Reverse Marketing

Reverse Marketing is the concept of the making the customer seek the firm rather than marketers seeking the customer.
Usually, this is done through traditional means of advertising, such as TV advertisements, print magazine advertisements and online media. Reverse marketing works mainly on the basis of the law of attraction.
While marketing mainly deals with finding the right set of customers and targeting them, Reverse marketing deals with strategies that would make the customer find the company offering the product.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Marketing

The Marketing Environment

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

• The macro-environment, over which a firm holds little control
• The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not necessarily total) control

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing#The_marketing_environment

Internet Marketplaces

The growing prevalence of internet access has enabled new markets to emerge online. Perhaps best known among these marketplaces is eBay, an enormous globally available auction house for products. The internet has also allowed less common marketplaces to thrive by connecting buyers and sellers from disparate locations. The formation of online marketplaces often occurs quickly in response to social or economic trends. Craigslist is another website that allows the public to trade goods and services. Internet marketplaces can further be categorized as B2B and B2C marketplaces.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace#Internet_Marketplaces

Market research

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.
Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market research.
For starting up a business, there are some important things:

• Market information

Through Market information you can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, the supply and the demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources and varieties and formats.

• Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. it is a widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, and psychographic differences and also gender differences.

• Market trends

The upward or downward movements of a market, during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if you are starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers or customer segments. [ Ilar 1998 ]
But besides information about the target market, you also need information about your competitor, your customers, products etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:

• Customer analysis
• Choice modeling
  
• Competitor analysis
  
• Risk analysis
  
• Product research
• Advertising the research
• Marketing mix modeling

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

Online Brand Management

Companies are embracing brand reputation management as a strategic imperative and are increasingly turning to online monitoring in their efforts to prevent their public image from becoming tarnished. Online brand reputation protection can mean monitoring for the misappropriation of a brand trademark by fraudsters intent on confusing consumers for monetary gain. It can also mean monitoring for less malicious, although perhaps equally damaging, infractions, such as the unauthorized use of a brand logo or even for negative brand information (and misinformation) from online consumers that appears in online communities and other social media platforms. The red flag can be something as benign as a blog rant about a bad hotel experience or an electronic gadget that functions below expectations.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_management#Online_Brand_Management

Marketing mix ((The 4P's))

The marketing mix is a set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that work together to achieve company's objectives.

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as 'the four Ps':

• product - A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are often service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the motor car and the disposable razor. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system.
• price – The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
• place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
• promotion – Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. One of the most notable means of promotion today is the Promotional Product, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix

Marketing strategies

Marketing strategy is a method of focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated time frame. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena. Corporate strategies , corporate missions, and corporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of a company's revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales . A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_strategy

The relation between Marketing and Sales

Marketing is how to tell and how to sell ,
So we can see that Selling is only a part of the Marketing process which also includes Planning , Advertising , pricing and feedback gathering.