Marketing to me was and still those tel-marketers calling me at 5:00 pm at night before eating dinner. They tend to be expatriating and annoying. However, It seems when it comes to medical devices the role of marketing is more people friendly and amiable, then receiving a call every day at 5:00 pm. Marketing of medical devices has to detailed yet specific, it cannot waste time. Peoples lives are dependent on such products and you need to know the specific needs of the people. Dr. Simon made a very vivid object lesson out of a bike wheel. The hub is the marketing department and the spokes are the individual factors or groups which help to sustain marketing. Some factors are research, customer service , sales, regulatory etc.. After viewing this diagram it shows that marketing is critical factor for the company to understand the customer needs. When you get first hand advice which is going to be straight from the source that invaluable information which can critically help accompany improve. Also, marketers in the medical device industry want to be your friends to physicians, regulatory etc . To finish ,what factors in the “bike tire” example can help aid in the marketing of medical devices?

To me, marketing is knowing your customers and targeting your sales pitch to get them to want to buy your product. This includes things like getting advertisements sent by mail or online, commercials/infomercials, or phone calls. Marketing in the medical device community is different because it is usually targeting patients with a sickness or ailment. Obviously things like population would play a big part in how your marketing is reaching your target audience. Knowing what age category you're targeting can also help to cater your advertising to that specific audience. How readily available is this product and is it sustainable? These are some factors that would contribute to marketing for medical devices.

Marketing is the activity of promoting, distributing and selling your product to a customer. It takes a good communicator to convince people into buying your products over others'. I think the whole manipulating the customer to buy what is being marketed might be a good strategy for companies selling products that are not health related. However, for when it comes to selling medical devices or drugs to customers, rather than trying to manipulate them, the sales reps. should be able to effectively and truthfully explain the advantages your technology or product has that will result in a better quality of life for patients over others. This will help build trust with their customers.

Marketing is when you get costumers and potential buyers interested in your company's service or product.E Jerome McCarthy came up with 4 P's of marketing:

1. Product: Some questions asked are who is the target for this product? Is the product a fit for the current market?

2. Price: What is an ideal price? What are your competitors price?

3. Place: What is the most viable location to sell your product?

4. Promotion: What type of discounts are an option to increase awareness of your product?

I think a good marketing is a way you present and advertise your product even it is not the best in the market. From my experience, a good marketing strategy is to have a good idea to present your product in a creative way to attract and relate it to customer need. Also, I think marketing is not only about presenting your product and advertisement, but a good reputation. As Dr. Simon mentioned, if you have 10 customers like your product and tell other 10 customers. This is a really free marketing and I know a lot of small businesses depend on that. Like a lot of people rely on google reviews, etc. in my current job the marketing department take care of all the points mentioned above but not the price of the products because we have a lot of product lines, So a product manager will be responsible for the price part of the marketing. I believe for the price part it varies for one company to another.

Marketing is one of the unique feature of a business.According to me it is all about delivering products, creating them and provide services that meet the needs of customers at a favorable price. I think the most important thing in marketing is communication. But I think when it comes to healthcare the sales person should not manipulate the product and be truthful about advantages and disadvantages of the product. Marketing in medical devices is bit different in this we have to consider age, disease and patients.

Marketing to me is the amount of money needed to convince people that they need a product or a service. Companies that sell a product which has a fixed, inelastic demand would not waste resources to market the product to their existing customers. However, some companies have convinced consumers that their products are a necessity, not a want. Marketers are always trying to achieve this. They want to efficiently target potential customers and convince them that they need to have something. This can be in the form of visual advertisements or sending out products to internet personalities.

Ultimately marketing is how products become poised for launch. In different countries marketing is handled differently. This can especially be seen in global companies such as IKEA. For example, a product in the US is marketed as something for young adults who are just moving out. However, in Japan the same piece of furniture is used in a display to show how small spaces such as balconies can be utilized.

There are different schools of thoughts when it comes to defining marketing. Northwestern University professor Philip Kotler defines marketing as "managing profitable customer relationships". He believes that marketing is an essential part of the business and sees the influence not only by price but also by advertisement, sales promotions, etc. Professor Drew Boyd, of the University of Cincinnati, defines marketing as the method of changing beliefs and thoughts in the minds of customers. On the other hand, in their definition of marketing, the American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (Ref. ama.org website)
From these different definitions, one may understand that the main goal of marketing is to attract new customers by ensuring excellent value. Moreover, good marketers would maintain their customers by achieving customer satisfaction. This explains why highly competitive companies advertise their most prominent features. For example, Walmart slogan states: “Save Money. Live Better.” (Ref. denverpost website) And when one compares Walmart’s prices against other retail corporations, one would realize that money can, in fact, be saved. I believe that marketing is the act of raising the customer’s awareness, or perhaps to bring to the customer’s attention, that the marketer’s product or service would significantly improve and change my living conditions. That can present itself in making the customer’s life happier, healthier, easier, or more productive and enjoyable.

Marketing has changed over time. Gone are times when advertising was honest and to the point, now more tactics such as emotional intelligence and manipulation is used to lure people to buy the products. I think that the main reason these tactics are used is because of competition. Similar products with similar functions in the market poses a huge challenge to companies. This forces them to do what ever they can to make their product seem more desirable than their competitors. If they can't compete in quality, efficiency, and other such primary features, companies just focus on other methods to attract customers. I also think that marketing is different based on the generation. For example, advertisement to millennials is very different from advertisement to our parent's generation. You said, "Marketing is hinged more on communication skills, respect for the customer, being truthful to them..." and this is what we millennials look for while our parent's generation can be easily lured in when the sales rep is "being smarter than the customer who could then be more easily manipulated". This is because we millennial know how to access information and get the truth easily, so companies try to be more open and truthful. My parents prefer speaking to agents rather than researching about them on the internet, but the sales represent can easily make any product sound like it's the best and lure my parents into buying it. So I feel like the older generation can be manipulated more easily with marketing.
So in conclusion, I think marketing changes over time and for different generations. But as a millennial, for me, I prefer honesty and good customer service. I prefer researching on my own than looking at marketing schemes for information of the product I want to get.

Marketing is having the ability to understand the customer’s needs and wants and utilizing those specific tenders into design inputs and marketing outputs. Sales is understanding the design outputs and communicating them as benefits that will meet the customers’ needs and wants to sell the products.
Both Sales and Marketing require communication skills, but I disagree with amd29 and believe Sales is more hinged on communication compared to Marketing. In my opinion the areas of focus for Marketing are as follows: discussions with the country representatives to determine needs, wants and interest in a product, creation of the content for Marketing research studies, explaining the marketing results back to the project team to be incorporated as design inputs, creation of marketing materials to display the benefits of the product, relaying product outputs back to the global representatives to determine volume forecast and distribution models, creation of the launch plan, and communicating marketing outputs back to the corporation to determine market trends. While for Sales, communication is the entire job. Sales representatives are trained to have an in-depth understanding of the product, are designated to specific regions to build relationships with clients, communicate to potential customers or at sales conferences to promote and sell the product, and return any feedback they may have from either the rate of the sales or from the customers to the Marketing leads.

Marketing is about selling the product. That can be through promotion, EI manipulation, truthfulness, communication, from a marketing standpoint that is not as important as making sure the product sells. Personally, I'm not going to market a product that I have to make up facts for in order to make it appealing. If I want to sell a product to someone, I want to convince them to buy it because I know the product inside and out and I know it will not only fulfill the customers needs, it will exceed them. In the end, customers look at reviews more than they look at the marketing anyways so making up facts to promote the product is not going to work for very long. As a customer, if the reviews I read on a certain product matched up to what I heard through the products marketing then I will respect the company for remaining true to the product and if I do purchase the product and am satisfied by it, then I will trust the company for some of my future purchases as well. For example, I needed a longer charging cable for my phone as my current one was too short and I needed it to be durable as well. After doing some research I saw that Anker cables were threaded to avoid tangling, durable, and came in a variety of lengths. The reviews I saw were mostly positive and after looking deeper into the product on their website I decided to purchase one. After using it, I was satisfied enough with the purchase I bought a few more cables for different ports that anyone I know could use if need be as well as a couple of different phone cases because I knew they were honest about their products and their performance and I trusted I would be satisfied with my choice.

I went on a little tangent there but to put it into a few words, marketing to me is about selling the product by honestly selling its strengths and using every other detail I know about the product to convince the customer that it is worth their money without making any false claims about it.

To me marketing is the ability to enhance a product and service, helping it grow, and being able to provide the proper needs to a population. Marketing isn't only advertisements involved in persuading new customers or an audience but also in gathering all the knowledge and work to provide these services. Who should you target, where should you target these people, how much should you provide the product and service for at this location, and how should you promote this product. Sales does overlap on all these topics as it is important for them to know this information as well but I believe marketing is more so the before and sales is the after. Marketing will do the research and analyses to answer this question and will use it to develop their strategies and then sales will be the fore front.

AMD29, you mentioned that marketing is less about outsmarting the customer and manipulating them into needing the product. I don't believe that marketing is actually manipulating them though. Marketers do the research into finding the right target audience for their product/service. The target audience isn't being manipulated into buying it, they were just more likely to in the first place. For example, there are advertisements for beer and chips during football games. This is because these industries know that while watching, people will be eating snacks and more than likely will be willing to purchase these products.

To me, marketing in its simplest form is the act of getting into the market while doing something. Like Act is a play but when you start doing it, it is Acting. Work is there but when you start doing it, it is working. So basically for me, it is the act of getting into the market while performing an activity. Marketing is four P's that involve Product, Price, Place and Promotion, that is knowing about demand and needs of the target customers, fulfilling that needs and wants, and making our product reach to our targeted customers through promotion, that is making people aware about of products and services.

Marketing according to me is firstly  understanding the market and knowing your target customers.  A good marketing strategy is to advertise, effective communication with the patients and ensure good service is provided to the customers. The marketer must be able to attract the customer by offering attractive prices and be able to explain why the customer should prefer their product over the pre-existing products for this he must know the product in and out and must know about similar products too.A good advertising plan also must be designed.