Marketing and Salesmanship
What the examiner expects
Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and satisfying them profitably. Learn the difference between needs and wants, the marketing concept, market segmentation by demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural variables, targeting and positioning. Know the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion, extended to people, process and physical evidence for services. Understand product life cycle, branding, packaging, channels of distribution and the promotion mix. Salesmanship covers the selling process, from prospecting to follow-up, and the AIDA sequence: attention, interest, desire, action.
Traps
- Marketing is broader than selling; selling assumes the product exists, while marketing starts with customer need.
- Skimming sets a high launch price to recover costs; penetration sets a low price to win share.
- Features describe the product; benefits describe what the customer gains.
- A short channel is not always cheaper; it depends on volume, perishability and geography.
- Advertising creates awareness but cannot guarantee sales.
Worked example
A product costs 60 and sells for 100. The mark-up on cost is 40 ÷ 60 = 66.7 percent. The gross margin on selling price is 40 ÷ 100 = 40 percent. If a 10 percent trade discount is offered, the seller receives 90 and profit falls to 30, a 33.3 percent mark-up on cost. Quoting the wrong base is a classic exam error.
Rule of thumb
Write a positioning statement: for target segment, our brand is the category that gives main benefit, unlike competitor. It forces clarity about customer and difference.