What is the function of marketing and what are its categories?

The so-called marketing refers to a series of market-related management activities and business activities carried out by enterprises in the ever-changing marketing environment, aiming at meeting the market demand by turning potential exchange into reality exchange, so as to realize the tasks and goals of enterprises. The whole marketing process of an enterprise includes three interrelated stages, namely, pre-production activities before the production process, activities in the circulation field and after-sales activities after the circulation process. The specific contents of enterprise marketing activities include market research, market analysis, target market selection, market positioning, product decision-making, product development, product pricing, channel selection, product storage and transportation, product sales, after-sales service, public relations work, information collection and feedback, etc.

In understanding the concept of marketing, we need to pay attention to the following issues:

First, the marketing of agency enterprises takes the target market as the center and the market as the starting point of the whole marketing process.

Understand the market demand in detail; It regards the market as the destination of the whole marketing process, and tries its best to meet the needs of the market and realize the survival and development of enterprises.

Second, modern marketing thinks that enterprise marketing is an organic whole activity process, which is not equal to sales or promotion; Promotion is an integral part of enterprise marketing activities, but it is not the most important part; Promotion is one of the functions of enterprise marketers, but it is not the most important function. This is because, if enterprises establish a correct marketing concept, do a good job in market research, truly understand the needs of buyers, design and produce marketable products according to the needs of buyers, and at the same time make reasonable pricing, do a good job in distribution channel selection and information communication, then these products will be easy to sell; On the other hand, if an enterprise cannot produce products that meet the market demand, no matter how it is promoted, it will never be effective for a long time. It is in this sense that American marketing scientist Peter Serak pointed out that the purpose of marketing is to make sales promotion unnecessary.

Third, the core concept of quality marketing in the whole marketing process is commodity exchange. The marketing of an enterprise includes not only related activities in the process of product circulation, but also related activities before and after sale, that is, marketing is not limited to commodity exchange activities. However, it should be noted that all marketing or sales activities of an enterprise are related to commodity exchange, all for the purpose of realizing commodity exchange and commodity value. Therefore, the qualitative stipulation of the whole process of enterprise marketing and the core concept of marketing are commodity exchange.

Fourth, marketing is a science, marketing is a social and economic behavior of enterprises, and marketing is also a complex management art. This is because in marketing work, the marketing personnel of enterprises have no unified and fixed model to follow, but should flexibly use the basic principles, ideas and methods expounded in marketing and other related disciplines to actively deal with various specific problems in a complex and changeable marketing environment. For enterprises, we should not only attach importance to marketing, but also be good at marketing.

Second, the function and role of marketing

Marketing has both micro and macro significance. Micro-marketing and macro-marketing are enterprise economic activities and social economic activities involving a wide range, which are in an important position in modern social and economic life.

(A) the social function and role of macro-marketing

Macro-marketing refers to the process of social and economic activities related to the market, which consists of the marketing activities of enterprises in the national economy. The basic tasks and functions of macro-marketing are the marketing departments of various social marketing organizations (including various production enterprises and various wholesale enterprises, retail enterprises, storage and transportation enterprises, financial enterprises, advertising companies, marketing research enterprises, etc.). By performing their own functions, they create relevant economic benefits, thus solving various contradictions between social production and social consumption, making the different supplies of producers adapt to the different needs of consumers and users, and seeking the relationship between social production and social demand.

Under the conditions of socialized mass production and market economy, there are contradictions between social production and social consumption. Generally speaking, there are the following aspects: the contradiction of space separation, time separation, information separation, commodity valuation, commodity supply and demand, quantity supply and demand, and commodity ownership separation. With the development of socialized mass production and commodity economy, with the improvement of people's living standards, and with the gradual transformation of consumer demand from low level to high level, from simple and stable to complex and changeable, these contradictions can only be solved through the guidance of market mechanism, state and macro-control, and through the marketing activities of various marketing agencies in society.

The functions of social marketing organizations can be summarized into the following three categories:

1, exchange function

Transport functions, including buying and selling. In addition to the transfer of product ownership, the purchase function also includes the decision-making and implementation of what to buy, how much to buy, who to buy, where to buy, when to buy, and determining acceptable trading conditions. Sales functions also include finding market opportunities, determining marketing products, selecting distribution channels, setting prices, promoting sales, after-sales service and making decisions related to specific businesses.

2. Physical distribution function

Logistics functions, including the transportation and storage of goods. The storage and transportation of goods is to realize the spatial transfer of products, preserve the use value of products and adjust the contradiction between supply and demand of products. Entity allocation function is a necessary condition to realize exchange function.

3. Promote exchange and entity allocation functions

Promote the distribution functions of exchanges and entities, including financing, risk taking, information exchange, product standardization and grading, and goods grouping.

Equality. With the help of financing and commercial credit, the flow direction of products can be controlled or changed, which can bring convenience to buyers and sellers to a certain extent. Risk-taking refers to the risk that relevant marketing organizations bear part of property losses in product trading and product storage and transportation. Information communication refers to the collection, processing and transmission of market information by relevant marketing organizations, which is a necessary condition for realizing exchange function and distribution function and an important basis for enterprises to carry out marketing activities. The standardization, grading and combination of commodities means that relevant marketing organizations sort and classify commodities according to certain quality and specifications, and match and combine different products of different enterprises according to customers' needs, thus simplifying and speeding up the exchange process and facilitating storage and transportation and customer purchase.

By carrying out the above social functions, various marketing organizations can create time utility, place utility and possession utility, which is helpful to create the form utility of products. The formal utility of products refers to the use value of products that can meet people's needs through direct production process. However, the utility of the product form created at the end of the direct production process is only a potential utility before it is transferred to consumers or users. Only when consumers and users buy the right products at the right time and place and at the right price can the open utility of products meet the needs of buyers and the potential utility be transformed into actual utility. The so-called time utility means that the relevant social marketing agencies provide the appropriate products to the market at the appropriate time to meet the needs of consumers or users at the appropriate time. Location utility means that relevant social marketing organizations transport products from the place of origin to the place of sale, and provide them to the market at an appropriate time to meet the needs of consumers or users in a specific region. Possession utility means that relevant social marketing organizations help to transfer the ownership of products through marketing activities, so that consumers or users can possess and use the products they need. Time utility, place utility and possession utility mainly come from the role of marketing in commodity circulation. In fact, macro-marketing not only creates the above three effects, but also helps to create appropriate product shape effects. This is because relevant social marketing organizations can study the needs and requirements of consumers and users through investigation, and feed this information back to relevant product manufacturers, thus promoting enterprises to produce marketable products.

(B) the function and role of micro-marketing

Modern marketing focuses on the marketing of enterprises under the condition of buyer's market, that is, micro-marketing. The function and function of micro-marketing is that the marketing department of an enterprise can find some unsatisfied needs and market opportunities by paying close attention to and understanding the current situation and changes of market demand through market research; Then, according to the tasks, objectives and resource conditions of the enterprise, select the target market that the enterprise can best serve, develop marketable products according to the needs of the target market, set appropriate prices, choose appropriate distribution channels, and make appropriate promotion plans to meet the needs of the target market as much as possible, so as to expand sales, increase market share, increase profits and realize the tasks and objectives of the enterprise. Therefore, micro-marketing is an intermediate link between social demand and enterprise response, an effective means for enterprises to transform social demand into profit opportunities, an extremely important part of the whole economic activities of modern enterprises, and plays a decisive role in the survival and development of enterprises. In addition, micro-marketing is an integral part of macro-marketing, and all kinds of social marketing organizations always undertake and play some functions and roles of macro-marketing through their specific marketing functions and roles.

(C) the relationship between marketing functions and other functions of the enterprise

From the practice of enterprise management, in the era of supply constraints, marketing and sales are almost synonymous, and marketing functions are in the same important position as production functions, financial functions and personnel functions; In the era of supply constraints changing to demand constraints, traditional marketing concepts began to evolve to modern marketing concepts, and marketing began to become an important function for production, finance and personnel functions. In today's era of severe demand constraints, increasingly fierce market competition, and complex and changeable external environment, enterprises turn to the market as the center and pay attention to the adaptability to the external environment, and business strategy management and marketing management are transformed into the overall functions of enterprises.

In different periods, the relationship between marketing function and other functions of enterprises and the above changes in the position of marketing in enterprise management not only reflect the importance attached by enterprises to marketing, but also reflect the deepening understanding of the relationship between enterprises and markets, enterprises and external environment.