Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably (CIM 2016).
In the contemporary business organizations, marketing is a crucial tool. It is more of having a clear understanding of the marketplace, the consumer demand, enhancing profitable relations, strategies that are consumer driven, and making sure that the customer gets quality products and services. Many organizations have come to realise the role played by customer relationship and each of them tries to get an innovative approach towards marketing strategy in organizations. In all corners of the world, marketing essentials awareness has been high and is expected to go on rising in the current market scenario.
The following assignment will consider Xerox Corporation as the organization under study. Xerox is an American global company and is involved in the selling of document solutions as well as services. Moreover, it involves selling of document technology products and is present in more than 160 nations globally. Its headquarter is in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States of America. It was founded back in the year 1906 courtesy of Chester Carlson and Joseph C. Wilson.
Therefore, the following paper concentrates on marketing essentials in a business organization that is key in the current era of globalization. It portrays the roles played by marketing. Firstly, it considers the role of the marketing function, as well as how they relate to other functions of the business organization. Secondly, it will consider how marketing mix can be applied or is applied in different organization and in this case will be between Xerox and Samsung in achieving goals and objectives of the organization. Finally, this report will consider a basic marketing plan for Xerox Corporation.
Key Roles and Functions of the Marketing Function
The marketing function is an area that any organization should always consider as it plans to promote its products and services. Typically, marketing function may be in many forms including market research, product development, as well as market planning. Additional types of marketing function include promotion, sales distribution, public relations, and customer service (Mahea, 2014). At this point, marketing function can be defined as a role that helps an organization to pinpoint and source potentially successful products to be offered to the market and endorse them by making them unique compared to those others which might be similar in some way.
The role being played by marketing functions in both small and large organizations are too vital to be ignored. These different marketing functions play various roles but all aim at promoting the development of the organization. One big role played by all the functions is business organisation.
Every organization is competing in the same market and for the same customers, for this reason, the most pre-emptive and innovative emerge as the winners. In the contemporary world, the survival of the organizations depends on how well their wise marketing functions are carried out.
The growing competition has attracted the use of technology with most organisation turning to social media with an aim of capturing the audience with the products and services they are offering. Most of these organizations have succeeded and their clients are now informed compared to the way they were several years back. Marketing functions make the marketing process of an organization succeed. It plays an important role whereby it connects or brings together customers and the organisations creating a strong bond between them. Marketing functions give the confidence of trying out new products or services, as well as trying out new markets. Due to the above roles, the marketing function is one of the critical areas regardless of the type of business the organisation is undertaking either for profit or non-profit. It is the marketing functions that shape the organisations image. The associations of customers with the organization’s products and services (Mahea, 2014).
Turning to the profit making process of the organization, marketing functions has a hand in it considering that I increase revenue which in turn lead to an increase in the organization’s profits. It also assists in building the base for clients. The latter is realized in cases where the organization deals with corporate customers and where more than one party engages in decision making.
Further, marketing function plays a role in branding the organization, engaging in public activities, customer interaction, as well as advertisement and interaction with the clients. The latter is made possible through collecting feedback. Whenever there is the launching of a product, marketing has to be done first whereby the needs of the customers are identified. Once it has been launched, it is necessary to find out whether the needs of the customers were met. Note that, without marketing, there is no chance of any organization illuminating its brand (Mahea, 2014).