Map of Mind Log★脈絡地圖

2006-06-28 11:15 / WhenD Stanley

When we wake up in the morning, all the information we receive through radio, TV, or internet, is full of various kinds of advertisements. Some of them are profitable and others are public welfare. During TV programs, there are many advertisements inserted in the break time and they result in no break time for us. Lots of information of sales between the advertisements and these are one kind of marketing. We can observe various marketing techniques to find some rules. For example, there is a type of promotion in a CD store, a piece of red or green card is on the CD case. When we buy two CDs, if one of them has a red card and the other a green card, we can get a discount. This technique can help the store have better circulation. Now when we enter a convenience store, we can have a bonus if our expense reaches an amount of money and we could have a bargain price buying the same two pieces of goods.

Years before, there were incidents of abusing credit cards in our society. All kinds of relative advertisements were shown on macromedia, people were taught to have ideas that credit cards are very useful and shopping would be fun, especially when people could easily pay the money. The result of abusing credit cards could not be imagined until they really dumped into the tricks of marketing. Some people became card slaves and had no right to reach their goals with a huge amount of debts, without saying some people lost their life. If we understand the knowledge of marketing, we will find that marketing can help people or kill them. If we know the tricks of marketing, we won’t be fooled by the fascination of advertisements.

What does marketing mean in academic field? There were several definitions proposed by dozens of scholars. Peter Drucker, a master of management in the present age, had said, “The purpose of marketing is to let a sale be unnecessary”, it means that we must understand our customers well and make our products or services fit them too. Most important of all, let product sell itself. And there was a theory called 4P, including product, price, place, and promotion. These contained all the elements in the process of marketing. As time goes by, the theory changed from 4P to 4C and 4V. The focus of marketing has changed from product to the relationship between customers and business. For enterprises, marketing is one kind of strategy that allows companies to earn more money. And for people, it can be a tool to support us to search the future with spreading our dream.

We can not understand the usefulness of marketing until we start to do that. In our daily life, when we want to share good news to friends or invite other people to our club, marketing can be a total activity to use. According to the theory of 4P, our toastmaster club’s activities are on behalf of products, the membership fee is on behalf of price, the meeting room is on behalf of place, and our name cards, flyers, and web site are on behalf of promotion. All these elements are a series of marketing activities. But we should not over focus on the product itself, standing for activity, and we should pay more attention on the relationship of customers, standing for our members and guests. After all, we want to be in a place like a warm family after exhausting works of a day. Marketing does not only emphasize on product itself but also the relationship. That’s why we need to understand the function of marketing.