4 Kinds of Marketing

Marketing is the process of carrying out market research, which is used to identify the customer, satisfy and keep them. Once the customers have been identified and the offering developed, brands promote their products to their market via advertising and brand awareness. Marketing is an umbrella term encompassing branding, advertising, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing.

1. Internet marketing:

Internet marketing refers to all marketing that is done online. With such a high percentage of consumers looking for products and services via search engines such as Google, internet marketers have developed a way to optimise keywords associated with a brand in a form of online marketing known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). While SEO focuses on improving search ranking results organically, PPC focuses on improving them for a price. The advertisements that you see to the right of organic search results are paid search ads.

2. Social Media Marketing:

Social Media Marketing is another form of online marketing (as it takes place on the internet), but requires a category of its own. Essentially social media marketing utilizes the social relationships that exist online via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. as a place for brands to interact with their consumers and promote their products/offering. When social platforms did not exist online, this type of marketing was generally referred to as word-of-mouth, whereby brands became popular based on awareness and reputation. Now brands are able to do that online and have the advantage of being able to speak directly to their consumers. It is as if a representative of Coca-Ccola were able to speak to tens of thousands of people at all times, sharing their brand ideas, engaging with their consumers, and discussing upcoming events, product launches and more.

3. Advertising:

Once the target market has been established, big brands tend to employ advertising experts, consisting of both creatives and account managers, to launch campaigns through various channels that will help sell their product. These channels include radio, television, print, outdoor, and now online. People working in ad agencies understand consumers and the types of things that will make them respond.

4. Guerilla Marketing:

Guerilla marketing is an unconventional way for promoting a product that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a huge budget. Examples of guerrilla marketing might include putting a brand's poster on the side of taxi cabs or scooters and driving them through a city's centre for a few hours. It might mean crashing a formal event, or decorating public property. The whole idea is to get people's attention in a way they probably weren't expecting.

While there are many ways to market a product, the most effective approach is generally to combine them all into one campaign. After all, different channels will appeal to different people.


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Adaptive Consultancy is a London based web design and marketing firm specialising in website design, eCommerce, and internet marketing, including SEO, PPC and SMO. www.adaptiveconsultancy.com/internet-marketing/