What is marketed?

Source: © McClatchy-Tribune Information Services /Alamy

Marketers market 10 main types of entities: goods, services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas. Let’s take a quick look at these categories.

Goods Physical goods constitute the bulk of most countries’ production and marketing efforts. Each year, U.S. companies market billions of fresh, canned, bagged, and frozen food products and millions of cars, refrigerators, televisions, machines, and other mainstays of a modern economy.

Services As economies advance, a growing proportion of their activities focuses on the production of services. The U.S. economy today produces a services-to-goods mix of roughly two-thirds to one-third. Services include the work of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, barbers and beauticians, maintenance and repair people, and accountants, bankers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, software programmers, and management consultants. Many market offerings mix goods and services, such as a fast-food meal.

Events Marketers promote time-based events, such as major trade shows, artistic performances, and company anniversaries. Global sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup are promoted aggressively to companies and fans. Local events include craft fairs, bookstore readings, and farmer’s markets.

Experiences By orchestrating several services and goods, a firm can create, stage, and market experiences. Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom lets customers visit a fairy kingdom, a pirate ship, or a haunted house. Customized experiences include a week at a baseball camp with retired baseball greats, a four-day rock and roll fantasy camp, and a climb up Mount Everest.

Persons Artists, musicians, CEOs, physicians, high-profile lawyers and financiers, and other professionals often get help from marketers. Many athletes and entertainers have done a masterful job of marketing themselves—NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, talk show veteran Oprah Winfrey, and rock and roll legends The Rolling Stones. Management consultant Tom Peters, himself a master at self-branding, has advised each person to become a “brand.”

Places Cities, states, regions, and whole nations compete to attract tourists, residents, factories, and company headquarters. Place marketers include economic development specialists, real estate agents, commercial banks, local business associations, and advertising and public relations agencies. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority has met with much success with its provocative ad campaign “What Happens Here, Stays Here,” portraying Las Vegas as “an adult playground.”

Properties Properties are intangible rights of ownership to either real property (real estate) or financial property (stocks and bonds). They are bought and sold, and these exchanges require marketing. Real estate agents work for property owners or sellers, or they buy and sell residential or commercial real estate. Investment companies and banks market securities to both institutional and individual investors.

Oranizations Museums, performing arts organizations, corporations, and nonprofits all use marketing to boost their public images and compete for audiences and funds. Some universities have created chief marketing officer (CMO) positions to better manage their school identity and image, via everything from admission brochures and Twitter feeds to brand strategy.

Information Information is essentially what books, schools, and universities produce, market, and distribute at a price to parents, students, and communities. Firms make business decisions using information supplied by organizations like Thomson Reuters: “We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare, science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization.”

Ideas Every market offering includes a basic idea. Charles Revson of Revlon once observed: “In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope.” Products and services are platforms for delivering some idea or benefit. Social marketers promote such ideas as “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” and “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.”

Source: Kotler & Keller. Marketing Management 15th Global Edition (2016), pp. 27