Definition of Marketing

According to American Marketing Association (2004) - "Marketing is an organisational function and set of
processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing relationships in a
way that benefits both the organisation and the stakeholder."
AMA (1960) - "Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services
from producer to consumer or user."

According to Eldridge (1970) - "Marketing is the combination of activities designed to produce profit through
ascertaining, creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs and/or wants of a selected segment of the market."

According to Kotler (2000) - "A societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want
through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others."

Nature of Marketing
1. Marketing is an Economic Function
Marketing embraces all the business activities involved in getting goods and services , from the hands of
producers into the hands of final consumers. The business steps through which goods progress on their way to
final consumers is the concern of marketing.

2. Marketing is a Legal Process by which Ownership Transfers

In the process of marketing the ownership of goods transfers from seller to the purchaser or from producer to
the end user.

3. Marketing is a System of Interacting Business Activities

Marketing is that process through which a business enterprise, institution, or organisation interacts with the
customers and stakeholders with the objective to earn profit, satisfy customers, and manage relationship. It is
the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or
user.

4. Marketing is a Managerial function

According to managerial or systems approach - "Marketing is the combination of activities designed to produce
profit through ascertaining, creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs and/or wants of a selected segment
of the market."

According to this approach the emphasis is on how the individual organisation processes marketing and
develops the strategic dimensions of marketing activities.

5. Marketing is a social process

Marketing is the delivery of a standard of living to society. According to Cunningham and Cunningham
(1981) societal marketing performs three essential functions:-
1. Knowing and understanding the consumer's changing needs and wants;
2. Efficiently and effectively managing the supply and demand of products and services; and
3. Efficient provision of distribution and payment processing systems.
6. Marketing is a philosophy based on consumer orientation and satisfaction

7. Marketing had dual objectives - profit making and consumer satisfaction

Scope of Marketing
1. Study of Consumer Wants and Needs
Goods are produced to satisfy consumer wants. Therefore study is done to identify consumer needs and wants.
These needs and wants motivates consumer to purchase.

2. Study of Consumer behaviour

Marketers performs study of consumer behaviour. Analysis of buyer behaviour helps marketer in market
segmentation and targeting.

3. Production planning and development

Product planning and development starts with the generation of product idea and ends with the product
development and commercialisation. Product planning includes everything from branding and packaging to
product line expansion and contraction.

4. Pricing Policies
Marketer has to determine pricing policies for their products. Pricing policies differs form product to product. It
depends on the level of competition, product life cycle, marketing goals and objectives, etc.

5. Distribution
Study of distribution channel is important in marketing. For maximum sales and profit goods are required to be
distributed to the maximum consumers at minimum cost.

6. Promotion
Promotion includes personal selling, sales promotion, and advertising. Right promotion mix is crucial in
accomplishment of marketing goals.
7. Consumer Satisfaction
The product or service offered must satisfy consumer. Consumer satisfaction is the major objective of
marketing.

8. Marketing Control
Marketing audit is done to control the marketing activities.
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The Nature of Marketing (or Modern marketing) may be studied under the following points:

Human activity: Originally, the term marketing is a human activity under which human needs are satisfied by
human efforts. It’s a human action for human satisfaction.
Consumer-oriented: A business exist to satisfy human needs, hence business must find out what the desire of
customer (or consumer) and thereby produce goods & services as per the needs of the customer. Thus, only
those goods should be produce that satisfy consumer needs and at a reasonable profit to the manufacturer (or
producer).
Art as well as science: In the technological arena, marketing is the art and science of choosing target markets
and satisfying customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value. It is a
technique of making the goods available at right time, right place, into right hands, right quality, in the right
form and at right price.
Exchange Process: All marketing activities revolve around commercial exchange process. The exchange process
implies transactions between buyer and seller. It also involves exchange of technology, exchange of information
and exchange of ideas.
Starts and ends with customers: Marketing is consumer oriented and it is crucial to know what the actual
demand of consumer is. This is possible only when required information related to the goods and services is
collected from the customer. Thus, it is the starting of marketing and the marketing end as soon as those goods
and services reach into the safe hands of the customer.
Creation of Utilities: Marketing creates four components of utilities viz. time, place, possession and form. The
form utility refers to the product or service a company offers to their customers. The place utility refers to the
availability of a product or service in a location i.e. Easier for customers. By time utility, a company can ensure
that products and services are available when customers need them. The possession utility gives customers
ownership of a product or service and enables them to derive benefits in their own business.
Goal oriented: Marketing seeks to achieve benefits for both buyers and sellers by satisfying human needs. The
ultimate goal of marketing is to generate profits through the satisfaction of the customer. Guiding element of
business: Modern Marketing is the heart of industrial activity that tells what, when, how to produce. It is
capable of guiding and controlling business.
System of Interacting Business Activities: Marketing is the system through which a business enterprise,
institution or organization interacts with the customers with the objective to earn profit, satisfy customers and
manage relationship. It is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from
producer to consumer or user. Marketing is a dynamic processe. series of interrelated functions: Marketing is a
complex, continuous and interrelated process. It involves continuous planning, implementation and control.
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New tools

Google’s Keyword Planner

This free AdWords tool can steer you in the right direction, giving you metrics and informing you where the
demand is. You can search keywords and gauge the demand for an industry or service in specific geographical
locations. This can be helpful if you are looking to expand; you narrow down the best location with the highest
demand for your business. – Stanley Meytin, True Film Production

2. SurveyMonkey
Use a service that can help you conduct effective customer market research surveys, such as that offered
by SurveyMonkey. It will help you create customized surveys to send to your customers in order to get the
market research data that you need to make more informed business decisions. – Andrew Schrage, Money
Crashers Personal Finance

3. Open Strategy
Open Strategy is a great market research resource. The site compiles up-to-date tools and reports on consumer
research, market data, case studies and much more. – Shalyn Dever, Chatter Buzz

4. Ask Your Target Market

Ask Your Target Market (AYTM) is a platform that allows you to create surveys that can be sent out
automatically to your email list or to AYTM's community of over 4 million users. It is affordable and allows you
to really know who you're speaking to daily, as well as what people react well to and which ones are the most
engaged. All of these factors play key roles in our overall marketing strategy. – Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com

5. SEMRush
SEMrush is a SEO platform that not only presents a clean dashboard with useful analytic tools, but is also great
for competitor research. It allows you to look at the SEO efforts of your competitors and see what everyone else
is running, and run key analysis on top of that information. You can view metrics for keywords used, as well as
where you place among your top organic search competitors. – Sathvik Tantry, FormSwift

6. Quora
I love using authentic customer feedback to conduct market research, and nothing gets more authentic or as in
depth as the answers you'll find on Quora. Want to know what customers love or hate about competitors in the
space? Look at Quora. Want to know what questions people have about the problemyou're looking to solve?
Look at Quora. It's an incredible, free market research tool to use. – Brett Farmiloe, Marketing Auditors

7. MyBestSegments
I like Nielsen's MyBestSegmentsbecause it provides lots of useful data that can help you do market research for
any type of product or service.You can explore different demographics and find out things like where people
shop, what brands they prefer and what magazines they subscribe to.You can type in a location or zip code and
quickly bring up lots of data for that area. – Shawn Porat, Fortune Cookie Advertising

8. PickFu
PickFu is great because it allows you to get data outside of the current echo chamber you've created with your
customers, community and true fans. It's a great way to test marketing messages, tag lines and product names
outside of your first-degree network. – Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing

9. Google's Online Customer Journey and Barometer Tool

Knowing your customer's purchase path is critical to engaging them at the moment you can most influence their
purchase decision. Googles consumer insight tools are awesome for initial recommendations on what media
your consumers are using, and with the Consumer Barometer tool you can understand the customer journey in
more detail to understand on and offline purchasing behavior. – Ryan Stoner, Publicis
 10. One-on-One Conversations
I believe that we can do a lot of data analysis by reading Amazon product reviews, doing surveys and observing
social media, but actually talking to a potential or existing client and digging deeper when they say something is
always going to give us more information. That's where the marketing gold really lies! – Nathalie
Lussier, AmbitionAlly

11. Google Trends

Google Trends shows you how often a particular search-term is entered -- you can compare volume in different
countries and compare terms to see what is trending. It's a great place to start any research campaign. Google is
such a powerful data source, and its Trends feature provides information that can be used as the groundwork
for any research task. – Jonathan Long, Market Domination Media

12. Customer Case Studies

Once we got our first 25 customers, we engaged with them extensively. Nothing can give you more quality and
in-depth insight like talking to people who use your product. After only 5-10 customer interviews, we started
noticing patterns of usage. We realized some of the pain points we thought were important didn't matter, and
there were other unmet needs we needed to address instead. – Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

13. Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for market research, if used properly. One approach is to contact influencers
through direct messages and simply request feedback on your product or services. Another option is to run paid
ads, or post content segmenting and showcasing your products (or services) and analyze the response. See
which products receive more likes and positive feedback. – Andrew Namminga, Andesign
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 Marketing management philosophies – Five marketing concepts

Marketing Management Philosophies
There are five marketing concepts. A company should choose the right one according to their and their customers’ needs.

1. Production Concept
2. Product Concept
3. Selling Concept
4. Marketing Concept
5. Social Marketing Concept

Production Concept

This concept works on an assumption that consumers prefer a product which is inexpensive and widely available. This view
point was encapsulated in Says Law which states ‘Supply creates its own demand’. Hence companies focus on producing
more of the product and making sure that it is available to the customer everywhere easily. Increase in the production of
the product makes the companies get advantage of economies of scale. This decreased production cost makes the product
inexpensive and more attractive to the customer.
Low price may attract new customers, but focus is just on production and not on the product quality. This may result in
decrease in sales if the product is not up to the standards.This philosophy only works when the demand is more than the
supply. Moreover, a customer not always prefers an inexpensive product over others. There are many other factors which
influence his purchase decision.
more product quality =more customers
 Examples of Production Concept of Marketing Management Philosophies

 Companies whose product market is spread all over the world may use this approach.
 Companies having an advantage of monopoly.
 Any other company whose product’s demand is more than its supply.

Product Concept

This concept works on an assumption that customers prefer products of ‘greater quality’ and ‘price and availability’ doesn’t
influence their purchase decision. Hence company devotes most of its time in developing a product of greater quality which
usually turns out to be expensive.Since the main focus of the marketers is the product quality, they often lose or fail to
appeal to customers whose demands are driven by other factors like price, availability, usability, etc.
good product quality=more customers

Examples of Product Concept of Marketing Management Philosophies

 Companies in the technology industry.

 Companies having an advantage of monopoly.

Selling Concept

Production and product concept both focus on production but selling concept focuses on making an actual sale of the
product. Selling Concept focuses on making every possible sale of the product, regardless of the quality of the product or
the need of the customer. The main focus is to make money. This philosophy doesn’t include building relations with the
customers. Hence repeated sales are very less. Companies following this concept may even try to deceive the customers to
make them buy their product.Companies which follow this philosophy have a short sighted approach as they ‘try to sell
what they make rather than what market wants’.
more sales=better business

Examples of Selling Concept of Marketing Management Philosophies

 Companies with short sighted profit goals. This often leads to marketing myopia.
 Fraudulent companies.

Marketing Concept

Selling Concept cannot let a company last long in the market. It’s a consumers market after all. To succeed in the
21st century, one has to produce a product to fulfill the needs of their customers. Hence, emerged the marketing concept.
This concept works on an assumption that consumers buy products which fulfill their needs. Businesses following the
marketing concept conduct researches to know about customers’ needs and wants and come out with products to fulfill
the same better than the competitors. By doing so, the business makes a relation with the customer and generate profits in
the long run.However this isn’t the only philosophy which should be followed. Many business still follow other concepts
and make profits. It totally depends on the demand and supply and the needs of the parties involved.
create what they need =better business

Examples of Marketing Concept of Marketing Management Philosophies

 Companies in perfect competition.

 Companies who want to stay in the market for long time.
Societal Marketing Concept
Adding to the marketing concept, this philosophy focuses on society’s well-being as well. Business focus on how to fulfill
the needs of the customer without effecting the environment, natural resources and focusing on society’s wellbeing. This
philosophy believes that the business is a part of the society and hence should take part in social services like elimination of
poverty, illiteracy, and controlling explosive population growth etc.
their needs + society first-= beeter business
Many of the big companies have included corporate social responsibility as a part of their marketing activities.

Holistic Marketing Concept

Holistic marketing is new addition to the business marketing management philosophies which considers business and all its
parts as one single entity and gives a shared purpose to every activity and person related to that business. A business, like a
human body, has different parts, but it’s only able to function properly when all those parts work together towards a same
objective. Holistic marketing concept enforces this interrelatedness and believes that a broad and integrated perspective is
essential to attain best results.
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To answer these questions, we must know what market is. Market is the set of all actual and potential buyers of
a product or service and marketing is a social and managerial process where by individuals and groups obtains
what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. The traditional view
of marketing is that the firm makes something and then sells it. In my words, marketing is how the producers
create value to the customer and receive it by needs and wants. We must know that marketing concept is the
philosophy that firms should analyze the needs of their customers and then make decisions to satisfy those
needs, better than the competition.
Ever since man started to trading goods, marketing was created. Suppose that marketing was never exist, we
cannot buying foods, houses, car, etc. Without marketing, this world is nothing. Marketing involves the
satisfying customers’ needs and wants. Marketing has a value creation and delivery sequence that consists of
three parts. That is choosing the value, providing the value, and communicating the value.
From my understanding, marketing does both. It creates and satisfies needs of customers. Marketers must use
the marketing development’s term to create needs. They must learn how to change in knowledge, behavior,
attitudes, or creativity. Then, it helps customers to be motivated to learn and make a decision, helps the
customers effectively handle the information and experience, or helps the customers understand the product
applications and influences the buying behavior. Marketing also satisfy needs. Marketing creates a transaction
for exchanging the product for a value and thus create a satisfaction to the buyer’s needs. Marketing is based on
identifying and satisfying customers’ needs profitability. The more explanations are on below.
“Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants”
As human beings, we all need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and need shelter. We all have some needs and
wants. Marketing has a strong influence on what the customers buys. Nowadays there are many companies
compete each other, because of our needs and wants. They try to satisfy our needs and wants by doing so many
ways, example by advertisements, sales promotion, direct marketing, sales promotion, etc. Some companies try
to make their advertisement to build a need in consumer’s mind even if people were not like the product. If we
see so many ads in TV, magazine, internet, or newspapers with the unique illustration, great picture, and so on,
suddenly we will like the product that companies provided. The companies make some strategy (push strategy
and pull strategy). They make advertising to persuade customers. They hire famous artist to make people happy
to see their ads. Advertising and marketing are different, but I think without advertising marketing cannot
communicate with customers.
The companies’ goal is to get customers’ attention, attract, persuade and create demand. The companies must
know and understand a consumers’ buying behavior, cultural, social, and personal factors. The major
segmentation variables – geographic (nations, states, regions, country, or neighborhoods), demographic (age,
family size and lifecycle, gender, income, religion, education, and social class), and psychographic are important
things for companies. To reach that goal, some companies do act unethical in their promotion. For example,
recently, I have a bad experience with sales promotion. The entertainment “company” makes an adding “75%”
for playing voucher. I did not know, if to get the “75%”, I must charge for at least Rp. 50,000.00 or multiple. On
the advertising, they only say “75%” with the big size letter. I just realized that after I go the charge place. So if
we want buy something, I suggested to reading and knowing the advertisement or sales promotion carefully.
Because something happens that, you are not satisfied.
The marketers want to make the customer aware of a problem we never knew we had or even better make us
worry about a problem we do not have. Some companies will strive to make us buy their product. They will
make so many tactics to seduce us as consumer. They try to change our mindset of their product. In this era,
people may be a wasteful person. If we go the supermarket, we are making a list what things to buy already. But
suddenly, after we seeing the good product with best advertise, we may think “I ever see this products’ ad”, “I
want to try it”, “My friend are use it”, so maybe we will buy it, although we never use the product. Therefore, I
think this is a part when marketing shape our needs and wants with the product we never use and using push
and pull strategy.
Human have so many needs and wants. Human never satisfy with what we have now. People always want more
and more. Therefore, that is why marketing exist. We never expected that some product would be popular now.
For example, 30 years ago, some people might not think that they need a hand phone, but few people might
that need it. If marketers followed this information, they can make some people to need a hand phone and
maybe it will not be so popular now. Hand phone has an opportunity to make our communication work speeder
and more efficient. Marketing shapes consumers to realize and stimulates this product. That is another example
how marketing shape customers’ needs and wants.
People maybe become a greedy person. Because, we always want to buy more and more. Of course, if we have
money. I think this behavior can be an opportunity to the marketers to influence the buying behavior, especially
for the high – class people. They do not think about how much people waste their money. Of course, more is
better. The marketers want to be loss. Therefore, they always shape the customers’ need. As I said before, the
marketers use so many ways to make people like their product. In this millennium, it is so possible happens.
With the technology, resources (natural and human), and education, marketing process can be a simple process.
Not only that, but also the marketers can influence the buying behavior to the customers. Unconsciously, as
customers we will be attracted by what marketers do. It is like magic, when they seduce us and we will need
their product. Of course, as costumers we cannot blame their act. The marketers will do everything to make us
need their product even with unethical ways. The important thing is as consumers we must aware with all that
ways, so we will not be a victim of counterfeiting.
“Marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of consumer”
Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs back in 1950s and 60s. Human needs are arranged in a
hierarchy from most to least pressing – physiological needs (primary or fundamental needs), safety needs, social
needs, esteem needs, and self – actualization needs. When a person succeeds in satisfying an important need,
he will then try to satisfy the next most important need. God create human with different types. In this world,
there are continent, ocean, country, and city. They are different, so are we. I think we have same physiological
needs because we cannot live without them.
As customers, we always want quality products, which satisfy our needs and wants. Customers are looking for
products and services with best combination of price, quality, and availability. As a human, we are different.
There are segmentation by age, gender, nationality, lifestyle, income, and many others segmentation. If, you are
female, your needs and wants are different with male. I am Indonesian, my needs and wants are different with
American. I eat rice; they eat burger, pizza, and other food. This is why marketers must create and develop
attractive product.
Some customers would not mind to paying a higher price for a product or service if we received something with
best combination of price and quality. This is a part when a costumer’s expectations on a product or service are,
and if these expectations are met continually then they become loyal customers to the particular products.
However, sometimes we buy a product with the bad quality that we do not expect it and this is can make the
company lose their customers. Therefore, they must apply a brilliant marketing strategy to win the customers’
heart.
I can say marketing is a communication process. The marketers must get involved in a communication stage
with their consumer. They must need to know what exactly we want. If not, they cannot satisfy us. In marketing,
there are so many processes to satisfy customers. The marketers learn that process. Moreover, as customers,
we must realize what we need and want. Therefore, we will know which product or service that we want to use.
I am Indonesian do not eat burger and eating rice, I do not go to the fast food restaurant. For me, burger is only
a snack not a primary food. I think when a fast food restaurant is opened in Indonesia, the situation is different
when in western and the food is very different. This is can be a important information for the marketers to make
their marketing strategy. They must communicate to the customers what we need and want. The customers
give a sign or clue for the marketers, so they can find out what customers want and they must be adapted with
the foreign environment.
Marketing is about give satisfaction to the customers. “Customer is king”. Customers must be number one. I
think that statements are right. We make our own needs and wants, and marketers give what we want. As
consumer of one product, I do not even care how the product’s process, I am just know that the quality is
perfect and the price is appropriate. Sometimes, as a person we do not know exactly what we need. That is can
be a factors why human is never satisfied. I think marketing’s job for helping us to determine our need. They
give us some options, so we can choose what we want.
In millennium age, there are so many needs and wants. We need cell phone, laptop, car, etc. Marketing provide
all things that maybe we want. If we need cell phone, there are places to provide cell phone with the
accessories. It is easy for us to buy something. The marketers always watch our behavior in the market. If we
like their product, they strive to keep us as their customers. I think in marketing process, marketers or company
must work together with customers to satisfy needs and wants and make their goal become real. As I said
before, communication is important for both of marketer and customer. On the other hand, create a feedback.
Marketer can get what they want and we as a consumer get the satisfaction. In my understanding, marketing is
reflections from my needs and wants.
My conclusion, marketing process is complicated. It is hard to establish whether marketing shapes consumer
needs and wants or merely reflects consumer needs and wants. Marketers strive to satisfy customers’ needs
and wants. They use many strategies to reach their goal. They also build communications with customers. They
try to understand what we want and do not. They make advertising and others marketing channel. They make
attractive products and provide the best services. Yes, marketing can shapes consumers needs and wants by
influence customers mind set. They persuade and seduce us. Sometime, we buy something that we never use.
If, we feel satisfy with that, maybe we will buy it again. We do that behavior unconsciously. From that, I know
marketing shapes consumers needs and wants already. In marketing, consumers have our own needs and
wants. We are different, live in different place, so we have different needs and wants. We show to the
marketers what we need and want, so they will know it. As a good person, we must know what exactly we need
and want. Marketers may attract our attention, but we must be smart. We buy what we need to buy. We
cannot be a greedy person. Yes, human never be satisfied. As long as we have money, we always have demands.
I think, marketing only know that their products and services are sold. They only communicate about their
products or services. We must be aware with all things marketing provide to us. We must a best decision in
marketing.