This book outlines the nature of contemporary marketing, considering how marketers function as an interface between customers and organisations. As globalisation creates increasing challenges to established marketing practices it shows how marketing efforts need to adapt continuously to allow an organisation to reach its intended market.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Marketing is pivotal in today's world. Used for determining and satisfying the needs of the customer, it stands at the interface between an organisation and its environment. Marketing provides customer and competitor information to the organisation, as well as creating awareness of the company's offering. As globalization creates increasing challenges to established marketing practices, marketing efforts need to reposition and adapt continuously to maintain an organisation's ability to reach potential customers. This Very Short Introduction provides a general overview of the function and importance of marketing to modern organisations. Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh discusses how marketing remains central to creating competitive advantage, and why it needs to be forward looking and constantly reinventing itself in line with new developments in the marketplace, such as the growth of social media, and the importance of ethics and responsible marketing. He shows how this has led to the role of marketing expanding beyond advertising and promotion, encompassing a broader sense of customer relationship management. He also considers how marketers need to remain able to manage the marketing mix in response to their understanding of customer's purchasing habits. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Autorentext
Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh holds a PhD from the University of Warwick in Marketing and Strategic Management and is currently an Associate Professor in Marketing at the University of East Anglia. His research focuses on improving the interface between sales and marketing management, for which he has an international reputation. He has a number of publications in key academic journals, including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. His previous works include The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management (with David W. Cravens & Nigel F Piercy, OUP, 2011) Creating Effective Sales and Marketing Relationships (with Leslie Caroline Le Meunier-FitzHugh, Business Expert Press, 2015), and Achieving a Strategic Sales Focus: Contemporary Issues and Future Challenges (with Tony Douglas, OUP, 2016).

Inhalt

• 1: The nature of marketing

• 2: Market research

• 3: Marketing segmentation, targeting and positioning, and the role of branding

• 4: Customer and buyer behaviour and the value proposition

• 5: Marketing promotions (communications) and social media

• 6: Price and managing channels

• 7: Product, new product development and service marketing

• 8: The changing nature of marketing

• Final reading

• Index