What is Marketing?

A Basic Understanding

So now that you know a little about me, let's see what we can learn about marketing! I've luckily had some experience in my undergrad with a few marketing courses, but there's always more to learn. When I think of marketing, I think of it as a process of developing and sharing a product or service to an individual or group of individuals. In a business sense, these individuals would be customers or consumers. If I had not been previously exposed to a basis of marketing, however, I don't know if this perception would be the same. I know in my undergrad, as well as in previous posts in this course already, a lot of people see marketing as a way of advertising or getting into the mind of the consumer to sell, sell, sell. But marketing doesn't include these misconceptions. Being a marketing manager is not filled with the "2 drink minimum" stereotype, guessing trends, or creating lies to get to customers and sell their product. There is much more to it.

So far in this first week's reviewed materials, we have come to understand the basics of what marketing is. As the American Marketing Association defines it, "Marketing is 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." (AMA, 2007). Whereas marketing is important for a business to sell a product, it is more of an analysis area that understands the customer and the product and coming up with solutions that can help to create exchanges that satisfy both the customer and the organization. Marketing is always looking at the product and the customer for information. In order to step above competition, this information must be used effectively in order to find success in the market. Focusing on the customer, the competitor, as well as the organization itself is essential. 

If someone new were to come up to me and ask, "what is marketing?", I feel that I could give them a good basic understanding based off of what we have learned in class so far. Marketing is planning. Marketing is executing the conception, pricing, and promotion of a product, service, or idea. Marketing is knowing the customer. Marketing is creating solutions. And finally, marketing is about satisfying needs of the customer, as well as the organization. These essentials help in understanding the concept of marketing.

To end this post, I will leave you all with a quote from used in this week's lecture. I feel it is a perfect explanation for the basis of marketing.

Marketing is "not selling what you make, but knowing what to make...identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers, and benefits of the stakeholders." 

                                                                  - Phillip Kotler