Marketing involves identifying customer needs and meeting them profitably by getting products to customers through various functions. These functions include market research to understand customers, financing, standardization and grading of products, packaging and labeling, branding, pricing, promotion through advertising and sales, transportation, storage, and customer support services. Successful marketing uses information gathered on customers and competitors to predict demand and bring the right products to customers.

1. MARKET FUNCTIONS

2. MARKETING
 The management task that links the business to the
customer by identifying and meeting the needs of
customers profitably.
 Get the right product at the right price to the
right place at the right time.

3. Marketing Management Functions
 Gathering and Analysing Market Information
 Financing
 Standardisation and Grading
 Packaging and Labelling
 Branding
 Pricing of Products
 Promotion
 Transportation
 Storage or Warehousing
 Customer Support Service

4. MARKET RESEARCH
 Process of collecting information about customer
trends, and competitor products.
 Used to determine customer buying habits, and
attitudes .
 Successful marketing involves using marketing
info to predict consumer demand and estimate
the right quantities of merchandise.

5. FINANCING
 Requires a company to budget for its own marketing
activities.
 It takes money to make money.
 Banks and other financial institutions provide money
for the production and marketing of products.
 Also provides customers with assistance in paying
for the company’s p/s.

6. PRICING
 Process of establishing and communicating to
customers the value of cost of goods and services.
 Prices assigned are directly related to consumer
demand.

7. PRODUCT SERVICE MANAGEMENT
 Obtaining, developing, maintaining, and improving a
product or product line to respond to customer
needs and wants.

8. PROMOTION
 Conducts activities to capture attention about a good or service
o Advertising—e.g., television commercials
 Personal selling—e.g., door-to-door sales, professional sales
 Publicity—e.g., press releases
 Sales promotion—e.g., logo-imprinted giveaways
 Advertising products and services is essential to attract
new customers and keeping existing customers coming
back.

9. STANDARDISATION AND GRADING
 Determining of standard regarding size, quality,
design, weight, colour, raw material used.
 Products having the same characteristics are placed
in a given category or grade. This placing is called
grading.
 Makes sale-purchase easy.

10. PACKAGING AND LABELLING
 Packaging facilitates handling, lifting, conveying of
the goods.
 Label is a slip which is found on the product.

11. BRANDING
 Every producer/seller wants that his product should
have special identity in the market.
 Giving of distinct name to one’s product is called
branding.

12. SELLING
 Any direct and personal communication with customers to
asses and satisfy their needs and wants is considered selling
 Selling involves not only satisfying customers but also
anticipating their future needs.
 Making decisions about where to sell the product and how
it gets there.

13. TRANSPORTATION
 Transport facility is needed for the produced goods
to reach the hands of consumers.
 Creates Place Utility.
 It helps in the growth of industries
whose products require quick
marketing e.g. vegetables, flowers, milk and fish.

14. STORAGE
 Time-lag between the purchase or production of
goods.
 Keeping of goods in godowns till the same are sold is
called storage.
 Time Utility.

15. CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICE
 Customer is the king of market.
 A marketer offers primarily the following services
to the customers:
(i) After-sales-services
(ii) Handling customers’ complaints
(iii) Technical services
(iv) Credit facilities
(v) Maintenance services