Marketing aims to target and engage new and current customers in order to generate sales (Elwood, 2014). It is a necessary and important part of business. Therefore, marketers play an important part in generating revenue , and how the revenues translate into profit (Elwood, 2014). Sharp (2013) states that the role of a marketer ‘requires a combination of skills and knowledge’(p.6) which enable them to ‘analyse the market and financial data’(p.6). They must also have a high level of communication skills to enable them to explain their marketing strategy to their staff, the retailers and the customer (Sharp, 2013).
To understand what the customer wants, and to identify opportunities in the market, marketers use market research in order to do so (Sharp, 2013). Research is used to help them make decisions on things such as whether or not to offer a particular product or service, who the product or service is marketed for, the price, and what kind of advertisement they want to use (Sharp, 2013). This enables them to keep the organisation competitive with other similar organisations, ensuring that their customer’s maintain their awareness and loyalty to the brand (Sharp, 2013). Ensuring customers are loyal will lead to greater financial profit as customers would return for the product or service.
Market research can also ‘help organisations understand customer needs and how these translate into wants’ (Sharp, 2013, p.15). In order to satisfy the needs of the customer, marketers ‘encourage a company culture that is responsive to customer’s demand’(Sharp, 2013, p.16). Sharp (2013) says that if an organisation does not keep up to date with what customers want, it may risk market opportunities, as well as being replaced by other competitors.
However that being said, Sharp (2013) notes that although it is important to satisfy the customer’s needs, marketers need to ensure