clicks, which allows for immediate visibility and granular targeting by demographics, location, and behavior. Platforms like dominate, accounting for over 80% of search ad market share, with average cost-per-click varying from $1 to $2 in competitive sectors like . ROI varies by optimization, but SEM's trackable metrics enable and retargeting, yielding conversion rates up to 3-5% for well-managed campaigns, though ad fatigue and rising bids necessitate ongoing budget allocation. Social Media Marketing utilizes platforms such as , , , and to foster engagement via organic content, influencer partnerships, and paid promotions, capitalizing on users' daily habits—averaging 2 hours 19 minutes across 6.8 platforms. Among social channels, Instagram reports the highest ROI at approximately 25-30%, followed by at 23%, driven by visual storytelling and shoppable features that convert passive scrolling into purchases. However, algorithm changes and privacy regulations like Apple's 2021 App Tracking Transparency update have reduced targeting precision, compelling reliance on first-party data and creative video formats for sustained efficacy. Email Marketing entails sending tailored newsletters, promotions, and transactional messages to opted-in subscriber lists, leveraging segmentation and for personalized delivery that boosts open rates to 20-30% in optimized lists. It achieves one of the strongest ROIs in , returning $38 for every $1 spent, or up to 4400% overall, due to low marginal costs post-list building and high trust from direct inbox access. Compliance with laws like the and GDPR since 2018 is essential to mitigate spam complaints, which average 0.1-0.5% but can erode deliverability if unchecked. Affiliate Marketing operates on a commission basis, where publishers or influencers promote products via unique tracking links, earning payments for referred sales, leads, or clicks, often through networks like Amazon Associates or Commission Junction. This performance-driven model aligns incentives, with global affiliate spend reaching $15.7 billion in 2023 and projected growth to $20 billion by 2025, as it minimizes upfront risk for advertisers while scaling reach via niche experts. Success depends on fraud detection—affiliate networks report 15-20% of traffic as invalid—and transparent disclosure under FTC guidelines since 2009, ensuring consumer trust amid varying commission rates of 5-30%. Other channels, such as through and videos, complement these by nurturing leads via value-driven assets, with 79% of marketers citing posts as effective for awareness, though ROI measurement requires attribution modeling across funnels. Overall, channel efficacy correlates with integration; standalone tactics underperform compared to approaches, where data silos are bridged for unified customer views, as evidenced by 72% of successful firms tracking cross-channel performance.

AI, Automation, and Data-Driven Personalization

Artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled marketers to automate routine tasks such as content generation, customer segmentation, and campaign optimization, allowing for scalable operations that were previously labor-intensive. By 2025, the global AI marketing market reached $47.32 billion, up from $15.84 billion in 2020, reflecting rapid adoption driven by tools like and algorithms that forecast consumer behavior with greater accuracy than traditional methods. platforms, including sequencing and scheduling software, have seen widespread use, with 87% of marketing teams employing or planning to implement such systems to reduce manual effort and minimize errors in execution. These technologies process vast datasets in real time, enabling dynamic adjustments to bids and messaging, which empirical analyses show can increase operational efficiency by streamlining lead nurturing and content relevance. In practice, AI-powered chatbots and recommendation engines exemplify automation's role in enhancing interactions; for instance, platforms use AI to suggest products based on browsing history, contributing to higher conversion rates through immediate, context-aware responses. Marketing statistics indicate that 88% of automated email-driven purchases stem from triggers like cart abandonment or welcome sequences, demonstrating causal links between automated interventions and revenue uplift. Adoption rates vary by sector, with 50-75% of companies utilizing automation tools in 2025, particularly in B2B where 79% automate journeys to foster long-term . Studies confirm that integrating AI into these workflows accelerates decision-making and resource allocation, as algorithms identify qualified leads faster than human analysts, though outcomes depend on and integration fidelity. Data-driven personalization leverages consumer data—such as purchase history, engagement patterns, and demographics—to tailor communications, yielding measurable benefits like improved targeting and . For example, brands employing AI for hyper-personalized content delivery report up to 30% gains in personalization effectiveness, as measured by response rates and loyalty metrics. This approach contrasts with by prioritizing individual preferences, with platforms analyzing behavioral signals to customize offers in real time, thereby boosting conversions through relevance rather than volume. Empirical evidence from marketing operations highlights that such personalization enhances ROI by optimizing resource use, though it requires robust to avoid inefficiencies from incomplete datasets. Overall, the synergy of AI, , and has transformed marketing from reactive to predictive paradigms, with indicating sustained efficiency gains: AI integration correlates with faster campaign deployment and higher , as seen in studies where automated systems reduced operational costs while elevating strategic focus. However, these advancements hinge on verifiable data inputs, underscoring the need for causal validation over correlative assumptions in deployment. Projections suggest continued growth, with the market expanding from $6.65 billion in 2024 to $15.58 billion by 2030, fueled by AI enhancements.

Ethics, Controversies, and Regulation

Ethical Foundations and Debates

Ethical foundations of marketing emphasize principles of honesty, transparency, fairness, and respect for autonomy, which underpin practices that prioritize truthful communication over to foster long-term trust rather than short-term gains. These principles derive from broader frameworks, where marketing decisions are evaluated against duties to avoid harm and utilitarian assessments of net societal benefit from informed choices. For instance, the American Marketing Association advocates for ethical norms extending beyond legal compliance to include integrity in representation, recognizing that violations erode market efficiency by distorting information flows essential for voluntary exchanges. In a free-market context, these foundations align with voluntary ethics, where marketers refrain from or , as self-interested invites competitive reprisal and boycott, enforcing without mandated oversight. Debates in marketing ethics center on the tension between persuasion as legitimate information provision and potential manipulation that exploits cognitive biases or creates artificial demands. Critics, often from regulatory or academic perspectives, argue that marketing fosters consumerism and inequality by targeting vulnerable groups, such as children or low-income consumers, with aspirational messaging that prioritizes profit over welfare, potentially justifying interventions to curb excesses like high-interest lending promotions. Proponents of minimal regulation counter that such critiques overlook empirical evidence of market self-correction: deceptive practices historically lead to reputational damage and reduced sales, as seen in consumer backlash against misleading claims, while ethical transparency correlates with sustained brand loyalty and economic efficiency through better resource allocation. This divide reflects deeper philosophical disputes, with free-market advocates viewing ethical marketing as emergent from individual rights and competition—where false advertising fails due to rival truths—versus views positing inherent power asymmetries necessitating ethical codes or paternalistic rules to protect against "irrational" choices. Contemporary debates extend to data-driven personalization and sustainability claims, questioning whether algorithmic targeting invades privacy or enhances relevance, and if "greenwashing"—exaggerated environmental benefits—undermines genuine innovation. Scholarly analyses highlight that while ethical lapses in promotion, such as unsubstantiated health claims, can mislead and impose externalities like overconsumption, robust competition and voluntary standards often mitigate harms more effectively than top-down mandates, which risk stifling informational variety. Attribution of these positions underscores source variances: free-market critiques emphasize causal realism in voluntary consent, whereas interventionist arguments, prevalent in certain academic circles, may amplify perceived harms amid institutional biases favoring oversight. Ultimately, ethical marketing's viability hinges on aligning incentives where truthfulness yields competitive advantages, evidenced by firms prioritizing verifiable claims to avoid litigation and build enduring value.

Notable Scandals and Criticisms

Marketing has drawn significant for practices that prioritize sales over transparency, including deceptive claims about product , environmental impact, and risks, often leading to regulatory actions and backlash. Empirical evidence from legal settlements and investigations reveals instances where advertisers manipulated or omitted facts to influence behavior, undermining trust in the . These scandals highlight causal links between profit incentives and ethical lapses, where firms exploit asymmetries rather than relying on genuine value propositions. One prominent example is the tobacco industry's decades-long campaign to downplay smoking's health dangers. From the 1950s onward, major cigarette manufacturers, including Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, funded research to create doubt about nicotine's addictiveness and cancer links, while advertising campaigns like the Joe Camel series from 1988 targeted youth demographics, increasing teen smoking rates by associating the brand with cool, adventurous imagery. In 1997, the Federal Trade Commission charged R.J. Reynolds with violating federal law by marketing to children under 18, as Camel brand awareness among six-year-olds rivaled that of popular cereals. A 2006 U.S. District Court ruling in United States v. Philip Morris found companies guilty of racketeering for fraudulently denying addiction risks, leading to court-ordered corrective advertising starting in 2017 that explicitly stated: "Companies intentionally designed cigarettes with enough nicotine to create and sustain addiction." These admissions stemmed from internal documents showing deliberate nicotine manipulation, contradicting public denials and contributing to over 480,000 annual U.S. deaths from smoking-related illnesses as of 2020 data. The 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, known as Dieselgate, exemplifies technological deception in automotive marketing. installed defeat devices—software that detected emissions testing and altered engine performance to pass standards while emitting up to 40 times the legal nitrogen oxide limits in real-world driving—allowing the company to market its TDI diesel models as environmentally superior "clean diesel" vehicles compliant with U.S. EPA regulations. This affected 11 million vehicles worldwide, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uncovering the fraud on September 18, 2015, after independent testing revealed discrepancies. The filed charges in March 2016, alleging VW's campaign deceived consumers on emissions reductions, prompting a $15 billion settlement including vehicle buybacks and environmental mitigation. CEO resigned amid the revelations, and the scandal's root cause traced to aggressive sales targets conflicting with emission compliance costs, illustrating how internal pressures can drive systematic misrepresentation. Greenwashing represents a persistent , where firms exaggerate or fabricate claims to appeal to eco-conscious buyers without substantive changes. For instance, in 2023, settled a class-action for $10 million after marketing K-Cup pods as recyclable, despite that only a fraction were processed due to design flaws and limited infrastructure, misleading consumers on environmental impact. Similarly, H&M's "Conscious Collection" faced scrutiny in 2019 when investigations revealed it comprised less than 1% of sales volume, with audits showing continued reliance on high-water, polluting production contradicting green labels. Regulators like the FTC have issued guidelines against such vague terms as "eco-friendly" without verifiable data, yet enforcement lags, as seen in over 200 green claims challenged annually by watchdogs, often from industries like and where profit motives clash with verifiable emissions reductions. These cases underscore causal realism: unsubstantiated claims erode market efficiency by distorting signals on true costs. The 2017 Fyre Festival further illustrates hype-driven fraud in experiential marketing. Promoters and leveraged over 400 influencers to sell $1,000–$12,000 tickets via videos depicting luxury events with gourmet food and celebrity performances, generating $26 million in sales within hours. In reality, attendees encountered disaster relief tents, cheese sandwiches, and logistical chaos on April 27–28, 2017, due to unfulfilled bookings and site unpreparedness. McFarland was convicted of wire fraud in 2018, sentenced to six years, after evidence showed deliberate misrepresentation to inflate demand without operational backing. This scandal exposed risks in influencer-driven tactics, where viral reach amplifies unverified promises, leading to FTC warnings on disclosure and substantiation in endorsements.

Regulatory Frameworks and Free-Market Critiques

Regulatory frameworks governing marketing primarily aim to curb deceptive practices, protect consumer data, and prevent anti-competitive behaviors that distort market signals. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces Section 5 of the FTC Act, prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts in commerce, including false or misleading advertisements that lack substantiation. This requires claims to be truthful, non-deceptive, and backed by evidence, with violations leading to enforcement actions such as cease-and-desist orders or civil penalties; for instance, the FTC has challenged unsubstantiated health claims in advertising since at least the 1970s, resulting in over 100 cases annually in recent years. Additional statutes like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 regulate commercial email marketing by mandating opt-out mechanisms and accurate headers to prevent spam, while the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 restricts data collection from children under 13 without parental consent, impacting targeted ads on platforms aimed at youth. Antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act of 1890 and Clayton Act of 1914, address marketing practices that facilitate collusion, such as price-fixing or exclusive dealing arrangements, which can suppress competition and inflate consumer costs; enforcement by the FTC and Department of Justice has targeted industries like pharmaceuticals where promotional tie-ins reduced market entry for generics. Internationally, the European Union's (GDPR), effective May 25, 2018, imposes stringent rules on using personal for marketing, requiring explicit consent for and profiling, with fines up to 4% of global annual turnover for non-compliance—exemplified by the €50 million penalty against in 2019 for inadequate consent in ad personalization. The EU's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC) further bans misleading actions or omissions in , harmonizing across member states and influencing global firms to adopt "GDPR-compliant" practices worldwide. In contrast, jurisdictions like extend similar protections via the (CCPA) of 2018, granting residents rights to of data sales for , which has prompted platforms to implement "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" tools. Free-market advocates critique these frameworks as often exceeding necessary safeguards against , arguing that they impose compliance burdens that raise entry barriers and favor established firms with legal resources, thereby reducing and . Economists associated with institutions like the contend that voluntary market mechanisms—such as reputation effects, repeat purchases, and consumer boycotts—provide more efficient regulation than government mandates, as evidenced by historical declines in deceptive practices following scandals like the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act's precursors without perpetual oversight. For instance, excessive data privacy rules like GDPR are said to limit informative , which disseminates price and quality signals essential for efficient , potentially costing the economy €12.4 billion annually in lost ad revenue and productivity by 2020 estimates from industry analyses. Antitrust interventions in marketing, such as restrictions on promotional bundling, are faulted for ignoring consumer welfare gains from scale efficiencies, with critics like those at the noting that such rules distort incentives and overlook how free entry naturally erodes temporary market powers without state intervention. Empirical data supports partial validity in these views: while regulations demonstrably reduce outright , studies indicate compliance costs can exceed benefits in low-harm sectors, passing higher prices to consumers and stifling small advertisers who lack the scale to navigate bureaucratic hurdles.

Economic Role and Measurement

Contributions to Economic Efficiency and Growth

Marketing facilitates economic efficiency by bridging information gaps between producers and consumers, enabling better alignment of supply with demand. Through and promotion, firms convey details on product attributes, , and availability, which reduces and allows consumers to select offerings that best match their preferences, thereby directing resources toward higher-value uses. This process supports , where goods are produced up to the point where their marginal cost equals marginal benefit, minimizing waste from mismatched production. In competitive environments, intensifies by enabling new entrants to reach audiences and challenge incumbents, pressuring firms to lower costs, innovate, and improve quality to capture . This dynamic enhances as resources shift from less to more effective producers, while also signaling and quality, which guides capital and labor toward sectors with superior returns. Empirical analysis across U.S. industries confirms that such competitive activities contribute to resource reallocation, with studies showing positive correlations between marketing intensity and overall metrics. Marketing also drives by expanding and enabling scale economies. U.S. research on 61 private business sector industries from 2000 to 2019 quantifies marketing's role, estimating that investments in purchased , other marketing services, and internal marketing efforts added 0.18 percentage points to annual output growth—a contribution comparable to software (0.19 percentage points) and (0.15 percentage points). This growth stems from marketing's capacity to stimulate consumption, facilitate , and amplify productivity gains, particularly with the rise of digital channels that enhance targeting and responsiveness. By fostering job creation and , marketing sustains long-term expansion, as evidenced by its stable impact across economic cycles.

Assessing Marketing Effectiveness and ROI

Assessing marketing effectiveness involves quantifying the causal impact of marketing activities on business outcomes such as , acquisition, and , while ROI specifically calculates the net return as (incremental attributable to marketing minus marketing costs) divided by marketing costs, expressed as a percentage. This approach prioritizes incremental effects over total sales to isolate marketing's true contribution, avoiding overattribution from baseline trends or external factors. Key methods include attribution modeling, which assigns credit to touchpoints in the customer journey; common models are first-touch (crediting initial interaction), last-touch (final interaction), linear (equal distribution), and data-driven approaches that use algorithms to weigh contributions based on historical data. (MMM) employs econometric regression to estimate channel impacts across long horizons, while incrementality experiments like geo-targeted holdouts or tests provide causal evidence by comparing exposed versus control groups. Metrics beyond basic ROI encompass return on ad spend (ROAS), customer acquisition cost (CAC) relative to lifetime value (CLV), conversion rates, and brand lift studies measuring awareness or intent shifts via surveys. For instance, benchmarks indicate email marketing yields an average ROI of $36 per dollar spent, B2B efforts average 5:1, and Google Ads around 200% in 2024, though these vary by industry and channel with paid search often outperforming social media. Challenges persist in establishing causality amid multi-channel paths, data silos between marketing and sales, and long-term effects like brand building that accrue over years rather than quarters. Vanity metrics such as impressions or likes often mislead without tying to revenue, and privacy regulations like GDPR complicate tracking, pushing reliance on aggregated or synthetic data models. Effective assessment thus demands integrated platforms and rigorous experimentation to counter these issues, ensuring decisions reflect verifiable uplift rather than correlation.

References

  1. https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/
  2. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp
  3. https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-4-evolution-of-the-marketing-concept
  4. https://sites.bu.edu/tpri/2024/03/06/marketing-and-economic-growth/
  5. https://economics.virginia.edu/sites/economics.as.virginia.edu/files/2025-04/Information-content-of-advertising.pdf
  6. https://play-media.org/insights/evolution-of-marketing-from-ancient-to-digital/
  7. https://www.hydrogen-code.com/en/2020/11/02/the-history-of-advertising-from-ancient-egypt-to-the-last-century/
  8. https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/advertising-in-ancient-rome/
  9. https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/medieval-champagne-fairs-lessons-development
  10. https://www.history.com/articles/town-criers
  11. https://medieworld.com/medieval-marketplaces-a-glimpse-into-the-past/
  12. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/consumer-revolution-16501800/going-shopping/34416CE955BAB1B1BC3DF148132A2CA7
  13. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/wedgwood-an-introduction
  14. https://philmasiello.com/josiah-wedgewood-entrepreneur-and-brand-builder/
  15. https://youngcompany.com/the-evolution-of-marketing-from-the-industrial-revolution-to-the-digital-age/
  16. https://coschedule.com/marketing/history-of-marketing
  17. https://www.bestmarketingdegrees.org/great-marketers-industrial-revolution/
  18. https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/josiah-wedgewood-an-industrial-revolution-pioneer
  19. https://thehustle.co/josiahwedgwood
  20. https://www.stairgalleries.com/discover-news/discover/wedgwood/
  21. https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/josiah-wedgwood-overview/
  22. https://capturingcreativity3.wordpress.com/2025/01/08/the-role-of-advertising-in-the-industrial-revolution-the-dawn-of-modern-marketing/
  23. https://edgecustom.com.au/marketing-and-branding-during-the-industrial-revolution/
  24. https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/artadv/
  25. https://fullscale.io/blog/the-evolution-of-marketing/
  26. https://pinckneyharmon.com/evolution-of-marketing/
  27. https://www.marketingempiregroup.com/how-industrialization-shaped-modern-marketing-branding
  28. https://www.brafton.com/blog/content-marketing/evolution-of-marketing/
  29. https://www.leadershipconnect.io/business/a-history-of-marketing-how-it-all-began/
  30. https://www.youngurbanproject.com/evolution-of-marketing/
  31. https://iu.pressbooks.pub/mktgwip/chapter/1-1-marketing-an-historical-perspective/
  32. https://fulcrumresources.net/evolution-of-the-marketing-orientation/
  33. https://www.interodigital.com/blog/the-evolution-of-digital-marketing/
  34. https://www.xanthosdigital.com/the-history-of-digital-marketing-a-20-year-retrospective
  35. https://designindc.com/blog/the-transformation-of-digital-marketing-the-last-three-decades/
  36. https://open.library.okstate.edu/introtosocialmedia/chapter/social-media-marketing-a-brief-history/
  37. https://morethandigital.info/en/social-media-through-the-years-a-25-year-timeline/
  38. https://www.simplilearn.com/history-and-evolution-of-digital-marketing-article
  39. https://blog.gaggleamp.com/the-evolution-of-social-media-marketing
  40. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/17/the-past-present-and-future-of-big-data-in-marketing/
  41. https://www.demandlab.com/resources/blog/the-impact-of-big-data-on-marketing/
  42. https://www.upcounting.com/blog/ecommerce-sales-over-time
  43. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/
  44. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380000313_Impact_of_Big_Data_Analytics_on_Digital_Marketing_Academic_Review
  45. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-is-the-impact-of-big-data
  46. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jppm.26.2.251
  47. https://www.ama.org/marketing-vs-advertising/
  48. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/009207037500300222
  49. https://www.strategic-planet.com/2013/10/marketing-theory-of-exchange/
  50. https://www.youngurbanproject.com/core-concepts-of-marketing/
  51. https://ossisto.com/blog/fundamentals-of-marketing/
  52. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13162-019-00134-y
  53. https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/b2b-ecommerce-statistics/
  54. https://www.demandgenreport.com/industry-news/80-of-b2b-buyers-initiate-first-contact-once-theyre-70-through-their-buying-journey/48394/
  55. https://challengerinc.com/decade-research-how-b2b-buyers-make-purchase-decisions/
  56. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/05/20/b2b-vs-b2c
  57. https://www.wbresearch.com/relationship-between-b2b-buying-content-sales-changed-insights
  58. https://kmbs.konicaminolta.us/blog/modern-b2b-buyers-and-buyer-journeys/
  59. https://sopro.io/resources/blog/b2b-buyer-statistics-and-insights/
  60. https://www.salesforce.com/marketing/b2b-automation/b2b-marketing-guide/
  61. https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/trends-tips/top-b2b-marketing-strategies-how-they-work-and-why-theyre-popular
  62. https://www.leadseed.io/blog-en/the-chronological-evolution-of-b2b-marketing-a-20-year-journey-through-trends-and-innovations/
  63. https://www.demandsage.com/b2b-marketing-statistics/
  64. https://emarsys.com/learn/blog/what-is-b2c-marketing/
  65. https://www.imd.org/blog/marketing/b2b-b2c-marketing/
  66. https://www.craiggroup.io/houston-expert-b2b-vs-b2c/
  67. https://www.activecampaign.com/glossary/b2c-marketing
  68. https://www.socialinsider.io/blog/b2b-vs-b2c-marketing/
  69. https://www.newtonx.com/article/the-five-main-differences-between-b2b-and-b2c-market-research/
  70. https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
  71. https://www.leadpages.com/blog/b2c-examples
  72. https://www.deloittedigital.com/nl/en/insights/perspective/marketing-trends-2025.html
  73. https://www.exposureninja.com/blog/best-b2c-marketing-strategies/
  74. https://www.semrush.com/blog/b2c-content-marketing/
  75. https://www.typeface.ai/blog/top-enterprise-b2c-strategies-for-2025
  76. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5001-what-is-c2b.html
  77. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/consumer-to-business
  78. https://www.elasticpath.com/blog/6-ecommerce-business-models-b2b-b2c
  79. https://www.marketing91.com/customer-to-business-model/
  80. https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/what-is-c2b-marketing/
  81. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/c2b-explained
  82. https://nanoglobals.com/glossary/c2b-consumer-to-business/
  83. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5084-what-is-c2c.html
  84. https://wearecnxion.com/articles/ebay-business-model-explained-how-to-build-an-amazing-ebay-clone
  85. https://study.com/academy/lesson/consumer-to-consumer-c2c-e-commerce-definition-business-model-examples.html
  86. https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/what-is-c2c-marketing/
  87. https://www.researchandmarkets.com/report/global-c2c-e-commerce-market
  88. https://www.statista.com/topics/10355/c2c-e-commerce/
  89. https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2023/04/17/what-is-c2c-customer-to-customer-definition/
  90. https://htmlburger.com/blog/ecommerce-business-models-examples/
  91. https://pwskills.com/blog/e-commerce-introduction-types-history-and-examples/
  92. https://www.b2bmarketingworld.com/guide/b2b-vs-b2c-marketing/
  93. https://www.collaborada.com/blog/b2b-vs-b2c-marketing
  94. https://createandgrow.com/c2b-marketing-statistics/
  95. https://www.shopify.com/blog/types-of-ecommerce
  96. https://databox.com/b2b-sales-cycle-length
  97. https://www.sendtrumpet.com/blog-posts/17-b2b-sales-statistics-to-help-you-benchmark
  98. https://blog.respondent.io/the-key-differences-between-b2b-and-b2c-market-research
  99. https://www.data-mania.com/blog/b2b-marketing-roi-benchmarks-2025/
  100. https://www.growleady.io/blog/why-is-b2b-better-than-b2c
  101. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772662223002230
  102. https://orienteed.com/en/b2b-b2c-b2b2c-c2c-c2b/
  103. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8551.1995.tb00082.x
  104. https://scispace.com/pdf/the-relationship-between-market-orientation-and-firm-1cozfrcxng.pdf
  105. https://www2.nau.edu/~rgm/ha400/class/professional/concept/Article-Mkt-Con.html
  106. https://innovation-entrepreneurship.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13731-017-0069-9
  107. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0007681385900217
  108. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=684521
  109. https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/2012/11/29/marketing-planning-the-importance-of-planning-and-the-planning-processes/
  110. https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing/strategy-planning/writing-strategy-plan
  111. https://www.usemotion.com/blog/marketing-planning-process.html
  112. https://digital.tagbob.com/2025/05/philip-kotlers-marketing-process/
  113. https://pressbooks.usnh.edu/ld823/chapter/18/
  114. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/business-studies/5-steps-of-marketing-process/
  115. https://opentext.ku.edu/smallbusinessmanagement/chapter/chapter-8/
  116. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222846014_The_marketing_planning_process_Behavioral_problems_compared_to_analytical_techniques_in_explaining_marketing_plan_credibility
  117. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mohamedalaamkt_exploring-philip-kotlers-5-step-marketing-activity-7374206778621853696-l-jf
  118. https://heidicohen.com/four-ps-of-marketing-mix/
  119. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345371055_Long_live_the_marketing_mix_Testing_the_effectiveness_of_the_commercial_marketing_mix_in_a_social_marketing_context
  120. https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/the-four-ps-of-marketing/
  121. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3461367
  122. https://learn.marsdd.com/article/the-marketing-mix-in-marketing-strategy-product-price-place-and-promotion/
  123. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.mm.20251501.02.html
  124. https://www.salesforce.com/marketing/mix/
  125. https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-4-ps-of-marketing-and-the-marketing-mix/
  126. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3233/ISU-240230
  127. https://aithor.com/essay-examples/analyzing-the-effectiveness-of-the-marketing-mix-4ps-in-creating-a-successful-marketing-strategy-for-a-new-product-launch
  128. https://www.toolshero.com/marketing/service-marketing-mix/
  129. https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/2020/10/08/understanding-the-7ps-of-the-marketing-mix/
  130. https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs/marketing-theories-the-marketing-mix-from-4-ps-to-7-ps/
  131. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371350255_A_STUDY_OF_AN_ALTERNATIVE_MARKETING_MIX_-4C%27S_A_PARADIGM_SHIFT
  132. https://www.toolshero.com/marketing/4c-marketing-model/
  133. https://stevens-tate.com/articles/introducing-the-4c-marketing-model-and-why-you-should-follow-it/
  134. https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/how-to-use-the-7ps-marketing-mix/
  135. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247624673_Using_the_7Ps_as_a_generic_marketing_mix_An_exploratory_survey_of_UK_and_European_marketing_academics
  136. https://www.exportplanning.com/en/magazine/article/2021/03/03/from-4ps-to-7ps-towards-an-integrated-marketing-mix/
  137. https://www.askattest.com/blog/articles/history-of-market-research
  138. https://journals.ue.poznan.pl/ebr/article/download/567/458
  139. https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/research/market-research-types/
  140. https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/market-research-methods/
  141. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/methods-of-market-research
  142. https://www.hanoverresearch.com/insights-blog/corporate/market-research-methods/
  143. https://advancesinresearch.id/index.php/ABIM/article/view/241
  144. https://www.nutshell.com/marketing/resources/market-segmentation
  145. https://emeritus.org/blog/sales-and-marketing-what-is-market-segmentation/
  146. https://www.yieldify.com/blog/types-of-market-segmentation/
  147. https://www.universitylabpartners.org/blog/key-types-market-segmentation-everything-you-need-to-know
  148. https://www.acxiom.com/blog/market-segmentation-psychographic-vs-demographic-vs-behavioral/
  149. https://commence.com/blog/2020/03/16/market-segmentation-types/
  150. https://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/criteria-for-effective-market-segmentation/
  151. https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-segmentation-targeting/segmentation-targeting-and-positioning/
  152. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/what-most-important-criteria-evaluating-market-theke
  153. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/marketing/market-targeting-strategies/
  154. https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstreams/b9bc1b06-8b9e-44ce-8968-3ad1def3e117/download
  155. https://www.three-brains.com/marketing/be-a-better-marketer/using-the-market-attractiveness-model-for-targeting/
  156. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/product-life-cycle.asp
  157. https://hbr.org/1965/11/exploit-the-product-life-cycle
  158. https://www.the-waves.org/2023/12/10/10-examples-of-product-life-cycle-revealing-patterns/
  159. https://slm.mba/mmpm-003/product-life-cycle-concept-analysis/
  160. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/28958/bitstreams/97051/data.pdf
  161. https://www.jstor.org/stable/154692
  162. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/726704
  163. https://iariw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ernst_paper.pdf
  164. https://www.statista.com/topics/10084/advertising-in-times-of-crisis/
  165. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228306898_Advertising_and_Price_Effectiveness_over_the_Business_Cycle
  166. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8263352/
  167. https://www.conference-board.org/publications/marketing-implications-of-inflation
  168. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/inflation-changed-consumers-time-rethink-pricing
  169. https://www.interodigital.com/blog/how-the-macro-economic-climate-is-affecting-marketers-and-how-you-can-capitalize-on-it/
  170. https://www.irjmets.com/uploadedfiles/paper//issue_4_april_2024/53950/final/fin_irjmets1714418247.pdf
  171. https://guides.loc.gov/marketing-industry/regulations-and-ethics
  172. https://www.marketingbeyondborders.com/blog-posts/marketing-led-growth-differences-between-the-us-and-europe
  173. https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/global-product-marketing-a-us-and-eu-perspective/
  174. https://marshall-johnstonmm.com/2024/11/22/branding-across-borders-how-marketing-approaches-in-western-and-central-europe-differ-from-the-united-states/
  175. https://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/business-strategy/Pages/the-five-forces.aspx
  176. https://www.marketing91.com/competitive-environment/
  177. https://windmill.digital/three-frameworks-to-understand-your-competitive-environment/
  178. https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/digital-ad-spend
  179. https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2025/02/the-transformation-of-marketing-in-the-digital-age
  180. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2024/01/05/ai-and-personalization-in-marketing/
  181. https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/ai-will-shape-the-future-of-marketing/
  182. https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/digital-marketing-trends-2025
  183. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-global-advertising-trends
  184. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/2025.html
  185. https://improvado.io/blog/marketing-channels
  186. https://marketful.com/blog/digital-marketing-roi-statistics/
  187. https://www.semrush.com/blog/digital-marketing-channels/
  188. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-marketing.asp
  189. https://www.designrush.com/agency/digital-marketing/trends/digital-marketing-channels-roi-comparison
  190. https://www.digitalthirdcoast.com/blog/digital-marketing-statistics
  191. https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/business/types-of-digital-marketing
  192. https://nytlicensing.com/latest/trends/impressive-content-marketing-statistics/
  193. https://growthfolks.io/digital-marketing/ai-marketing-statistics/
  194. https://gracker.ai/news/ai-marketing-statistics-and-trends-insights-for-2025-and-beyond
  195. https://www.woopra.com/blog/marketing-automation-statistics
  196. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666603022000136
  197. https://inbeat.agency/blog/marketing-automation-statistics
  198. https://thunderbit.com/blog/marketing-automation-statistics
  199. https://www.emailvendorselection.com/marketing-automation-statistics/
  200. https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/marketing-personalization
  201. https://porchgroupmedia.com/blog/guide-to-using-data-to-drive-personalization/
  202. https://www.measured.com/faq/the-benefits-of-data-driven-marketing-for-marketers/
  203. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401224000318
  204. https://npaformosapublisher.org/index.php/ajabm/article/download/223/182
  205. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/marketing-automation-software-market
  206. https://www.ama.org/marketing-ethics/
  207. https://capitalismmagazine.com/2019/12/business-ethics-morality-marketplace/
  208. https://fee.org/articles/moral-criticisms-of-the-market/
  209. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/business-ethics/resources/how-trust-is-abused-in-free-markets/
  210. https://www.cato.org/regulation/summer-2019/are-markets-moral
  211. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1029313223000271
  212. https://www.trinityp3.com/ethics-in-marketing/top-ethical-issues-for-marketers/
  213. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2016/03/ftc-charges-volkswagen-deceived-consumers-its-clean-diesel-campaign
  214. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/court-issues-order-requiring-cigarette-companies-post-corrective-statements-resolves-historic
  215. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1997/05/joe-camel-advertising-campaign-violates-federal-law-ftc-says
  216. https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/tobacco-prevention-efforts/big-tobacco-forced-tell-truth-tv-and-print-ads
  217. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772
  218. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/business/volkswagen-diesel-emissions-timeline.html
  219. https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/greenwashing-examples/
  220. https://earth.org/greenwashing-companies-corporations/
  221. https://www.techtarget.com/sustainability/feature/Examples-of-greenwashing-claims
  222. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46904445
  223. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/advertising-marketing
  224. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising
  225. https://www.luthor.ai/blog-post/marketing-laws-and-regulations
  226. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/marketing/law-marketing-and-antitrust
  227. https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/
  228. https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/rules-business-and-organisations/legal-grounds-processing-data/can-data-received-third-party-be-used-marketing_en
  229. https://thecmo.com/marketing-operations/marketing-compliance/
  230. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/free-market-regulation.asp
  231. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/speeches/role-advertising-advertising-regulation-free-market
  232. https://www.mercatus.org/research/policy-briefs/reining-market-distorting-federal-regulation
  233. https://lawliberty.org/free-markets-are-ruthless-regulators/
  234. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025005404
  235. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/allocative-efficiency/
  236. https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_launch-advertising-and-promotion-in-real-time/s06-01-economic-effects-of-advertisin.html
  237. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-011-1030-7
  238. https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2023/pdf/ec230080.pdf
  239. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/053015/how-calculate-roi-marketing-campaign.asp
  240. https://www.marketingevolution.com/marketing-essentials/marketing-roi
  241. https://www.bcg.com/x/the-multiplier/four-legged-approach-to-understanding-marketing-roi
  242. https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/marketing-attribution
  243. https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/marketing-attribution-models
  244. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/future-of-marketing/creativity/measuring-effectiveness-three-grand-challenges/
  245. https://www.oracle.com/cx/marketing/marketing-roi/
  246. https://www.textla.com/post/how-to-measure-marketing-roi
  247. https://moosend.com/blog/email-marketing-roi/
  248. https://www.weberlo.com/blog/b2b-marketing-roi-benchmarks
  249. https://enhencer.com/blog/your-google-ads-performance-in-2024-roi-benchmarks
  250. https://www.rockerbox.com/faq/what-are-the-challenges-of-measuring-marketing-effectiveness
  251. https://ipa.co.uk/effworks/monitoring-marketing-v2/measuring-effectiveness-three-grand-challenges
  252. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/how-to-measure-marketing-effectiveness
  253. https://www.isba.org.uk/article/marketing-measurement-challenges-and-how-meet-them
  254. https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/analytics/marketing-roi-tool/
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.