Content :

I . Introduction II . Theoretical part 1. Definition of marketing 2. Evolution of marketing 3. Functions , principles and utility of marketing 4. Marketing strategy 5. Recommendations 6. Some specifics of marketing in Moldova III. Practical part IV. Conclusions V. Bibliography

I.

Introduction

Marketing-Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read

Greetings, dear reader!

You are welcome to this wonderful, amazing and exciting world called marketing. You can feel some mystery about it as we dont know much about this confined kingdom and it sounds almost impossible for a person in a lifetime to become acquainted with all its secrets. We ventured ourselves into one of the most ambitious project which consists of endeavouring to explore the marketing unknown realms. Here, in this paper we will try to open a small slot into it and understand some marketing strategies and principles. Firstly we shall speak about the definition of marketing and its evolution, then we shall speak about its functions, principles and utility. After that we shall try to make some recommendations. Lastly as we wanted to approach this topic from the scientifical angle and we wanted to make our own humble contribution to science we present a research. What is Marketing? This is not a question to be frowned upon in great scorn. Dont you know? The typical answer to this question is not common anymore. Why? Because people become more and more aware of the fact how little they know about it and how much importance this phenomena/science holds.

What is marketing?
Marketing is defined as the process of determining the needs and wants of consumers and being able to deliver products that satisfy those needs and wants. Marketing includes all of the activities necessary to move a product from the producer to the consumer. Think of marketing as a bridge from the producer to the consumer. Marketing starts with market research, a learning process in which marketers get to know everything they can about the needs and wants of consumers, and it ends when somebody buys something. Many companies feel that services provided to customers after the purchase also are an

important part of marketing. All of these enterprises - production, advertising, transportation, processing, packaging, and selling - are included in the marketing process.

II . Theoretical part
1. Definition of marketing Marketing is defined by the 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." This replaces the previous definition, which still appears in the AMA's dictionary: "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders." It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves. Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries. The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable. The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors. The term developed from an original meaning which referred literally to going to a market to buy or sell goods or services. Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches."

2. Evolution of marketing

An orientation, in the marketing context, related to a perception or attitude a firm holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users. Throughout history, marketing has changed considerably in conjunction with consumer tastes. Earlier approaches The marketing orientation evolved from earlier orientations, namely, the production orientation, the product orientation and the selling orientation. Western Orientation Profit driver European timeframe A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies Production Production methods until the 1950s of scale until the minimum efficient scale is reached. A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a product or service exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes will not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation). A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly Product Quality of the product until the 1960s concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product. Selling Selling methods 1950s and A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the 1960s selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible. Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in Description

consumer tastes that would diminish demand. The 'marketing orientation' is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans Needs and Marketing wants of customers 1970 to present day around the marketing concept, and thus supplying products to suit new consumer tastes. As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize promotion techniques to ensure persons know the product exists. Contemporary approaches Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society. New forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, desktop advertising or affiliate marketing. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes calledpersonalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Western Orientation Profit driver European timefram e Emphasis is placed on the whole 1960s to relationship between suppliers and present day customers. The aim is to provide the best possible customer service and build customer loyalty. 1980s to In this context, marketing takes place present between businesses or organizations. The product focus lies on industrial Description

Relationship marketing /Relationship management

Building and keeping good customer relations

Business marketing /Industrial marketing

Building and keeping relationships

goods or capital goodsrather than between organizations consumer products or end products. day Different forms of marketing activities, such as promotion, advertising and communication to the customer are used. Similar characteristics as marketing Social marketing Benefit to society 1990s to orientation but with the added proviso that present day there will be a curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in either product, production, or selling methods. In this context, "branding" is the main company philosophy and marketing is considered an instrument of branding philosophy.

1980s to Branding Brand value present day Customer orientation

Constructive criticism helps marketers adapt offerings to meet changing customer needs. A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons 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. Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally, there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the market change identification approach and the product innovation approach.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no reason to spend R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs. A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer-centric alternative to the wellknown 4Ps supply side model (product, price, placement, promotion) of marketing management. Product Solution

Promotion Information Price Place Value Access

If any of the 4Ps were problematic or were not in the marketing factor of the business, the business could be in trouble and so other companies may appear in the surroundings of the company, so the consumer demand on its products will decrease. However, in recent years service marketing has widened the domains to be considered, contributing to the 7P's of marketing in total. The other 3P's of service marketing are: process, physical environment and people. Some qualifications or caveats for customer focus exist. They do not invalidate or contradict the principle of customer focus; rather, they simply add extra dimensions of awareness and caution to it. The work of Christensen and colleagues on disruptive technology has produced a theoretical framework that explains the failure of firms not because they were technologically inept (often quite the opposite), but because the value networks in which they profitably operated included customers who could not value a disruptive innovation at the time and capability state of its emergence and thus actively dissuaded the firms from developing it. The lessons drawn from this work include:

Taking customer focus with a grain of salt, treating it as only a subset of one's corporate strategy rather than the sole driving factor. This means looking beyond current-state customer focus to predict what customers will be demanding some years in the future, even if they themselves discount the prediction.

Pursuing new markets (thus new value networks) when they are still in a commercially inferior or unattractive state, simply because their potential to grow and intersect with established markets and value networks looks like a likely bet. This may involve buying stakes in the stock of smaller firms, acquiring them outright, or incubating small, financially distinct units within one's organization to compete against them. Other caveats of customer focus are:

The extent to which what customers say they want does not match their purchasing decisions. Thus surveys of customers might claim that 70% of a restaurant's customers want healthier choices on the menu, but only 10% of them actually buy the new items once they are offered. This might be acceptable except for the extent to which those items are moneylosing propositions for the business, bleeding red ink. A lesson from this type of situation is to be smarter about the true test validity of instruments like surveys. A corollary argument is that "truly understanding customers sometimes means understanding them better than they understand themselves." Thus one could argue that the principle of customer focus, or being close to the customers, is not violated herejust expanded upon.

The extent to which customers are currently ignorant of what one might argue they should wantwhich is dicey because whether it can be acted upon affordably depends on whether or how soon the customers will learn, or be convinced, otherwise. IT hardware and software capabilities and automobile features are examples. Customers who in 1997 said that they would not place any value on internet browsing capability on a mobile phone, or 6% better fuel efficiency in their vehicle, might say something different today, because the value proposition of those opportunities has changed.

Organizational orientation In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from an organization's marketing department would be used to guide the actions of other departments within the firm. As an example, 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, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the product. Inter-departmental conflicts may occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization. Herd behavior Herd behavior in marketing is used to explain the dependencies of customers' mutual behavior. The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the simulation of adaptive human behavior. It shared mechanisms to increase impulse buying and get people "to buy more by playing on the herd instinct." The basic idea is that people will buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and several feedback mechanisms to get product popularity information to consumers are mentioned, including smart card technology and the use of Radio Frequency Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-moves" model was introduced by a Florida Institute of Technology researcher, which is appealing to supermarkets because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts." Other recent studies on the "power of social influence" include an "artificial music market in which some 19,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs" (Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience stores which orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking to improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers about "which products are popular with like-minded consumers" (e.g., Amazon, eBay). Further orientations

An emerging area of study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how employees are trained and managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively impacts the acquisition and retention of customers.

Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services, and ideas.

With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give time to advertising messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing such as branded content, custom media and reality marketing. 3. Functions, principles and utility of marketing

The functions of marketing are embodied in the aggregate of economic activities related to the transfer of property right, selling and buying, the transport and storage of goods, distribution, packaging, financing and procurement. All these areas involve numerous marketing actions that are distinguished between general and specific functions. The general functions of marketing are:

Market and consumer research. This is the main function of all marketing activities. This function implies obtaining the information about the current market situation and future perspectives. This is the foundation of all decisions: formulating the strategy, designing a new product or service, extension to a new market, targeting a specific market.

Permanent adaptation to the requirements of social and economic environment. This implies the employment of all resources in order to operatively accommodate to the market demands. A company's adaptability can be measured by comparing the dynamics of the supply it is providing to the dimension, structure and level of demand. It depends on the capacity of the management to use the resources effectively.

Full satisfaction of demand. This is the objective of any company that aims for a rewarding economic activity. As a company manages to accomplish better the market requirements, its chances to gain profit, increase its turnover and surpass its competitors, rise.

Maximizing of economic efficiency. It assumes the optimization of all economic processes (production, transportation, storage, distribution) so that the profitability is increasing.

Other functions of marketing : Buying - people have the opportunity to buy products that they want. Selling - producers function within a free market to sell products to consumers. Financing - banks and other financial institutions provide money for the production and marketing of products. Storage - products must be stored and protected until they are needed. This function is especially important for perishable products such as fruits and vegetables. Transportation -products must be physically relocated to the locations where consumers can buy them. This is a very important function. Transportation includes rail road, ship, airplane, truck, and telecommunications for non-tangible products such as market information.

Processing - processing involves turning a raw product, like wheat, into something the consumer can use -- for example, bread. Risk-Taking - insurance companies provide coverage to protect producers and marketers from loss due to fire, theft, or natural disasters. Market Information - information from around the world about market conditions, weather, price movements, and political changes, can affect the marketing process. Market information is provided by all forms of telecommunication, such as television, the internet, and phone. Grading and Standardizing - Many products are graded in order to conform to previously determined standards of quality. For example, when you purchase US No. 1

Marketing involves more than its functions. It has certain principles of organizing the company's activity: Market knowledge. The customer must be helped to make a choice. For this reason, various information from the market need to be collected and analyzed. Information about: the structure and dynamics of demand, tastes and preferences of consumers. The company needs to produce what it can sell, not to sell what it can produce. Anticipation of consumer preferences. The market needs to be studied and future trends forecasted. Marketing for the company, not company for marketing. All resources need to be invested in the business and the staff needs to be motivated to adhere to the company's general objective. Achievement of these principles guides the company to attain the final objective and has a long term perspective of efficient activities. THE FOUR UTILITIES OF MARKETING The marketing process must also add "utility" to the products consumers want. Utility is the use or satisfaction a person gets from a product. If you purchase a chain saw you anticipate that you will receive a certain amount of utility from it. You will be able to use the saw to cut fire wood, prune trees, and take care of a variety of jobs around your home. There are four types of utility. Form Utility - a product must be processed into a form that the customer wants or needs. For example, wheat is processed into bread, trees are processed into lumber, and potatoes are processed into french fries. If you ordered french fries with your lunch and the waiter brought you a raw potato, you probably wouldn't be too happy.

Place Utility - place utility involves transporting products to the location where consumers can buy them. If you live in Alaska, you certainly wouldn't want to have to drive to California to buy oranges. Thanks to our modern transportation systems you don't have to; you simply drive to the local grocery store and oranges are there ready to add to your shopping cart -- place utility. Possession Utility - possession utility establishes legal ownership of a product. When you purchase something you normally receive a receipt; this provides legal ownership and the right to use the product. Some products, computer software, for example, also provide a user license. A license of this kind gives you the right to use the product within certain guidelines. Time Utility - this could be described as being in the right place at the right time when a customer is ready to purchase a product. Creating and keeping customers means having products available for when they want them, and often this requires some type of storage facility. Wheat is one example of a commodity that must be stored after it is harvested. It is stored in silos until processors are ready to convert it into food products such as bread or cereals.

4. Marketing strategy Marketing strategy is not an exact science. It is an art. Each marketing problem requires unique solutions. If followed carefully, the following general guidelines will enhance your team's performance. Marketing strategy projects provide students with the opportunity to learn more about solving actual marketing problems. The marketing strategy project itself is a close approximation to actual decision-making. This can provide a valuable learning experience for students as many professional managers use a marketing strategy approach in routine problem solving. The problems are often very complex and require students to sort through information, discern what is relevant, organize the facts, determine concisely what the problem is, formulate alternatives, carefully evaluate the alternatives, choose and defend a particular solution, and determine a method through which to implement the solution. With practice you can master the marketing strategy method, which will help you sharpen the decision-making skills. People who are able to think strategically and analytically have a much greater probability of success in the business world than others. Creative solutions to customer problems are highly prized in marketing! The strategies used in marketing are : product promotion , product distribution and price strategy .

Product promotion

Product promotion is the act of advertising a good or service with the short/long term goal of increasing sales. Many companies use different techniques to promote their products through a vast array of communication mediums. In this day and age, there is not necessarily one communication medium that is better than another simply because the most affective medium is based on what type of product you are promoting. There is the physical form of product promotion and the digital form, both of which require clear and concise textual information about the product being advertised. Since the turn of the 21st century, many companies have been trying to utilize online social media for product promotion. Some of the most popular forms of online social media are Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Within an online social media network, companies have the ability to advertise and promote their products to anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world. Because of the vast popularity of social media, companies have had great success on marketing products to the younger generation who otherwise might not have seen an ad in a newspaper or on TV. Physical Product Promotion Outside of online product promotion, companies still try to use effective techniques of physical product promotion in stores or on the street. To attract consumer attention, companies try to use bright, attractive displays depicting excitement, relaxation, or happiness. The strategy behind promoting a product affectively is knowing who your target audience is and what appeals to them. The colors you choose to incorporate in your in-store ads or product packages will need to be well planned in accordance to your audience. Using colors like yellow and orange provoke excitement in the consumer; colors like blue and green establish trust, cleanliness, and calmness; red is a unique color in that it can provoke a sense of warning and danger but also at the same time, draw attention away from any other color. A few examples of color and product relation would be a cleaner product using green on their package or advertisement to ensure the customer that the product they are buying will successfully meet their needs. Another example would be a water bottle distributor using blue on their labels to promote freshness and ensure the consumer that the water they are drinking is of the purest nature. Along with certain color choices, many companies strategically plan how and where their products will be arranged in the stores. For instance, many consumers who enter grocery stores are not specifically looking for chewing gum. Many chewing gum manufacturers position their products at the checkout lines where customers are more likely just to grab the gum because the wrapper looks attractive and its convenient seeing that the checkout process has already begun.

Now of course most products can be found on different shelves throughout the store and heavily rely on their packaging to attract the consumers attention. For example, many personal health product companies use very elaborate eye-catching designs on their packages to draw the customers attention away from the other personal health products that may be on the same shelf or at the same eye level. As mentioned before, colors on the packaging play a very important role in this circumstance simply because you usually have so any choices to choose from when shopping for personal health items. Over the past ten years the physical product promotion aspect of marketing has become less and less important to consumers seeing that many individuals spend most of their time watching TV or surfing the web. However, this is not to say that companies are investing any small amount of money into the research and development of effective physical product promotion, the construction of their product packages and advertisements are still of the utmost importance.

Product distribution

Product distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations (go-between) involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user. Managerial concerns The channel decision is very important. In theory at least, there is a form of trade-off: the cost of using intermediaries to achieve wider distribution is supposedly lower. Indeed, most consumer goods manufacturers could never justify the cost of selling direct to their consumers, except by mail order. Many suppliers seem to assume that once their product has been sold into the channel, into the beginning of the distribution chain, their job is finished. Yet that distribution chain is merely assuming a part of the supplier's responsibility; and, if they have any aspirations to be market-oriented, their job should really be extended to managing all the processes involved in that chain, until the product or service arrives with the end-user. This may involve a number of decisions on the part of the supplier: Channel membership Channel motivation Monitoring and managing channels

Type of marketing channel

1. Intensive distribution - Where the majority of resellers stock the 'product' with

convenience products, for example, and particularly the brand leaders in consumer goods markets (price competition may be evident).
2. Selective distribution - This is the normal pattern (in both consumer and industrial

markets) where 'suitable' resellers stock the product. In this case retailers can keep the competitors products in their outlets e.g. furniture etc.
3. Exclusive distribution - Only specially selected resellers or authorized dealers (typically

only one per geographical area) are allowed to sell the 'product'. In this retailers are restricted to keep only one manufacturer's products, e.g. exclusive outlets of cars, apparels and jewelry, etc.

Channel motivation It is difficult enough to motivate direct employees to provide the necessary sales and service support. Motivating the owners and employees of the independent organizations in a distribution chain requires even greater effort. There are many devices for achieving such motivation. Perhaps the most usual is `incentive': the supplier offers a better margin, to tempt the owners in the channel to push the product rather than its competitors; or a compensation is offered to the distributors' sales personnel, so that they are tempted to push the product. Julian Dent defines this incentive as a Channel Value Proposition or business case, with which the supplier sells the channel member on the commercial merits of doing business together. He describes this as selling business models not products.

Monitoring and managing channels In much the same way that the organization's own sales and distribution activities need to be monitored and managed, so will those of the distribution chain. In practice, many organizations use a mix of different channels; in particular, they may complement a direct sales-force, calling on the larger accounts, with agents, covering the smaller customers and prospects. These channels show marketing strategies of an organization. Effective management of distribution channel requires making and implementing decision in these areas.

Product Distribution: Not All Tounge and Cheek

Written by Marketing.com Support

The most frustrating decision facing all consumer products marketers is the one they have the least control over distribution. Unlike decisions related to product, pricing and promotion, meeting distribution objectives often means the marketer is at the mercy of retailers decision to stock a marketers product. This problem is especially challenging for marketers selling products in retail stores where they must battle many other companies that are also trying to convince retail store buyers to sell their products. When it comes to buyers learning about a companys products, the most common method is a "push" promotion approach, where sales people knock on customers doors. While getting a meeting with a retailers buying staff is not hard for well-known companies, a selling opportunity like this is much more difficult for small companies that have yet to establish a track record. They soon discover that convincing a buyer just to schedule a meeting is as difficult as convincing them to buy the product. For smaller firms, a better approach may be to use creative methods that capture the final consumers attention. Labeled as "pull" promotion, these strategies are designed to target final consumers with the hope they will then ask for the product at retail stores. Once enough voices are heard, it is hoped the retailer will agree to distribute the product. Here is a story of one creative way that a small company used to build up consumer interest. After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain distribution through the use of sales calls, the company, which sells a somewhat unusual product tongue cleaner - created a YouTube video that quickly went viral. The interest caught the attention of several retailers including Wal-Mart who agreed to place the product in 3,500 stores. While Wal-Martclaims the You-Tube videos did not influence their decision to stock the product, other retailers did point to consumers' interest in the videos as a key reason for their decision to handle the product.

Price Strategy

Pricing is one of the most important elements of the marketing mix, as it is the only mix, which generates a turnover for the organisation. The remaining 3ps are the variable cost for the organisation. It costs to produce and design a product, it costs to distribute a product and costs to promote it. Price must support these elements of the mix. Pricing is difficult and must reflect supply and demand relationship. Pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organisation. Pricing should take into account the following factors: 1. Fixed and variable costs. 2. Competition 3. Company objectives 4. Proposed positioning strategies.

5. Target group and willingness to pay. An organisation can adopt a number of pricing strategies. The pricing strategies are based much on what objectives the company has set itself to achieve. Some words about the tricks used to put the prices (Written by
Marketing.com Support ) :

Soon error later whenever any of us buys something we will want to know the price. Then, in our heads we go through an internal process of evaluating whether its worth it and if we decide that it is, we make our purchase. Very often what is perceived as a price objection is actually a request for more information, without knowing the price we are unable to decide. Interestingly, if people only made purchases on price alone 93% of organisations would be out of business. Price objections can be dealt with much more effectively by incorporating the following suggestions within your teams sales approach. My advice is always to post pone talking about prices until after you have demonstrated the value of your product or service. If people are informed of the price too early, they will make an instant judgment that can close their mind towards what you are telling them. For example, if you were told that a grubby stone was 10,000 Euros, you d be very closed about what the seller was going to say next. Alternatively, if you were shown an uncut diamond that was thirty carats with a photograph of how it would look cut, its value will be perceived as dramatically higher meaning that when the seller tells you that its 10,000 Euros, you will have already appreciated the fact that its a diamond. If a prospect asks the price too early in the sales process its good practice to say something along the ines of: Before we can discuss prices we both need to be absolutely sure that we are right for you. So, if its all right with you, well come back and discuss the price in detail when we both know what you need. As with any objection, its important to understand the basis of their objection. For example, if a prospect says, Its too expensive an experienced sales person will drill-down to find out why they are making this statement. Precision questions can achieve this such as: o o o How do you know? Compared to what? Compared with whom?

If a sales person asks why? this will only encourage the prospect to reiterate all the reasons why they believe you are expensive, which installs this belief at a deeper level making it harder to overcome. When customers perceive the value of a proposition outweighs the risks then generally speaking they will go ahead and make the purchase.

Customers will often pay more for added value, which is usually related to one of the Three Rs: Reputation/Reliability/Relationship. Good sales people are able to paint a graphic picture of what is at stake, quantify the value, and help the prospect understand how it will make them feel. Its important that your team really believe in the value of what they are offering, so that they are better equipped to convince their prospects. If your team are unsure about the value their product or service can provide, they will project this unconsciously onto their prospects. If your team are completely convinced that their product or service offers superb value for money then their entire communication, from their voice tone, their eye contact and their gestures will convey VALUE. It is also a good idea to break down the price into small chunks, such as cost per use or per week. And you can enjoy all those benefits for just 2.97 a week. The smaller the number the more attractive it will to the prospect. and it helps put a manageable context around the prospects possible outlay. If you are producing a quotation for a product or service than has multiple elements, it emise the cost for each element. This helps to build the value because prospects can see at-a-glance all the elements involved and the individual prices for each element will be lower than the total sum. If you have correctly identified the prospects requirements and proposed aligned solutions then chances are, you wont be suggesting a Rolls Royce version when the customer was requiring a Mini. Its much more effective to give the prospect something they have asked for and makes it easier for them to compare prices. Once the prospect is satisfied that your prices are pretty much the same, you have created a stronger platform to up-sell from. Focus on the difference between what they say they are willing to pay, and what you are asking for. This reduces the amount in their mind and is another opportunity to highlight the additional benefits they will gain. For example, You will get all these extra benefits for just (difference in price) a week more than you are paying at the moment. If you need to lower the price, then change the deal. This can help you to maintain your credibility and justifies the reason for you lowering your price. If you simply comply with their request to match a competitors price, you imply that you were asking too much in the first instance. Take out aspects of your proposition to bring the cost within their budget. Ultimately, the price of something is what the customer invests now. The cost is what they end up paying in the longer term. A product/service that requires a higher initial investment may be more cost-effective and provide long-term better value for money. For example, imagine two brands of dishwashing liquid. Brand A costs more to buy initially than Brand B, yet because Brand A is more concentrated, (feature) it washes twice as many plates as Brand B (benefit). So, overall Brand A is actually much better value in the longer term. In fact, if

you calculate the investment per plate then you have reduced the price to the lowest common denominator. Objections do not go away, they are real, and the most successful sales professionals anticipate them and deal with them head on! 5. Recommendations for the companies that want to obtain the best success. It is no longer a question of IF companies should execute a social media strategy. The question for most companies is HOW to best execute a meaningful and engaging approach that generates results. With so many social media marketing options available, marketers must also decide best practices and what tactics to avoid . We all make mistakes as marketers and its important that we not only learn from those mistakes but share with others so that they can avoid them. I hope that the 20 Social Media Marketing Dos and Donts that Ive provided within this article not only entertain you but make you think about your current social media strategy. Which tactics are you happy to say youve implemented and which mistakes will you admit to? 10 Social Marketing Things You Must Do!

#1: Save Time, Re-purpose Content. While this is a great tactic it is important to be thoughtful about the way that you are re-using content. Simply spitting out the same information over and over again will not work. Be sure to change elements of your posts in order to either highlight different information within the post or target a different segment within your audience. #2: Interaction is Where Its At! True interaction via social media can be a tough tactic for many marketers to master. Finding the correct balance of self promotion and intriguing content that inspires action can be very instrumental in using social media appropriately. Take some time to comment or interact with your current clients and prospective clients to show that you are there, and you care about what they are saying. A simple tactic is to ask questions that inspire a response. #3: Try Multiple Media Types. Social media users are interested in fresh new ways of presenting content and ways that they can share it with their networks. In fact certain forms of media such as info graphics or videos have a tendency to be much more sharable and appealing. Try to incorporate some new media types into your social media content plan for the year. #4: For Petes Sake! Make it Searchable. Im going to go out on a limb and assume that you have some sort of optimization in place for your website. Keep the same strategy in mind for your social media content. If it can be searched it can be optimized.

#5: Keep Calm in a Crisis The last thing you need is your social media intern Sarah having a meltdown at the first sign of something unfavorable being said about your brand on social media. By keeping a level head and having an emergency preparedness plan ready should disaster strike you will be able to calmly and rationally tackle the issue. P.S. Ignoring it doesnt count as a plan. #6: Customize the Flow If youre like us you have multiple audience members to provide information to online. This could be different verticals or even different departments within a single organization. Do your homework, what sites do your different audience members participate in and what topics are of importance to them? #7: Dont Let Just Anyone Represent Your Brand In the past some companies have encouraged all team members to participate in the promotion of their brands because they work edunder the notion that more was better. False. While you dont want to discourage interaction or squash the dreams of your team it is important that the voice of your social media strategy represents who you are and what you believe in as a company. Trish from accounting that posts on her social network about the copious amounts of alcohol consumed Tuesday night and the terrible time shes having at work the next day may not be the best resource for networking your company. #8: What Was the Purpose of This Again? Remember why youre using social media in the first place. By setting a set of realistic and attainable goals you will be able to test what works and what doesnt and adapt your online marketing strategy from there. #9: Pull Out the Tool Box and Find Your Measuring Tape If you create a beautiful piece of furniture but cant fit it through the front door what was the point? The same applies to your online strategy. I dont want to discourage planning big but make sure that you have an effective means of measuring your success in order to identify the true ROI of your online marketing strategy. #10: Be Innovative, or at Least Open to Innovation You dont have to be cutting edge to run a successful social media program. However, it doesnt hurt to have your eyes and ears open to the latest trends. Experiment with your strategy to find new and interesting ways top resent the same information to your networks. Social Marketing Things to Avoid! #1: Hello? Is Anyone Listening? One of the worst things that you can do is ignore your audience. Is hared an example last week of Chap Sticks reaction to unfavorable responses from their network. Deleting information or simply refusing to answer area big marketing fail. #2:Have You Ever Tried to Have a Conversation With a Robot? If you are like me, at one time or another youve found yourself screaming at the automated help desk for your credit card

company beyond frustrated that you couldnt speak with a live representative. Try to spare your online audience of the same exasperation and create thoughtful and conversational content. Leave the robots for the other guys. #3: I Know You Are But What Am I? It is difficult if not impossible to take things back once youve said them online. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with audience members, colleagues, or competitors but there is no need to be impolite. If you take a do unto others approach you will save yourself and your company a lot of damage control. #4: Accounts Covered in an Inch of Dust. You did some research and found 10 new social networking platforms that your company is not signed up for. You assign a task to your marketing team to sign up for these accounts, and unfortunately that is as far as it goes. If you cannot commit to utilizing a platform on a regular basis and setting it up in a way that clearly represents your brand then what is the point. Dont do it just to do it. #5: One Size Does Not Fit All. All social media sites are not created equal. As marketers we must consider not only the type of interaction that typically happens on a given platform but also the audience we are trying to reach with that platform. If your social strategy for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are all exactly the same you may want to reconsider your plan. #6: The Nameless & Faceless Group from Company XYZ In order to make friends online you need to be friendly. Part of being friendly means adding a personal note to your social media profiles. Snap some impromptu photos around the office and share a little bit about some of the key team members. This is an instance where a little bit of extra effort can go a long way. #7: Taking Your Relationship To the Next Step. Romancing your prospects does not end at gaining them as followers. Sure theyve signed up to receive updates on your company but is that really enough? If your ultimate goal is to gain them as new clients then it is important to have a personalized and meaningful flow of communication that sets next steps in the relationship. An example would be recommending that you have a phone conversation or possibly meet in person to discuss some business opportunities. #8: We Really Care About You. Just Kidding. Spending countless time and effort to engage with prospects only to abandon them is a completely useless tactic. Handle these relationships with the same care that you would your other business relationships. #9: We Have No Idea What is Important To You. Our company is great, we have so much to offer you, hire us now! I consider each of these to be obnoxious and pitiful tactics for engaging followers. Instead of utilizing your platform as a means for marketing your products and services try instead to offer information that can help solve the business problem of your prospects. #10: What Are All of These Followers For Any ways? Now that youve built up this community of online followers what can you use it for? Your online community is a great resource for crowd sourcing content and brainstorming ideas. If you want to gather a set of your

own statistics why not go to your online community and ask them to participate in a study or survey and share the results with everyone. I know that a lot of these tips may seem like no brainers to you some of you, but in the fast changing world of social media, mistakes can have a significant impact. I am curious to know if you have any other no brainer social media tactics that youd like to share? They can be funny, insightful, pretty much anything you want as long as theyre true. I look forward to laughing, cringing, and sighing with you. If you have a moment to fill out the survey below Id love to get some feedback from you regarding this post and your personal experience with social media marketing. 6. Marketing in the Republic of Moldova has some specifics . First of all we can limit two parts of marketing in our country : one for national products and another for international products. If to speak about first , there is easy to see that it doesnt know a big success. In general in Republic of Moldova , the sphere of production is not so developed . So we cant speak about big strategies of promotion, distribution , prices for a small number of national producers on the market. Anyhow , there exist some well-known Moldovan slogans :

Dulciuri pentru orice vis, cu Nefis at the company of biscuits Nefis O parte din viata noastra for the water Gura Cainarului Dragostea si caldura inimilor noastre in produsele noastre from Franzeluta . Nomen est omen numele este un semn prevestitor for wines from Cricova . Another part , marketing for international products is more developed than the first .

Also , we dont have to forget about a lot of commercials on TV , radio , magazines . Anyone could recognize a lot of commercials , slogans and other types of promotion for international products in our country . Here come the big markets : Metro , Sun City , Jumbo Megapolis Mall , Elat , Malldova ,Unic, Gemeni , were you can discover a new world of brands. The well-known slogans of international products observed in Republic of Moldova :

Im lovin it from Mcdonalds Melt in your mouth not in your hands from m&ms Perfume obsession , Calvin Klein Just do it Nike Because we worth it from LOreal Impossible is nothing Adidas Maybe we were born for it maybe it's Maybelline

This classification of Moldovan peoples choice is based on advertisment characteristics most appreciated by the Moldovan public . Between them are: Content Quality Aesthetics Humour Interesting subject

Unfortunately in our country business people dont use always these characteristics , and so in many situations appears problems with promotion. Anyhow , we the younger generation will try to develop our marketing industry , to make it better and better, because people have to know what they consume .

III. Practical part

Experimental Lot In our research we started from measuring the marketing importance. The experimental lot that we chose was our peers, which constitues basically 19-20 year old teenagers. We took 100 students from the book keeping. They have been tested individually.

IV. Conclusions
In conclusion we can say that marketing has a very important role in our lives . Every part of life is determined of marketing principles ,objectives and influence. In other words we can say that marketing is our society . Production and distribution depend largely on marketing.
Many people think that sales and marketing are basically the same. These two concepts are different in many aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, public relations, and sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the product or service into the market and encourages sales from the buying public. Sales refer to the act of buying or the actual transaction of customers purchasing the product or service. Marketing Promotes Product Awareness to the Public It has already been mentioned in the previous paragraph that getting the product or service recognized by the market is the primary goal of marketing. No business possibly ever thought of just letting the people find out about the business themselves, unless you have already established a reputation in the industry. But if you are a start-out company, the only means to be made known is to advertise and promote. Your business may be spending on the advertising and promotional programs but the important thing is that product and company information is disseminated to the buying public. Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales Apart from public awareness about a companys products and services, marketing helps boost sales and revenue growth. Whatever your business is selling, it will generate sales once the public learns about your product through TV advertisements, radio commercials, newspaper ads, online ads, and other forms of marketing. The more people hear and see more of your advertisements, the more they will be interested to buy. Marketing Builds Company Reputation In order to conquer the general market, marketers aim to create a brand name recognition or product recall. This is a technique for the consumers to easily associate the brand name with the images, logo, or caption that they hear and see in the advertisements. So , for a company is very important to use marketing strategies for maximizing of economic efficiency , and they dont have to ignore this .

V. Bibliography
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10. Florescu C. Marketing - Bucureti, 1992. - 516 p. 11. Gherasim T., Maxim E. Marketing mix. - Iai: Sedicom libris, 1996. - 392 p. 12. Kotler Ph. Principiile marketingului. - Bucureti: Teora, 2002. - 680 p. 13. Kotler Ph. Managementul marketingului. - Bucureti: Teora, 2003. - 977 p. 14. Mlcomete P. Marketing. - Iai: Fundaia Academic Gh. Zane, 1993. - 390 p. 15. Munteanu V.A. Elemente de micromarketing textil. - Iai: Gh. Asachi, 1992. - 189 p. 16. Munteanu V., Medrihan G. i alii. Bazele marketingului. Ed. GRAPHIX. - Iai, 1992. - 348p. 17. Munteanu V.A. Marketing. Concepte, metode, studii de caz. Vol. I. - Iai: Editura Chemarea, 1996. - 275 p. 18. Patriche D. Marketing industrial. - Bucureti: Expert, 1994.- 296 p. 19. Pekar V. Strategii de marketing. - Iai: Sedicom Libris, 1995. - 240 p. 20. Pride W. Ferrell, O.C. Marketing. Concepts and strategis. - Boston, 1996.

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