Defining Marketing

Defining Marketing

Marketing is more than commercials on the television or billboards that dot the highways, they are more than advertisements in the paper or salesman attempting to sell you their products. Many believe that this is marketing but marketing is so much more complex than the advertising and the selling of goods and services. Marketing is the process of interesting potential customers and clients in your products and/or services. (Ward) Another definition is "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." (Boone & Kurtz, 1998) Marketing evolves from the birth of an idea that a customer may want or need and satisfying that customer. In order to satisfy particular customers a company must set up some controlled variables or Marketing Mix. Product, place promotions, and price make up the marketing mix and are know as the four P’s.

Marketing is about analyzing the needs of the consumer, predicting the consumer’s wants and estimating how many consumers want the product. Marketing needs to determine the location the goods and services are needed and how will the product get there, decide types of promotion necessary to inform potential consumers about the product, estimate how many competing companies are producing the same type of product and figure out how what type of warranty service may be required. These a few items are required to market a product. (Perreault & McCarthy, Jr., 2004, 2/1)

Marketing is important to the success of the organization. If the organization does not lay out the groundwork properly, the organization may not be able to adequately sale the product. The must be a market for the product that and organization wants to sell and the distribution network must be thought out. Colgate is a prime example of a well thought out plan on distributing toothpaste to rural India. Dealing with a population that few have a television and unable to read and no stores to shop at Colgate came up with a plan on how it could distribute and sale toothpaste to this group of people. Colgate sent a van with a generator and video gear on market day. With music playing to entice the men and an infomercial defining the benefits of using the product, the Indians are buying more then 17,000 tons a year. Even though this process in expensive, Colgate is laying the groundwork for future for market return on the investment.

Businesses must be able to change their marketing plans that will satisfy organizational behavior. Maytag has utilized a marketing plan of a repairman ad campaigns for 35 years which has propelled them into a position as reliable brand for major appliances & McCarthy, Jr., 1/2) When the federal government was considering regulations for washers to use less water and energy Maytag R&D department went to work. Maytag did not just develop a washer that would satisfy the requirements of the federal government but also developed a washer that met the needs of the consumer. They developed a washer that used less energy and water but also was easy for the consumer to get the clothes out of the washer and cleaned the clothes better with less wear and tear on the clothes and on the washer. Maytag gave the washer a memorable name and gave it a warranty plan that gave the consumer