Marketing & Sales

Guides on marketing, advertising, sales management, distribution and retail, with Indian examples.

Shopper picking a familiar branded product from a crowded shelf, illustrating advantages of branding
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Branding helps businesses through recognition, customer loyalty, a price premium, easier product launches, differentiation, legal protection, retailer support,

Researcher observing shoppers with thought bubbles about price and brand, illustrating consumer behaviour study
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Studying consumer behaviour helps businesses put the marketing concept into practice. It shows what, why and how people

Researcher interviewing a consumer revealing hidden desires, illustrating motivation research
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Motivation research studies the hidden reasons why consumers buy, using psychological methods such as depth interviews and projective

Researcher showing picture cards to a consumer, illustrating motivation research techniques
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Because people rarely reveal their real buying motives when asked directly, motivation research uses psychological techniques: observation of

Researcher with panels on product, advertising, distribution and price, illustrating marketing research uses
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Marketing research is applied across the marketing mix: product research (new products, features, packaging), advertising research (media and

Service team adding a gift as a satisfaction meter rises to full
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Customer satisfaction, as Philip Kotler defines it, is the feeling of pleasure or disappointment from comparing a product’s

Marketer surrounded by customers, competitors, government and economy, illustrating the marketing environment
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: The marketing environment is shaped by macro factors (economic, demographic, social and cultural, technological, political, legal, environmental and

Researcher interviewing shoppers with charts in the background
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Marketing research helps a business understand customers, reduce the risk of new launches, make better decisions, spot new

Factory pushing products versus marketer listening to customers, illustrating product orientation vs consumer orientation
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: Product orientation starts with the product and assumes a good product sells itself; consumer orientation starts with customer

Marketer assembling product, price, place and promotion puzzle pieces
Marketing & Sales

Quick answer: The marketing mix, popularised by E. Jerome McCarthy as the 4Ps, is the set of decisions a firm