Definition of Marketing

Marketing deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs. One of the shortest definition of marketing is "meeting needs profitably".

What is Marketing?

1. Identifying and anticipating explicit and latent customer needs
2. Developing competitively superior products and services which address the needs of selected customers.
3. Creating value by branding them, distributing them and communicating with customers about them.
4. Extracting value by pricing them profitably.
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Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. (Philip Kotler.)

Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably -The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price -Adcock.

Marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they meet the changing needs of the customer on whom the organization depends -Palmer.

Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply its consumption needs, evolves distributive systems composed of participants, who, interacting under constraints - technical (economic) and ethical (social) - create the transactions or flows which resolve market separations and result in exchange and consumption. (Bartles.)

The marketing concept is a philosophy. It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all business activities. It is driven by senior managers, passionate about delighting their customers.

Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise. (Drucker.)

This customer focused philosophy is known as the 'marketing concept'. The marketing concept is a philosophy, not a system of marketing or an organizational structure. It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires. (Barwell.)

The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition. (Jobber).

Now that you have been introduced to some definitions of marketing and the marketing concept, remember the important elements contained as follows:

• Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, wants and requirements.
• The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone from within the organization.
• Future needs have to be identified and anticipated.
• There is normally a focus upon profitability, especially in the corporate sector. However, as public sector organizations and not-for-profit organizations adopt the concept of marketing, this need not always be the case.