Q. Steps in the marketing process?

There are a range of alternative models however that of AIUAPR which most directly links to the steps in the marketing/promotional process is frequently seen as the most generally useful

• AWARENESS - Prior to anything else can happen the potential customers should become aware that the product or service exists. Therefore the first task must be to gain the attention of the target audience. All the dissimilar models are predictably agreed on this first step. If the spectators never hear the message they will not act on it no matter how powerful it is.
• INTEREST - But it isn't sufficient to grab their attention. The message should interest them and persuade them that the product or service is relevant to their needs. The content of the message(s) should therefore be meaningful and clearly relevant to that target audience's requires and this is where marketing research can come into its own.
• UNDERSTANDING - Once an interest is recognized the prospective customer must be able to appreciate how well the offering may perhaps meet his or her needs again as revealed by the marketing research. This may perhaps be no mean achievement where the copywriter has just fifty words or ten seconds to convey everything there is to say about it.
• ATTITUDES - But the message should go even further; to persuade the reader to adopt a sufficiently positive attitude towards the product or service that he or she will buy it albeit as a trial. There is no adequate manner of describing how this may be achieved. It is merely down to the magic of the copywriter's art based on the strength of the product or service itself.
• PURCHASE - All the more than stages might happen in a few minutes while the reader is considering the advertisement in the comfort of his or else her favourite armchair. The final purchasing decision on the other hand may take place sometime later perhaps weeks later when the prospective buyer actually attempts to find a shop which stocks the product.
• REPEAT PURCHASE - However in most cases this first purchase is greatest viewed as just a trial purchase. As long as the experience is a success for the customer will it be become repeat purchases. These repeats not the solitary purchase which is the focus of most models are where the vendors focus must be for these are where the profits are generated. The earlier stages are simply a very necessary prerequisite for this.

This is an extremely simple model and as such does apply quite generally. Its lessons are that you can't acquire repeat purchasing without going through the stages of building awareness and then obtaining trial use which has to be successful. It is a pattern that applies to all repeat purchase products and services industrial goods just as greatly as baked beans. This easy theory is rarely taken any further - to look at the series of transactions which such repeat purchasing implies. The consumer's growing experience in excess of a number of such transactions is often the determining factor in the later - and future - purchases. All the succeeding transactions are therefore interdependent - and the overall decision-making process may consequently be much more complex than most models allow for.