4 Reasons Why Marketing Matters

Many people think marketing is just advertising or sales. Actually, it’s all the things that a company does to gain customers and maintain them. That includes delivering products as well as selling and advertising said products. You can think of marketing as everything that happens to a product before it is sold—its development, its pricing, its promotion, and its distribution. The ultimate goal is to match goods and services to the people who need them.

Without marketing, people may never learn about what a company offers. Neither will the business learn about opportunities to profit and grow. Without marketing, the best products and services will remain unknown, unavailable, and unsold.

1. It keeps you competitive
Marketing allows small and new businesses to be successful. It allows them to compete with bigger and better-known businesses by giving them equal footing, at least in the public eye. Getting a new product noticed isn’t easy (and a limited budget certainly makes this harder) but a small business can get noticed by focusing on niche markets that bigger businesses only pay token attention to.

2. It boosts sales
Sales refer to the actual transactions between businesses and their customers. It involves introducing the product into the market and encouraging the public to buy. This is the main point of marketing—to boost revenue. If your company aims to profit, the marketing department must be able to do its job. Deciding how the product gets to market is an important marketing function. Lots of things could go wrong. If the marketing manager sets the wrong price, for example, the company could lose money.

3. It maintains brand reputation
A company’s reputation is built by both quality products and effective communication. Your marketing efforts exist to support your core business. Together they shape public perception. It may take time to build the image you want, but it really can’t be avoided. Not even the biggest corporation relies entirely on word of mouth. How the marketing department decides to present the product will affect how consumers receive said product. It’s therefore important that your marketing approach be well-researched and properly handled.

4. It promotes product awareness
Marketing helps promote product awareness. This is a key marketing function because it allows potential customers to discover what you’re selling. If you’re just starting out, marketing is often the only way to make yourself known. You must invest in advertising and promotion so as not to miss out on being discovered. This part of marketing always starts with getting the basic information out to the buying public. At first, it’s enough for people to know that you and your product exists. Later on you need to demonstrate how you’re satisfying a particular need. Once you have a better idea of those needs, you can refine your product accordingly.