Marketing Research And Planning For Your Business: MARKETING: AN INTRODUCTION

This guide intends to help you with the thinking process of marketing, so that once you have answered all the critical questions related to its components, you will be able to arrive more clearly at an effective marketing plan and strategy.

THE DEFINITION OF MARKETING

"...In its broadest sense, marketing describes business activities related to buying and selling. In the most limited sense, marketing is a set of specific practices intended to increase the sale of goods or services offered by one or more firms. During the 20th century the definition of marketing shifted from an emphasis on marketing as a mechanism of economic distribution toward a focus on marketing as a set of organizational activities. In the early 21st century a more comprehensive view of marketing took shape, as illustrated in this definition approved by the American Marketing Association in 2013: “Marketing is 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.”

From: "The Role of Marketing." Worldmark Global Business and Economy Issues, edited by Thomas Riggs, vol. 1: Business, Gale, 2015, pp. 290-297. Gale eBooks, https://link-gale-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/apps/doc/CX3627200052/GVRL?u=nypl&sid=GVRL&xid=f459703c. Accessed 8 June 2020.

Technology has made possible the availability of countless types and varieties of products which can be accessed in countless ways. This means:

• customers can afford to be selective
•  customers want products that meet their changing needs
•  product should satisfy customers’ needs better than can competition

To be competitive, it is important to know:

• “what do customers want?”
• “can you provide the product while they still want it?”

• “how can you keep customers satisfied?”

Sound marketing decisions can turn

"I WANT..." into "I'm definitely BUYING!!!"

Definitions of Marketing

• Statista -- Enter the keyword "Marketing" in the search box and you'll get a great number of reports, statistics, dossiers and more on advertising, digital marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and much more, both in the United States and countries worldwide.