Marketing is not selling. Marketing is not
advertising. Marketing is not packaging. Marketing
is not sales promotion. Marketing is not product development.
Marketing however is the entire above-mentioned, Marketing
is, in fact, business… your reason de’taire.
Most
people think that marketing is only about the advertising
and/or personal selling of goods and services. Advertising
and selling, however, are just two of the many marketing
activities.
In
general, marketing activities are all those associated
with identifying the particular wants and needs of
a target market of customers, and then going about
satisfying those customers better than the competitors.
This involves doing market research on customers,
analyzing their needs, and then making strategic decisions
about product design, pricing, promotion and distribution.
Following
definition of marketing found in a popular marketing
textbook:
"Marketing
is the process of planning and executing the conception,
pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods,
services, organizations, and events to create and
maintain relationships that will satisfy individual
and organizational objectives."
-Contemporary
Marketing Wired (1998) by Boone and Kurtz. Dryden
Press.
