Define Marketing MKT 421

Defining marketing is not an easy task. Most people think that marketing is just advertising. It is true that advertising is a part of marketing. But marketing is much more then just advertising. In this paper several different difinitions of marketing will be stated. Based on these difinitions we will explain the importance of marketing for organizational success. Then we will provide three examples that support this organizational success.

Defining marketing is basically moving product from the producer to the consumer. The American Marketing Association suggests that marketing is "the process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals" (American Marketing Association). Another definition, summarized by Philip Kotler, "The societal marketing concept holds that the organization's task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's and society's well-being (Kotler, Philip 1994).

English: prof. Philip Kotler at Warsaw

Market Square, Enniscorthy

Kirkwood-Farmers-Market-Sign

Organizations want to stay in business and see their company grow. Marketing is an important effort in gaining prospect attention, building product or service demand and winning customers. An organizations marketing effort is the sum of the sales, pricing, promotional and advertising efforts implemented to promote the flow of goods or services from a business to the consumer. Marketing includes having the right merchandise or service, selecting the right location, enacting effective sales programs and promoting your company and its wares to the buying public.

People buy and use one product or service over another because they find it somehow to their advantage to do so (it may cost less, be of better quality, etc.) In today's increasingly competitive business environment - more consumers, more products, more...