There are a number of misconceptions about marketing. Many assume that it focuses on simply communicating the product or service the organisation offers through activities like advertising. Marketing is far more complex than this. It is a vital activity for the success of any organisation. How do consumers become aware of products and services? How do they know which product or service is right for them? How do organisations know which products and services their consumers would like to buy? The answer is through the organisation’s marketing efforts. This means that if the marketing activity is not included at the beginning of the process, the organisation may end up developing a product or service and communicating about it in a way that does not resonate with its target audience. This will have a serious impact on the organisation’s success.
The marketing world is continuously changing and Introduction to marketing addresses these changes by discussing core concepts like understanding the environment that the organisation operates in, analysing their competition, understanding how consumers make decisions, conducting marketing research, applying segmentation, targeting and positioning, the process of developing and making decisions around products, managing services, marketing channels, retailing, pricing, promotions, branding, integrating communication efforts, business-to-business marketing, marketing metrics, international marketing and ethical considerations. These topics are fundamental to any marketing professional or academic. The second edition of this textbook provides updated discussions, examples and scenarios that marketers are currently facing.
Dr Nicole Cunningham is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing Management at the University of Johannesburg. She has lectured to a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and corporate students, her passion being with first-year students. She is actively involved in academic research and supervision and completed her PhD at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in 2019.
Chapter 1 Introduction to marketing
Chapter 2 The marketing environment
Chapter 3 Analysing the competitive situation
Chapter 4 Consumer behaviour and consumer decision making
Chapter 5 Introduction to marketing research
Chapter 6 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Chapter 7 Developing products
Chapter 8 Product decisions
Chapter 9 Services marketing
Chapter 10 Marketing channels
Chapter 11 Introduction to retailing
Chapter 12 Pricing decisions
Chapter 13 Promotions mix: advertising, pr and sales promotions
Chapter 14 Promotions mix: personal selling, direct marketing and sponsorship
Chapter 15 Branding decisions
Chapter 16 Digital media marketing
Chapter 17 Integrated Marketing Communication
Chapter 18 Business marketing
Chapter 19 Marketing metrics
Chapter 20 International marketing
Chapter 21 Ethical considerations
