THE MARKETING

PROCESS
CHAPTER 4
Chapter Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, the student must be able to:
1. Explain the steps in the marketing process;
2. Perform market targeting, market segmentation, and market positioning;
3. Understand four marketing management functions;
4. Describe the Contents of Marketing Plan;
5. Enumerate and explain the marketing control process; and
6. Know the organization of Marketing Department.
The Marketing Process
It is the process of analysing market opportunities, selecting target markets, developing the
marketing mix, and managing the marketing effort.
Target customers stand at the center of the marketing process.
These are the following steps in the Marketing Process:
1. Analyzing marketing opportunities
2. Selecting target markets
3. Developing the Marketing Mix
4. Managing the marketing effort
A. Analyzing marketing
opportunities
The first step of the marketing process is analyzing market opportunities and availing these
opportunities to satisfy the customers’ requirements to have a competitive advantage. The
marketing function of analyzing market opportunities is important in the marketing planning
process. Any marketing manager must analyze the long-run opportunities in the market to
improve the business unit’s performance. To evaluate its opportunities firms need to operate a
reliable marketing information system.
Marketing research is an indispensable marketing tool for this purpose. Researching the market
allows the company to gather information about their customers, competitors, and any
environmental changes to determine the market opportunities. Once the market opportunities
have been analyzed then modern marketing practice calls for dividing the market into major
market segments, evaluating each segment, and selecting and targeting those market segments
that the company can best serve.
B. Selecting the Target
Market
To succeed in today’s competitive marketplace, companies must be customer-centered. They
must win customers from competitors and keep them by delivering greater value.
oSound marketing requires a careful, deliberate analysis of consumers.
oSince companies cannot satisfy all consumers in a given market, they must divide up the total
market (market segmentation), choose the best segments (market targeting), and design
strategies for profitably serving chosen segments better than the competition (market
positioning).
1. Market Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into
distinct groups of buyers with different needs, characteristics, or
behavior who might require separate products or marketing mixes.
It helps the hotel to divide the total market
and identify the needs of the sub-group. Geographic

Segmentation is the first step taken when

engaging in a marketing process that involves
developing products that meet the need of the
customers.
Behavioral
Market Demographic
Segmentation

Psychographic
2. Market Targeting is the process of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and
selecting one or more segments to enter. A company should target segments in which it can
generate the greatest customer value and sustain it over time. A company may decide to
serve only one or a few special segments, or perhaps it might decide to offer a complete
range of products to serve all market segments. Special segments may be called “market
niches.” Most companies enter a new market by serving a single segment, and if this proves
successful, they add segments.
3. Market Positioning is arranging for a product to occupy a clear distinctive and desirable
place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers.
 “positioning is the act of designing the company’s offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place
in the mind of the target market”. – Kotler
 The rationale of positioning hotel services is to create a brand in the minds of the customers so that
the company can maximize the benefits it’s derived from the customers.
 Positioning a product in the mind of the customers also helps the hotel in differentiating its products
and services from that of its competitors.
C. Developing the Marketing
Mix
The marketing mix is the set of controllable marketing variables that the firm blends to produce
the response it wants in the target market.
The marketing mix consists of everything that the firm can do to influence the demand of its
product.
These variables are often referred to as the “4 Ps”
1) Product – the “goods-and-services” combination that the company offers to the target market.
2) Price – the number of money customers have to pay to obtain the product.
3) Place – for company activities that make the product available to target consumers.
4) Promotion – for activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target consumers
to buy it.
An effective marketing program blends all of the marketing mix elements into a coordinated
program designed to achieve the company’s marketing objectives by delivering value to
consumers. Some critics feel that the 4 Ps omit or underestimate certain important activities.
1) “Where are services?” they ask.
2) “where is the packaging?”
3) The 4 Ps seems to take the seller’s view rather than the buyer’s view.
4) Perhaps a better classification would be the 4 Cs:
a) Product = Customer Solution
b) Price = Customer Cost
c) Place = Convenience
d) Promotion = Communication
D. Managing the Marketing
Effort
The company wants to design and put into action the marketing mix that will best achieve its
objectives in target markets.
This involves four marketing management functions:
1. Marketing Analysis
2. Marketing Planning
3. Marketing Implementation
4. Marketing Control