1. What is the difference between marketing and merchandising?

How do each of
these concepts fulfill a different function in the business world? Explain and
provide a real-world example of each.
Marketing is a process of creating awareness about a certain product and convincing
them to buy it and this takes place over a long period of time. In other words,
marketing is advertising a product. Merchandising on the other hand happens around
the product (where the product is sold). It involves showering the product with praises
to better the customer-experience during consumption. A good example of marketing
is advertising a movie way before it is released. When the same movie is promoted
inside a theatre with interesting graphics, posters and pictures, that is merchandising.
2. Identify and briefly describe each of the major fields of business activity
(extractive, subcontracting, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, services,
cottage industries, and urban street sales) and offer an example of a business
that would fall into each field.
To start with, extractive as the name suggests is a business that extracts products in
order to sell them. Mining activities can be described as extractive and oil business is
a good example. Subcontracting is like a contract inside a contract. A company has
been contracted to do a certain project and it decides to source services from another
company. Big construction companies normally source services from smaller ones.
When a company makes its products, that can be termed as manufacturing. Tesla
company manufactures cars. Some businesses sell goods to smaller businesses and
customers at a lower or discounted price and that is wholesaling. A perfect example is
Costo. Retailing may sound similar but retailers do not sell a variety of goods like
wholesalers. They deal with specific goods. A perfect example is the Store Kohls
which sells clothing specifically. Services unlike goods are intangible. They are
actions offered by businesses to customers. Barbershops offer services. Speaking of
cottage industries, they are business that require little capital to start and run.
Companies that collect garbage can fall under tis category. Finally, urban street sales
(as the name suggests) are businesses that sell products in urban areas. Urban areas
are characterized by dense populations. A food truck is a perfect example of this.
3. How does marketing differ in small businesses versus large businesses? What are
some examples of possible marketing strategies that each of these types of
businesses may utilize? Explain why the examples that you provide would be
used by each type of business, respectively.
Small businesses have fewer customers compared to large businesses. This suggests
that the two businesses have to embrace different marketing strategies to help them
reach their customers. The channels will differ, priorities and finally strategies as
explained earlier. Small businesses can embrace social media marketing and
satisfactorily reach its customers. Large businesses can embrace the same strategy but
they will need other strategies to augment it. The strategies may include TV
advertising. Social media nowadays allows businesses to share their content
specifically with their potential customers.
4. Walk through the marketing process, briefly identifying and explaining each
step. Does the scope of the marketing process change based on the company or
business implementing it? Explain.
 The marketing process involves four major steps and encompass many activities. The
first step is the strategic marketing analysis. This involves a lot of research in a bid to
understand the market and customers before coming up with marketing strategies. The
second step is the marketing-mix planning and it involves using the information
acquired during research to come up with the suitable marketing strategy. At this
point, the four Ps of marketing are considered: Product, price, promotion and place.
Thirdly, marketing implementation comes in and this is self-explanatory. The strategy
hatched in the second step is put to use. Lastly, marketing control comes in and it
involves gauging the workability of the strategy. This step is all about results. These
steps are very basic and they can be used by both small and large businesses.
5. Consider very successful products that are popular in our society today. Identify
at least one specific product and discuss the marketing strategies that the
company who makes the product employed. Analyse whether or not you think
this product would have been such a success without any marketing or with
different marketing strategies.
The “Nike” company has been very successful and this speaks to the success of its
marketing strategy. Nike is a sports apparel and footwear company. The company has
greatly embraced the social media marketing strategy and it has proven useful. Its
strategy focuses on the people who benefit from the product i.e., athletes. The
company does not prioritize its products in its social media adverts but it focuses on
the popular faces using their products and people have started associating these
products with their favorite athletes. All these is done on social media and the
company has millions of followers and over 300 profiles. In my view, social media
marketing has been greatly effective for this company and its success can be directly
attributed to it.