Definition and Meaning of Marketing

Marketing is an activity. Marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products.

Marketing activities are numerous and varied because they include everything needed to get a product off the drawing board and into the hands of the customer. The boarded field of marketing includes activities such as:

1) Designing the product and services so they will be desirable to the customers by using tools such as marketing research and pricing;

2) Promoting the product so people will know about it by using tools such as public relations advertising, and marketing communications;

3) Selling a price and letting potential customers know about your product or service and making it available to them.

Marketing is the creation, development, and delivery of products and services that satisfy the needs and wants of the customer, at a profit (Madsen J. and Tan B. 2005).

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Marketing should be an organization-wide practice. It must be focused on the customer, product, and services and work with the segmentation of the markets in the most productive and cost-efficient manner to derive profitability.

The fundamental marketing goal is to capture and retain customers ‟s profitability. The fundamental marketing goal is to capture and retain customers profitably.

Marketing has moved from customer acquisition (winning new customers); through customer retention (keeping existing customers for life); to customer selection (being selective in choosing customers- a priority for the profitable ones).

If customers are wrongly selected they might end up as bargain hunters only who exploit sales promotion and move on and on. Keep loyal and profitable customers. Selling to them is more profitable than winning the new ones. Lifetime customer with lifetime value against one-off sales syndrome.

Definition and Meaning of Marketing

Marketing is the creation, development, and delivery of products and services that satisfy the needs and wants of the customer, at a profit. For a definition and clear meaning of market, let us examine the following terms:

Market – the business of selling and buying commodities (products and services). It is not confined to spaclocalitylly, and time.

The internet enables the market to be in cyberspace, 24 hours a day (interactive online marketing) Marketing – a person who promotes sales.

Market economy – fewer interventions from authorities

Marketable – commodities fit to be offered for sale. Services from the business of moving goods and services from the producer to the customer. It involves the act of promoting sales of commodities, including research, advertising, and packaging.

A universally accepted definition of marketing: “marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipation and satisfying customer requirements profitably” – The character institute of marketing.

McCarthy (1975) defines marketing as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer or user to satisfy the customer and accomplish the company‟s objectives.

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An analysis of this definition reveals two characteristics of marketing.
It is a business activity undertaken for profit objectives and,

The activity takes place after the goods or services are already in existence.

Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user (American Marketing Association, 1960).

These definitions and others were often criticized for their product orientation. It means that all that marketing has to do is find customers for the output of a production establishment.

The important business activity to which attention was devised to was productions. Producers can spend their time and resources making “good” products.

But it is as well important that such goods are those wanted by their potential customer. This was the traditional view of marketing.
Also, marketing involves identifying and anticipating consumers‟ wants and needs.

Onuigbo (2004) defines marketing as the process of determining consumer demand for a product or service, motivating its sale, and distributing it into ultimate consumption at a profit.

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