Mkt 421: What Is Marketing?

What is Marketing?

Tony Postma

MKT 421

December 20, 2010

Rizzo

What is Marketing?

Before starting this marketing class, I believed that the marketing was the act of business placing their product in front of consumers.  Marketing departments attempt to gather information from both consumers and non-consumers of their products, along with market research performed from third parties, and works with the advertising department on creating new campaigns.  Personal experience has shown that companies that integrate the sales, marketing, and advertising staffs have significant advantages over companies that view each department as a separate entity.

Textbook Definitions

“Marketing is the performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization’s objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client” (Perreault, 2009, p. 6).   This definition appears to be in line with our previous understanding, with one difference.  According to this definition, marketing department appear to determine what the customers want, and tailor their goods and services to those demands.  

A second definition provided by Kotler and Keller states “marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs” (Kotler, 2009, p. 5) Once again this definition ties in with the defition provided by Perreault, and varies slightly from the idea originally presented at the beginning of this paper.  Kotler, and Perreault both agree that the main function of the marketing department is to provide goods and services that meet the needs and wants of the consumer.

Importance in success

Companies that have a strong marketing department will have more success then those that have a weak marketing company.  Companies like Starbucks, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola have all developed brands that have worldwide name recognition.   When consumers are asked to name a type of coffee, they more than likely will name Starbucks.  The same can be said when asking

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References

Kotler, P., & Keller, K.L. (2009). Marketing Management, 13th Edition. Pg. 5

Perreault, W.D., Cannon, J.P., & McCarthy, E.J. (2009).  Basic Marketing, 17th Edition. Pg. 8

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