marketing

(mär'kĭ-tĭng)

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.
2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

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Process associated with promoting for sale goods or services. The classic components of marketing are the Four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion-the selection and development of the product, determination of price, selection and design of distribution channels (place), and all aspects of generating or enhancing demand for the product, including advertising (promotion). See also direct marketing; market; market profile; target market.

Marketing is a general term used to describe all the various activities involved in transferring goods and services from producers to consumers. In addition to the functions commonly associated with it, such as advertising and sales promotion, marketing also encompasses product development, packaging, distribution channels, pricing, and many other functions. The modern marketing concept, which is applied by most successful small businesses, is intended to focus all of a company's activities upon uncovering and satisfying customer needs. After all, an entrepreneur may come up with a great product and use the most efficient production methods to make it, but all the effort will have been wasted if he or she is unable to consummate the sale of the product to consumers.

The importance of marketing in the modern business climate cannot be overstated. In fact, management guru Peter F. Drucker has claimed that marketing "is so basic it cannot be considered a separate function…. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view." Marketing is the source of many important new ideas in management thought and practice—such as flexible manufacturing systems, flat organizational structures, and an increased emphasis on service—all of which are designed to make businesses more responsive to customer needs and preferences. This suggests that small business owners must master the basics of marketing in order to succeed.

In the Macmillan Small Business Handbook, Mark Stevens discussed four main areas of marketing in which entrepreneurs should concentrate their efforts:1) determining the needs of customers through market research; 2) analyzing their own competitive advantages and developing an appropriate market strategy; 3) selecting specific target markets to serve; and 4) determining the best marketing mix to satisfy customer needs. The first three tasks are most appropriately performed when a start-up business is preparing to enter a market, or when an existing business is considering entering a new market or promoting a new product. The marketing mix, on the other hand, includes the main decision areas that an entrepreneur must consider on an ongoing basis. Some elements of the market environment, such as the general economic conditions, are beyond a small business owner's control. But he or she can adjust elements of the company's marketing mix—which consists of the "four Ps": product, place, price, and promotion—to better fit the market environment.

Background

The term "marketing" is derived from the word "market," which refers to a group of sellers and buyers that cooperate to exchange goods and services. The modern concept of marketing evolved during and after the industrial revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. During that period, the proliferation of goods and services, increased worker specialization, and technological advances in transportation, refrigeration, and other factors that facilitated the transfer of goods over long distances resulted in the need for more advanced market mechanisms and selling techniques. But it was not until the 1930s that companies began to place a greater emphasis on advertising and promoting their products and began striving to tailor their goods to specific consumer needs. By the 1950s, many larger companies were sporting entire marketing departments charged with devising and implementing marketing strategies that would complement, and even direct, overall operations. Since the 1970s, the primary marketing trend has been a greater focus on providing benefits, rather than products, to customers.

Macro-Marketing and Micro-Marketing

Macro-marketing refers to the overall social process that directs the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer. It is the economic system that determines what and how much is to be produced and distributed by whom, when, and to whom. E. Jerome McCarthy and William D. Perreault, Jr. identified eight universal macro-marketing functions that make up the economic process:1) buying, which refers to consumers seeking and evaluating goods and services;2) selling, which involves promoting the offering; 3) transporting, which refers to the movement of goods from one place to another; 4) storing, which involves holding goods until customers need them; 5) standardization and grading, which entails sorting products according to size and quality; 6) financing, which delivers the cash and credit needed to perform the first five functions; 7) risk taking, which involves bearing the uncertainties that are part of the marketing process; and 8) market information, which refers to the gathering, analysis, and distribution of the data necessary to execute these marketing functions.

In contrast, micro-marketing refers to the activities performed by the individual providers of goods and services within a macro-marketing system. Such organizations or businesses use various marketing techniques to accomplish objectives related to profits, market share, cash flow, and other economic factors that can enhance their well being and position in the marketplace. The micro-marketing function within an entity is commonly referred to as marketing management. Marketing managers strive to get their organizations to anticipate and accurately determine the needs and wants of customer groups. Afterward they seek to respond effectively with a flow of need-satisfying goods and services. They are typically charged with planning, implementing, and then measuring the effectiveness of all marketing activities.

The Target Marketing Concept

Micro-marketing encompasses a number of related activities and responsibilities. Marketing managers must carefully design their marketing plans to ensure that they complement related production, distribution, and financial constraints. They must also allow for constant adaptation to changing markets and economic conditions. Perhaps the core function of a marketing manager, however, is to identify a specific market, or group of consumers, and then deliver products and promotions that ultimately maximize the profit potential of that targeted market. This is particularly important for small businesses, which more than likely lack the resources to target large aggregate markets. Often, it is only by carefully selecting and wooing a specific group that a small firm can attain profit margins sufficient to allow it to continue to compete in the marketplace.

For instance, a manufacturer of fishing equipment would not randomly market its product to the entire U.S. population. Instead, it would likely conduct market research—using such tools as demo-graphic reports, market surveys, or focus groups—to determine which customers would be most likely to purchase its offerings. It could then more efficiently spend its limited resources in an effort to persuade members of its target group(s) to buy its products. Perhaps it would target males in the Midwest between the ages of 18 and 35. The company may even strive to further maximize the profitability of its target market through market segmentation, whereby the group is further broken down by age, income, zip code, or other factors indicative of buying patterns. Advertisements and promotions could then be tailored for each segment of the target market.

There are infinite ways to address the wants and needs of a target market. For example, product packaging can be designed in different sizes and colors, or the product itself can be altered to appeal to different personality types or age groups. Producers can also change the warranty or durability of the good or provide different levels of follow-up service. Other influences, such as distribution and sales methods, licensing strategies, and advertising media also play an important role. It is the responsibility of the marketing manager to take all of these factors into account and to devise a cohesive marketing program that will appeal to the target customer.

The Four Ps

The different elements of a company's marketing mix can be divided into four basic decision areas—known as the "four Ps": product, place, promotion, and price—which marketing managers can use to devise an overall marketing strategy for a product or group of goods. These four decision groups represent all of the variables that a company can control. But those decisions must be made within the context of outside variables that are not entirely under the control of the company, such as competition, economic and technological changes, the political and legal environment, and cultural and social factors.

Marketing decisions related to the product (or service) involve creating the right product for the selected target group. This typically encompasses research and data analysis, as well as the use of tools such as focus groups, to determine how well the product meets the wants and needs of the target group. Numerous determinants factor into the final choice of a product and its presentation. A completely new product, for example, will entail much higher promotional costs to raise consumer awareness, whereas a product that is simply an improved version of an existing item likely will make use of its predecessor's image. A pivotal consideration in product planning and development is branding, whereby the good or service is positioned in the market according to its brand name. Other important elements of the complex product planning and management process may include selection of features, warranty, related product lines, and post-sale service levels.

Considerations about place, the second major decision group, relate to actually getting the good or service to the target market at the right time and in the proper quantity. Strategies related to place may utilize middlemen and facilitators with expertise in joining buyers and sellers, and they may also encompass various distribution channels, including retail, wholesale, catalog, and others. Marketing managers must also devise a means of transporting the goods to the selected sales channels, and they may need to maintain an inventory of items to meet demand. Decisions related to place typically play an important role in determining the degree of vertical integration in a company, or how many activities in the distribution chain are owned and operated by the manufacturer. For example, some larger companies elect to own their trucks, the stores in which their goods are sold, and perhaps even the raw resources used to manufacture their goods.

Decisions about promotion, the third marketing mix decision area, relate to sales, advertising, public relations, and other activities that communicate information intended to influence consumer behavior. Often promotions are also necessary to influence the behavior of retailers and others who resell or distribute the product. Three major types of promotion typically integrated into a market strategy are personal selling, mass selling, and sales promotions. Personal selling, which refers to face-to-face or telephone sales, usually provides immediate feedback for the company about the product and instills greater confidence in customers. Mass selling encompasses advertising on mass media, such as television, radio, direct mail, and newspapers, and is beneficial because of its broad scope. A relatively new means of promotion involves the Internet, which combines features of mass media with a unique opportunity for interactive communication with customers. Publicity entails the use of free media, such as feature articles about a company or product in a magazine or related interviews on television talk shows, to spread the word to the target audience. Finally, sales promotion efforts include free samples, coupons, contests, rebates, and other miscellaneous marketing tactics.

Determination of price, the fourth major activity related to target marketing, entails the use of discounts and long-term pricing goals, as well as the consideration of demographic and geographic influences. The price of a product or service generally must at least meet some minimum level that will cover a company's cost of producing and delivering its offering. Also a firm would logically price a product at the level that would maximize profits. The price that a company selects for its products, however, will vary according to its long-term marketing strategy. For example, a company may underprice its product in the hopes of increasing market share and ensuring its competitive presence, or simply to generate a desired level of cash flow. Another producer may price a good extremely high in the hopes of eventually conveying to the consumer that it is a premium product. Another reason a firm might offer a product at a very high price is to discount the good slowly in an effort to maximize the dollars available from consumers willing to pay different prices for the good. In any case, price is used as a tool to achieve comprehensive marketing goals.

Competitive Strategies

Often times, decisions about product, place, promotion, and price will be dictated by the competitive stance that a firm assumes in its target market. According to Michael Porter's classic book Competitive Strategy, the three most common competitive strategies are low-cost supplier, differentiation, and niche. Companies that adopt a low-cost supplier strategy are usually characterized by a vigorous pursuit of efficiency and cost controls. A company that manufactures a low-tech or commodity product, such as wood paneling, would likely adopt this approach. Such firms compete by offering a better value than their competitors, accumulating market share, and focusing on high-volume and fast inventory turnover.

Companies that adhere to a differentiation strategy achieve market success by offering a unique product or service. They often rely on brand loyalty, specialized distribution channels or service offerings, or patent protection to insulate them from competitors. Because of their uniqueness, they are able to achieve higher-than-average profit margins, making them less reliant on high sales volume and extreme efficiency. For example, a company that markets proprietary medical devices would likely assume a differentiation strategy.

Firms that pursue a niche market strategy succeed by focusing all of their efforts on a very narrow segment of an overall target market. They strive to prosper by dominating their selected niche. Such companies are able to overcome competition by aggressively protecting market share and by orienting every action and decision toward the service of its select group. An example of a company that might employ a niche strategy would be a firm that produced floor coverings only for extremely upscale commercial applications.

Business Versus Consumer Markets

An important micro-marketing delineation is that between industrial and consumer markets. Marketing strategies and activities related to transferring goods and services to industrial and business customers are generally very different from those used to lure other consumers. The industrial, or intermediate, market is made up of buyers who purchase for the purpose of creating other goods and services. Thus, their needs are different from general consumers. Buyers in this group include manufacturers and service firms, wholesalers and retailers, governments, and nonprofit organizations.

In many ways, it is often easier to market to a target group of intermediate customers. They typically have clearly defined needs and are buying the product for a very specific purpose. They are also usually less sensitive to price and are more willing to take the time to absorb information about goods that may help them do their job better. On the other hand, marketing to industrial customers can be complicated. For instance, members of an organization usually must purchase goods through a multi-step process involving several decision makers. Importantly, business buyers will often be extremely cautious about trying a new product or a new company because they do not want to be responsible for supporting what could be construed as a poor decision if the good or service does not live up to the organization's expectations.

A chief difference between marketing to intermediate and consumer markets is that members of the latter are typically considering purchasing goods and services that they might enjoy but are not absolutely necessary. As a result, they are more difficult to sell to than are business buyers. Consumers are generally less sophisticated than intermediate buyers, are less willing to spend time absorbing individual marketing messages of interest to them, and are more sensitive to the price of a good or service. Consumers typically make a buying decision on their own, however (or, for larger purchases, with the help of a friend or family member), and are much more likely to buy on impulse than are industrial customers.

Despite the differences, a dominant similarity between marketing to intermediate buyers and consumers is that both groups ultimately make purchases based on personal needs. Consumers typically act on their desires to belong, have security, feel high selfesteem, and enjoy freedom and status. Business and industrial consumers react more strongly to motivators such as fear of loss, fear of the unknown, the desire to avoid stress or hardship, and security in their organizational role.

Internet Marketing

A discussion of marketing would not be complete without mentioning the emerging field of Internet marketing. Increasingly, small businesses have sought to take advantage of the global reach of the World Wide Web and the huge number of potential customers available online. Although it may seem like a completely new field, Internet marketing actually combines many of the basic elements of traditional marketing. "Internet marketing employs the same methods and theory as traditional public relations and integrated marketing—the basic tools for any campaign," Maria Duggan and John Deveney wrote in Communication World.

In their article, Duggan and Deveney outline five steps for marketing managers to follow in putting together an Internet marketing campaign. Whether the campaign is intended to increase awareness of an existing brand, draw visitors to a Web site, or promote a new product offering, the first step involves identifying the target market. As is the case with any other type of marketing campaign, the small business must conduct market research in order to define the target audience for the campaign, and then use the information gathered to determine how best to reach them.

The next step is to develop a strategy for the campaign. This involves setting concrete and measurable goals and tying the campaign into the organization's traditional marketing efforts. The third step is to present the strategy to key decision makers in the small business. It is important at this stage to develop a timeline and budget, and also to be prepared to encounter resistance among colleagues not familiar with cyberspace. The fourth step is to implement the Internet marketing campaign. The final step, evaluation, should be conducted throughout the process. Online surveys of customers are one source of potential feedback.

Marketing for Small Businesses

In the early stages of forming a small business, a business plan is a vital tool to help an entrepreneur chart the future direction of the enterprise. A well-prepared business plan should include an extensive marketing component that explores the needs of the target market and lays out a marketing program to meet them. In fact, some experts claim that entrepreneurs should actually design their organizations in a way that gives the marketing function prominence. Once the needs of the target customers have been identified, these experts say, every aspect of the company's marketing program, as well as the basic image that the company develops, should be oriented toward satisfying these needs. For example, the company's selection of advertising, channels of distribution, packaging, price, and even vehicles and dress codes should all be coordinated to appeal to the target market.

As a small business grows, it may be helpful to create a separate marketing plan. While similar in format to the general business plan, a marketing plan focuses on expanding a certain product line or service rather than on the overall business. According to the Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Advisor, creating a marketing plan helps a small business to define its markets, review its competitive position, develop goals and objectives, and determine the marketing tactics and financial resources needed to achieve its goals.

A number of resources are available to assist small businesses in marketing their products and services. It may be prudent to seek legal advice before implementing a marketing plan, for example. A firm with experience in consumer law could review the small business's product, packaging, labeling, advertising, sales agreements, and price policies to be sure that they meet all relevant regulations to prevent problems from arising later. In addition, many advertising agencies and market research firms offer a variety of means of testing the individual elements of marketing programs. Although such testing can be expensive, it can significantly increase the effectiveness of a company's marketing efforts.

Further Reading:

Duggan, Maria, and John Deveney. "How to Make Internet Marketing Simple." Communication World. April 2000.

The Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Advisor. Wiley, 1995.

Homburg, Christian, John P. Workman, Jr., and Harley Krohmer. "Marketing's Influence within the Firm." Journal of Marketing. April 1999.

McCarthy, E. Jerome and William D. Perreault, Jr. Basic Marketing. Irwin, 1990.

Moorman, Christine, and Roland T. Rust. "The Role of Marketing." Journal of Marketing. December 1999.

Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy. Free Press, 1980.

Simkin, Lyndon. "Marketing Is Marketing—Maybe!" Marketing Intelligence and Planning. March 2000.

Stevens, Mark. The Macmillan Small Business Handbook. Macmillan, 1988.

Tracy, Joe. Web Marketing Applied: Web Marketing Strategies for the New Millennium. Advanstar Communications, 2000.

Zyman, Sergio. "Put the Petal to the Metal: Marketing and the Internet." Brandweek. October 2, 2000.

Marketing is the multifaceted, systematic approach to selling goods, adopted by every business and not for-profit agency and group with a message. It attempts to optimize an organization's ability to make a profit, whether monetary (profits or donations) or electoral.

Marketing encompasses advertising, promotions, product design, positioning, and product development. Marketing tools include elements such as focus groups, gap analysis, concept testing, product testing, perceptual maps, demographics, psychographics (lifestyles), and choice modeling. It is powerfully aided by market research, a science that has become increasingly complex and sophisticated over the past century or more.

Market research embraces qualitative and quantitative methods. Environmental analysis gives companies key information about economic conditions, consumer demographics, consumer lifestyles, industry trends, distribution channels, new technology, employee relations and supply, foreign markets, corporate image, political and regulatory changes, and key players in the business. Sophisticated data collection and analysis investigate market segmentation and target selection, product and advertising positioning, product design, pricing, mass media advertising, direct marketing, promotion, distribution channels, and sales force allocation.

Market research rarely has a direct impact on income, but provides the essential data to prove or disprove client preconceptions, resolve disagreements, expose threats, quantify a population, and qualify an opportunity. The ways that research is used for strategic decision making determines its relationship to profit and market advance. Marketing has existed in every age and culture. In the United States, marketing reached its high level of sophistication as a result of the mass market.

Three overlapping stages have marked the history of our republic. Until roughly the 1880s, the economy was characterized by market fragmentation. Geographical limitations were reinforced by the absence of a transportation and communications infrastructure that spanned the continent. There were hundreds of local markets and very few national brand names. Profit was determined by low sales volume and high prices.

Mass Marketing

Spurred by a communications revolution and the completion of a national railroad network that by 1900 consisted of more miles of track than the rest of the world combined, a national mass market emerged. Technological innovation mushroomed, and a small number of firms realized economies of scale previously undreamed of. Giant corporations (or a small cluster of corporations) dominated single industries. Companies were able to produce goods in high volume at low prices. By 1900, firms followed the logic of mass production as they sought to create a "democracy of desire" by universalizing the availability of products.

Mass production required the development of mass marketing as well as modern management, a process spurred by analysis of the depression of the 1870s, when unsold inventory was blamed in part for the depth of the crisis, and the depression of the 1890s, when the chaos of market competition spurred efforts to make the market more predictable and controllable.

As the mass market emerged, manufacturers and retailers developed a range of instruments to shape and mold the market. National brand names like the Singer Sewing Machine from the 1860s, Coca-Cola from the 1890s, Wrigley's Chewing Gum after 1907, and Maxwell House coffee around the same time heralded the "golden age of brand names." Advertising also came into its own during the early decades of the twentieth century. The first advertising agency was established in 1869 as N. W. Ayer and Son. John Wanamaker placed the first full-page advertisement in a newspaper in 1879. Advertising media were powerfully supplemented by the use of subway cars, electric trolleys, trams, billboards, and the explosion in magazine sales. Further developments came after the 1890s with flashing electric signs, and in 1912 "talking signs" that allowed copy to move swiftly along boards from right to left first appeared on Broadway in New York City. By 1910, photo technology and color lithography revolutionized the capacity to reproduce images of all kinds.

Forward integration into wholesaling also aided mass marketing, beginning in the 1870s and 1880s with meat packers like Gustavus Swift. Franchise agreements with retailers were one key to the success of companies such as Coca-Cola. Another feature in the success of mass marketing was the creation and implementation of sales programs made possible by the spread of modern management structures and the division of corporate functions. In 1911, with the appointment of its first director of commercial research, the Curtis Publishing Company instituted the systematic analysis of carefully collected data. Hart, Shafner, and Marx became the largest manufacturer of men's suits in America by the 1910s through research that suggested producing suits for fourteen different male body types and psychographic appeals in its advertising. During and after the 1920s, as the social sciences matured, sweeping improvements in statistical methodology, behavioral science, and quantitative analysis made market research more important and accurate. Through these means—as well as coherent production and marketing plans—a mass market was created by World War II. However, consumerism as understood in the beginning of the twenty-first century did not triumph until after 1950.

Market Segmentation

The final stage of the twentieth-century market in America has been characterized as "market segmentation." Fully developed in the 1970s and 1980s, firms sought competitive advantage through the use of demographics and psychographics to more accurately pinpoint and persuade consumers of their products. Price was determined not so much by how cheaply something could be sold, but more by the special value a particular market placed upon the goods, independent of production costs.

General Motors (GM) pioneered market segmentation in the 1920s, as it fought and beat Ford for the biggest market share of the booming automobile business. Henry Ford was an exemplar of mass marketing. He had pioneered the marketing of the automobile so that it could be within the reach of almost all Americans. Standardized models were produced quickly, identically, and only in black, which dropped the cost of car buying from $600 in 1905 to $290 by 1924. In nineteen years of production, his Model T sold to 15.5 million customers. By 1924, thanks largely to Ford, the number of cars produced in the United States was greater than 4 million, compared to 180,000 in 1910. Due to his methods, by 1921 Ford sold 55 percent of all new cars in America. In trying to compete with Ford, GM first tried merging with rivals to create a larger market force, but then embraced individuality. It was in the 1920s that annual modifications to automobile models were introduced. GM made not one model to suit all, but a number of different models to suit differing pocketbooks. It looked at the market not as an undifferentiated whole, but as a collection of segments with differing requirements and desires to be satisfied. GM made the ownership of automobiles both a status symbol and stylish. By 1927, Ford's market share had been cut to 25 percent, and Ford was forced to retool and try to catch up with GM.

By the 1960s, as consumer values shifted because of social change, marketers and advertisers sought ways to reach a more segmented society. Generational differences became much more important. Further changes, after 1970, meant that marketers needed to be much more sensitive to the differences between groups of Americans and their values. Serious foreign competition in American markets during the 1970s and 1980s also spurred innovation in market research, product design, and marketing generally. Television's Nielsen ratings offered one instrument, and more sophisticated polling techniques another. The ability to identify who watched what shows according to age, gender, and ethnic background led to more targeted advertising and a leap in TV advertising, from $12 billion in 1960 to $54.5 billion in 1980. By 1985, advertisers had developed eight consumer clusters for women alone, and over forty lifestyle groups.

By the 1990s, children, teens, and seniors were similarly analyzed. In 1997, it was estimated that "kid power" accounted for sales of over $200 billion per year. Age segmentation among children received particular attention, as researchers took into account neurological, social, emotional, and moral development. Testing determined the relative perception of visual and verbal information at different ages and developmental stages. Humor and gender differences were also studied to make marketing more successful. Deregulation of children's programming in the 1980s led to cartoons becoming merchandising vehicles. By 1987, about 60 percent of all toys sold in the United States were based on licensed characters from television, movies, or books.

Market research also determined the kinds of junk mail that went to each individual and how advertising would appear on the Internet or on television. During the 1980s and 1990s, more sophisticated research developed as patterns of credit card spending were analyzed, television was deregulated into cable and satellite channels, and Internet usage was identified.

Despite the end of a long post–World War II economic expansion, after 1970 consumer spending continued to grow, largely the result of consumerism; newer, easier forms of obtaining credit; and segmented marketing; which seized a generation of Americans who were born into the first generalized age of affluence in America. Consumer spending jumped from $70.8 billion in 1940 to $617 billion in 1970. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2001 that retail sales just for the fourth quarter accounted for $861 billion, a remarkable figure, given the slowdown in economic growth in the preceding thirty years.

The development of marketing during the twentieth century matched and aided American economic growth and was symbiotic with the triumph of consumerism. The creation of a "democracy of desire" came to characterize American society and its values. It was a distinctive quality that influenced the attitudes of the rest of the world toward the United States, as the strength of marketing smoothed its economic dominance around the planet.

Bibliography

Acuff, Dan S. What Kids Buy and Why: The Psychology of Marketing to Kids. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Beacham, Walton, et al., eds. Beacham's Marketing Reference: Account Executive-Market Segmentation. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Research Publishing, 1986.

Burwood, Stephen. "Advertising and Consumerism." In Beacham'sEncyclopedia of Social Change: America in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Veryan B. Khan. Osprey, Fla.: Beacham Publishing, 2001.

Clancy, Kevin J., and Robert S. Shulman. The Marketing Revolution: A Radical Manifesto for Dominating the Marketplace. New York: Harper Business, 1991.

Tedlow, Richard S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

Zollo, Peter. Wise Up To Teens: Insights into Marketing and Advertising to Teenagers. 2d ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: New Strategist Publications, 1999.

The activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people. People who work in marketing departments of companies try to get the attention of target audiences by using slogans, packaging design, celebrity endorsements and general media exposure. The four 'Ps' of marketing are product, place, price and promotion.

Investopedia Says:
Many people believe that marketing is just about advertising or sales. However, marketing is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. Even the small tasks like writing thank-you letters, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting with a past client for coffee can be thought of as marketing. The ultimate goal of marketing is to match a company's products and services to the people who need and want them, thereby ensure profitability

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The set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges. The following three elements must be present to define a marketing situation: two or more parties who are potentially interested in exchange; each party possessing things of value to others; and each party capable of communication and delivery.

• Commerce and Trade - marketing: activities involved in moving goods and services from producer to consumer: market research, advertising, promotion, distribution, and sales
• Advertising - marketing: strategy and specific techniques used in reaching consumers

For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine).

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Marketing
Key concepts
Product marketing · Pricing Distribution · Service · Retail Brand management Account-based marketing Ethics · Effectiveness · Research Segmentation · Strategy · Activation Management · Dominance Marketing operations
Promotional contents
Advertising · Branding · Underwriting Direct marketing · Personal sales Product placement · Publicity Sales promotion · Sex in advertising Loyalty marketing · SMS marketing Premiums · Prizes
Promotional media
Printing · Publication · Broadcasting Out-of-home advertising · Internet Point of sale · Merchandise Digital marketing · In-game advertising Product demonstration · Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador · Drip marketing · Visual merchandising
v d e

Marketing is defined by the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." ^[1]

This replaces the previous definition, which still appears in the AMA's dictionary: "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."^[2] It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.^[3] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.^[3]

Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries.^{[citation needed]} The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable.^{[citation needed]}

The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions.^[4] It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.^[4]

The term developed from an original meaning which referred literally to going to a market to buy or sell goods or services. Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions,^[5] whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches."

Contents 1 Further definitions 2 Evolution of marketing 2.1 Earlier approaches 2.2 Contemporary approaches 3 Customer orientation 3.1 Organizational orientation 3.1.1 Herd behavior 3.1.2 Further orientations 4 Marketing research 4.1 Marketing environment 4.2 Market segmentation 4.3 Types of Market Research 5 Marketing planning 5.1 Marketing strategy 6 Marketing specializations 7 Buying behaviour 7.1 B2C buying behaviour 7.2 B2B buying behaviour 8 Use of technologies 9 Services marketing 10 See also 11 References 12 Bibliography 12.1 Works cited 12.2 Further reading

Further definitions

The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."^[6] A different concept is the value-based marketing which states the role of marketing to contribute to increasing shareholder value.^[7] In this context, marketing is defined as "the management process that seeks to maximize returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating a competitive advantage."^[7]

Marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programmes. The overall process starts with marketing research and goes through market segmentation, business planning and execution, ending with pre- and post-sales promotional activities. It is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also adept at re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.

Browne (2010) reveals that supermarkets spend millions of dollars intensively researching and studying consumer behaviour. Their aim is to make sure that shoppers leave their stores spending much more than they originally planned. ‘Choice’ examined the theory of trolleyology finding that many shoppers instinctively look to the right when they’re in the supermarket.

Supermarkets move products around to confuse shoppers, the entry point is another marketing tactic. Consumer psychologist Dr. Paul Harrison (cited in Browne, 2010) states that supermarkets are constantly using different methodologies of selling. One method is performing regular overhauls changing the locations of products all around to break habitual shopping, and break your budget. Harrison also contends that people who are shopping in a counter clockwise direction are likely to spend more money than people shopping in a clockwise direction. Consumer psychologists (cited in Browne, 2010) reported that most people write with their right hand, thus it is a biological trait that people have the tendency of veering to the right when shopping, it is understood that supermarkets capitalize on this fact. Found on the capturing right-hand side are usually appealing products that a shopper might impulsively buy e.g. an umbrella when the weather is dull.^[8]

Evolution of marketing

Main article: History of marketing

An orientation, in the marketing context, related to a perception or attitude a firm holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users. Throughout history, marketing has changed considerably in conjunction with consumer tastes.^[9]

Earlier approaches

The marketing orientation evolved from earlier orientations, namely, the production orientation, the product orientation and the selling orientation.^[9][10]

Orientation	Profit driver	Western European timeframe	Description
Production[10]	Production methods	until the 1950s	A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies of scale until the minimum efficient scale is reached. A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a product or service exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes will not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation).
Product[10]	Quality of the product	until the 1960s	A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product.
Selling[10]	Selling methods	1950s and 1960s	A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible. Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes that would diminish demand.
Marketing[10]	Needs and wants of customers	1970 to present day	The 'marketing orientation' is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans around the marketing concept, and thus supplying products to suit new consumer tastes. As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize promotion techniques to ensure persons know the product exists.

Contemporary approaches

Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society.^[11] New forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, desktop advertising or affiliate marketing. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media.

Orientation	Profit driver	Western European timeframe	Description
Relationship marketing / Relationship management[11]	Building and keeping good customer relations	1960s to present day	Emphasis is placed on the whole relationship between suppliers and customers. The aim is to provide the best possible customer service and build customer loyalty.
Business marketing / Industrial marketing	Building and keeping relationships between organizations	1980s to present day	In this context, marketing takes place between businesses or organizations. The product focus lies on industrial goods or capital goods rather than consumer products or end products. Different forms of marketing activities, such as promotion, advertising and communication to the customer are used.
Social marketing[11]	Benefit to society	1990s to present day	Similar characteristics as marketing orientation but with the added proviso that there will be a curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in either product, production, or selling methods.
Branding	Brand value	1980s to present day	In this context, "branding" is the main company philosophy and marketing is considered an instrument of branding philosophy.

Customer orientation

Constructive criticism helps marketers adapt offerings to meet changing customer needs.

A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern. Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally, there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the market change identification approach and the product innovation approach^{[citation needed]}.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no reason to spend R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.^[12]

A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA^[13] (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer-centric alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, placement, promotion) of marketing management.

Product	→	Solution
Promotion	→	Information
Price	→	Value
Place	→	Access

If any of the 4Ps were problematic or were not in the marketing factor of the business, the business could be in trouble and so other companies may appear in the surroundings of the company, so the consumer demand on its products will decrease. However, in recent years service marketing has widened the domains to be considered, contributing to the 7P's of marketing in total. The other 3P's of service marketing are: process, physical environment and people.

Some qualifications or caveats for customer focus exist. They do not invalidate or contradict the principle of customer focus; rather, they simply add extra dimensions of awareness and caution to it.

The work of Christensen and colleagues^[14] on disruptive technology has produced a theoretical framework that explains the failure of firms not because they were technologically inept (often quite the opposite), but because the value networks in which they profitably operated included customers who could not value a disruptive innovation at the time and capability state of its emergence and thus actively dissuaded the firms from developing it. The lessons drawn from this work include:

• Taking customer focus with a grain of salt, treating it as only a subset of one's corporate strategy rather than the sole driving factor. This means looking beyond current-state customer focus to predict what customers will be demanding some years in the future, even if they themselves discount the prediction.
• Pursuing new markets (thus new value networks) when they are still in a commercially inferior or unattractive state, simply because their potential to grow and intersect with established markets and value networks looks like a likely bet. This may involve buying stakes in the stock of smaller firms, acquiring them outright, or incubating small, financially distinct units within one's organization to compete against them.

Other caveats of customer focus are:

• The extent to which what customers say they want does not match their purchasing decisions. Thus surveys of customers might claim that 70% of a restaurant's customers want healthier choices on the menu, but only 10% of them actually buy the new items once they are offered. This might be acceptable except for the extent to which those items are money-losing propositions for the business, bleeding red ink. A lesson from this type of situation is to be smarter about the true test validity of instruments like surveys. A corollary argument is that "truly understanding customers sometimes means understanding them better than they understand themselves." Thus one could argue that the principle of customer focus, or being close to the customers, is not violated here—just expanded upon.
• The extent to which customers are currently ignorant of what one might argue they should want—which is dicey because whether it can be acted upon affordably depends on whether or how soon the customers will learn, or be convinced, otherwise. IT hardware and software capabilities and automobile features are examples. Customers who in 1997 said that they would not place any value on internet browsing capability on a mobile phone, or 6% better fuel efficiency in their vehicle, might say something different today, because the value proposition of those opportunities has changed.

Organizational orientation

In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from an organization's marketing department would be used to guide the actions of other departments within the firm. As an example, a marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a product/service based on consumers' new desires.

The production department would then start to manufacture the product, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the product. Inter-departmental conflicts may occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization.

Herd behavior

Herd behavior in marketing is used to explain the dependencies of customers' mutual behavior. The Economist reported a recent conference in Rome on the subject of the simulation of adaptive human behavior.^[15] It shared mechanisms to increase impulse buying and get people "to buy more by playing on the herd instinct." The basic idea is that people will buy more of products that are seen to be popular, and several feedback mechanisms to get product popularity information to consumers are mentioned, including smart card technology and the use of Radio Frequency Identification Tag technology. A "swarm-moves" model was introduced by a Florida Institute of Technology researcher, which is appealing to supermarkets because it can "increase sales without the need to give people discounts." Other recent studies on the "power of social influence" include an "artificial music market in which some 19,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs" (Columbia University, New York); a Japanese chain of convenience stores which orders its products based on "sales data from department stores and research companies;" a Massachusetts company exploiting knowledge of social networking to improve sales; and online retailers who are increasingly informing consumers about "which products are popular with like-minded consumers" (e.g., Amazon, eBay).

Further orientations

• An emerging area of study and practice concerns internal marketing, or how employees are trained and managed to deliver the brand in a way that positively impacts the acquisition and retention of customers, see also employer branding.
• Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services, and ideas.
• With consumers' eroding attention span and willingness to give time to advertising messages, marketers are turning to forms of permission marketing such as branded content, custom media and reality marketing.

Marketing research

Main article: Marketing research

Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing environment and attain information from suppliers. Marketing researchers use statistical methods such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared tests, linear regression, correlations, frequency distributions, poisson distributions, binomial distributions, etc. to interpret their findings and convert data into information. The marketing research process spans a number of stages, including the definition of a problem, development of a research plan, collection and interpretation of data and disseminating information formally in the form of a report. The task of marketing research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and current information.

A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market research is a subset of marketing research.

Marketing environment

Main article: Marketing environment

Market segmentation

Main article: Market segmentation

Market segmentation pertains to the division of a market of consumers into persons with similar needs and wants. For instance, Kellogg's cereals, Frosties are marketed to children. Crunchy Nut Cornflakes are marketed to adults. Both goods denote two products which are marketed to two distinct groups of persons, both with similar needs, traits, and wants.

Market segmentation allows for a better allocation of a firm's finite resources. A firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Accordingly, it must make choices (and incur the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers. In this way, the diversified tastes of contemporary Western consumers can be served better. With growing diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are taking note of the benefit of servicing a multiplicity of new markets.

Market segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segment, Target and Position.^{[citation needed]}

Types of Market Research

Market research, as a sub-set aspect of marketing activities, can be divided into the following parts:

• Primary research (also known as field research), which involves the conduction and compilation of research for a specific purpose.
• Secondary research (also referred to as desk research), initially conducted for one purpose, but often used to support another purpose or end goal.

By these definitions, an example of primary research would be market research conducted into health foods, which is used solely to ascertain the needs/wants of the target market for health foods. Secondary research in this case would be research pertaining to health foods, but used by a firm wishing to develop an unrelated product.

Primary research is often expensive to prepare, collect and interpret from data to information. Nevertheless, while secondary research is relatively inexpensive, it often can become outdated and outmoded, given that it is used for a purpose other than the one for which it was intended. Primary research can also be broken down into quantitative research and qualitative research, which, as the terms suggest, pertain to numerical and non-numerical research methods and techniques, respectively. The appropriateness of each mode of research depends on whether data can be quantified (quantitative research), or whether subjective, non-numeric or abstract concepts are required to be studied (qualitative research).

There also exist additional modes of marketing research, which are:

• Exploratory research, pertaining to research that investigates an assumption.
• Descriptive research, which, as the term suggests, describes "what is".
• Predictive research, meaning research conducted to predict a future occurrence.
• Conclusive research, for the purpose of deriving a conclusion via a research process.

Marketing planning

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Main article: Marketing plan

The marketing planning process involves forging a plan for a firm's marketing activities. A marketing plan can also pertain to a specific product, as well as to an organization's overall marketing strategy. Generally speaking, an organization's marketing planning process is derived from its overall business strategy. Thus, when top management are devising the firm's strategic direction or mission, the intended marketing activities are incorporated into this plan. There are several levels of marketing objectives within an organization. The senior management of a firm would formulate a general business strategy for a firm. However, this general business strategy would be interpreted and implemented in different contexts throughout the firm.

Marketing strategy

The field of marketing strategy encompasses the strategy involved in the management of a given product.

A given firm may hold numerous products in the marketplace, spanning numerous and sometimes wholly unrelated industries. Accordingly, a plan is required in order to effectively manage such products. Evidently, a company needs to weigh up and ascertain how to utilize its finite resources. For example, a start-up car manufacturing firm would face little success should it attempt to rival Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Chevrolet, or any other large global car maker. Moreover, a product may be reaching the end of its life-cycle. Thus, the issue of divest, or a ceasing of production, may be made. Each scenario requires a unique marketing strategy. Listed below are some prominent marketing strategy models.

Marketing specializations

With the rapidly emerging force of globalization, the distinction between marketing within a firm's home country and marketing within external markets is disappearing very quickly. With this in mind, firms need to reorient their marketing strategies to meet the challenges of the global marketplace, in addition to sustaining their competitiveness within home markets.^[16]

Buying behaviour

A marketing firm must ascertain the nature of customers' buying behavior if it is to market its product properly. In order to entice and persuade a consumer to buy a product, marketers try to determine the behavioral process of how a given product is purchased. Buying behavior is usually split into two prime strands, whether selling to the consumer, known as business-to-consumer (B2C), or to another business, known as business-to-business (B2B).

B2C buying behaviour

This mode of behaviour concerns consumers and their purchase of a given product. For example, if one imagines a pair of sneakers, the desire for a pair of sneakers would be followed by an information search on available types/brands. This may include perusing media outlets, but most commonly consists of information gathered from family and friends. If the information search is insufficient, the consumer may search for alternative means to satisfy the need/want. In this case, this may mean buying leather shoes, sandals, etc. The purchase decision is then made, in which the consumer actually buys the product. Following this stage, a post-purchase evaluation is often conducted, comprising an appraisal of the value/utility brought by the purchase of the sneakers. If the value/utility is high, then a repeat purchase may be made. This could then develop into consumer loyalty to the firm producing the sneakers.

B2B buying behaviour

Relates to organizational/industrial buying behavior.^[17] "B2B" stands for Business to Business. B2B marketing involves one business marketing a product or service to another business. B2C and B2B behavior are not precise terms, as similarities and differences exist, with some key differences listed below:

In a straight re-buy, the fourth, fifth and sixth stages are omitted. In a modified re-buy scenario, the fifth and sixth stages are precluded. In a new buy, all stages are conducted.

Use of technologies

Marketing management can also rely on various technologies within the scope of its marketing efforts. Computer-based information systems can be employed, aiding in better processing and storage of data. Marketing researchers can use such systems to devise better methods of converting data into information, and for the creation of enhanced data gathering methods. Information technology can aid in enhancing an MKIS' software and hardware components, and improve a company's marketing decision-making process.

In recent years, the notebook personal computer has gained significant market share among laptops, largely due to its more user-friendly size and portability. Information technology typically progresses at a fast rate, leading to marketing managers being cognizant of the latest technological developments. Moreover, the launch of smartphones into the cellphone market is commonly derived from a demand among consumers for more technologically advanced products. A firm can lose out to competitors should it ignore technological innovations in its industry.

Technological advancements can lessen barriers between countries and regions. Using the World Wide Web, firms can quickly dispatch information from one country to another without much restriction. Prior to the mass usage of the Internet, such transfers of information would have taken longer to send, especially if done via snail mail, telex, etc.

Recently, there has been a large emphasis on data analytics. Data can be mined from various sources such as online forms, mobile phone applications and more recently, social media.

Services marketing

Services marketing relates to the marketing of services, as opposed to tangible products. A service (as opposed to a good) is typically defined as follows:

• The use of it is inseparable from its purchase (i.e., a service is used and consumed simultaneously)
• It does not possess material form, and thus cannot be touched, seen, heard, tasted, or smelled.
• The use of a service is inherently subjective, meaning that several persons experiencing a service would each experience it uniquely.

For example, a train ride can be deemed a service. If one buys a train ticket, the use of the train is typically experienced concurrently with the purchase of the ticket. Although the train is a physical object, one is not paying for the permanent ownership of the tangible components of the train.

Services (compared with goods) can also be viewed as a spectrum. Not all products are pure goods, nor are all pure services. An example would be a restaurant, where a waiter's service is intangible, but the food is tangible.

See also

• Advertising
• Consumer behaviour
• Consumer confusion
• Demand chain
• Distribution (Placement)
• Family in advertising
• Market segmentation
• List of marketing terms
• Outline of marketing
• Positioning
• Pricing
• Product
• Promotion (marketing)
• Right-time marketing
• Targeting (advertising)
• Service dominant logic (marketing)
• Types of marketing
• White Space (management)
• Real-time marketing

References

1. ^ "AMA Definition of Marketing." American Marketing Association. /Community/ARC/Pages/Additional/Definition/default.aspx. Retrieved 2012-01-18.
2. ^ "Dictionary." American Marketing Association. http://www.marketingpower.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx. Retrieved 2011-12-02. The Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) endorses this definition as part of its ongoing Common Language: Marketing Activities and Metrics Project.
3. ^ ^{a b} Kotler, Philip; Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders (2010). "Marketing defined". Principles of marketing (5th ed.). p. 7. http://books.google.com/books?id=6T2R0_ESU5AC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=&f=true. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Kotler, Philip; Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders (2008). "Marketing defined". Principles of marketing (5th ed.). p. 17. http://books.google.com/books?id=6T2R0_ESU5AC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=&f=true. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
5. ^ Paul H. Selden (1997). Sales Process Engineering: A Personal Workshop. Milwaukee, WI. p. 23. 
6. ^ "Definition of marketing". Chartered Institute of Marketing. http://www.cim.co.uk/resources/understandingmarket/definitionmkting.aspx. Retrieved 2009-10-30. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Paliwoda, Stanley J.; John K. Ryans. "Back to first principles". International Marketing: Modern and Classic Papers (1st ed.). p. 25. http://books.google.com/books?id=dwZz2eHBCjUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
8. ^ Browne, K 2010, ‘Trolley psychology: choice unlocks the psychological secrets of the supermarket and shows you how to avoid spending more than you mean to’, Choice, Australasian Consumers’ Association, Chippendale, NSW, Australia, no. 4, April, pp. 60-64, retrieved 14 October 2010, Expanded Academic database.
9. ^ ^{a b} Kotler, Philip; Kevin Lane Keller (2009). "1". A Framework for Marketing Management (4th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0136026605. 
10. ^ ^{a b c d e} Adcock, Dennis; Al Halborg, Caroline Ross (2001). "Introduction". Marketing: principles and practice (4th ed.). p. 15. http://books.google.com/books?id=hQ8XfLd1cGwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q=&f=true. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} Adcock, Dennis; Al Halborg, Caroline Ross (2001). "Introduction". Marketing: principles and practice. p. 16. http://books.google.com/books?id=hQ8XfLd1cGwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA16#v=onepage&q=&f=true. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 
12. ^ "Marketing Management: Strategies and Programs", Guiltinan et al., McGraw Hill/Irwin, 1996
13. ^ Dev, Chekitan S.; Don E. Schultz (January/February 2005). "In the Mix: A Customer-Focused Approach Can Bring the Current Marketing Mix into the 21st Century". Marketing Management 14 (1). 
14. ^ Christensen 1997.
15. ^ "Swarming the shelves: How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales". The Economist. 2006-11-11. p. 90. 
16. ^ Joshi, Rakesh Mohan, (2005) International Marketing, Oxford University Press, New Delhi and New York ISBN 0195671236
17. ^ "Chapter 6: Organizational markets and buyer behavior". Rohan.sdsu.edu. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~renglish/370/notes/chapt06/index.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 

Bibliography

Works cited

• Christensen, Clayton M. (1997), The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 978-0-87584-585-2, http://books.google.com/books/about/?id=SIexi_qgq2gC. 

Further reading

Look up marketing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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Common misspelling(s) of marketing

• marketting

Dansk (Danish)
n. - marketing, handel, køb, afsætning

Nederlands (Dutch)
marketing, markthandel

Français (French)
n. - marketing, mercatique, service de marketing

Deutsch (German)
n. - Marketing

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (οικον.) μάρκετινγκ, αγοραλογία

Italiano (Italian)
marketing

Português (Portuguese)
n. - marketing (m)

Русский (Russian)
маркетинг, торговля, предмет торговли

Español (Spanish)
n. - mercadeo, comercialización

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - marknadsföring, torghandel, marknadsvaror

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
行销, 买卖

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 行銷, 買賣

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 사고팔기, (제품을 만들고 파는 전과정)마케팅

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 売買, マーケティング, 市場での売り物, 買物

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تسويق‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שיווק, הפצת סחורה‬

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