WHEN IS THE PRICE RIGHT?

[This is an excerpt from the SBA’s web page “Understanding Marketing” In its "Market and Price" Section. The entire essay can be found using the link at the bottom of the page. If you are in business, you are in business to sell something, be it a product or a service. Knowing what the market is willing to pay for that product or service can be the key to your business survival.]
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What Is Marketing?


General Definition

In plain and simple terms, marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products. That's it in a nutshell!

Marketing produces a win-win situation because:

Customers have a product that meets their needs and
Healthy profits are achieved for the company. (These profits allow the company to continue to do business in order to meet the needs of future customers.)

Stated another way, focus on what the customer wants is essential to successful marketing efforts. This customer-orientation must also be balanced with the company's objective of maintaining a profitable volume of sales in order for the company to continue to do business. Marketing is a creative, ever-changing orchestration of all the activities needed to accomplish both these objectives.

How Are The Customer And Business Objectives Met?

The American Marketing Association's definition of marketing is: the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

You see in the above definition that the process of marketing begins with discovering what products customers want to buy. Providing the features and quality customers want is a critical first step in marketing. You'll be facing an uphill battle if you provide something you want to produce and then try to convince someone to buy it.

The marketing process continues with setting a price, letting potential customers know about your product, and making it available to them.

Read More about “Market and Price”