Defining Marketing-MKT 421 University of Phoenix

Defining Marketing

Laura Gabbard

University of Phoenix

MKT 421 Marketing

Mike Balliff

December 10, 2007

Defining Marketing

To this researcher marketing is about people and products or services. Marketing involves finding and fulfilling a need for people with those products and services. Once the need is met, marketing has to find ways to keep customers' interest while bringing in more customers. This definition is not far off the mark according to Kotler and Keller, "Marketing deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs…..meeting needs profitably," (2006, p 5).

One example of this in the business world is eBay, which saw the need people had for finding items they wanted. From this need, eBay created a hugely successful online auction site, (Kotler & Keller, 2006).

According to the American Marketing Association's website, the definition of marketing is, "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," (AMA, 2004).

An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...

PEPSI

English: A Coke pin

From the definitions of the American Marketing Association, Kotler & Keller, and this researcher, marketing is very important in organizational success. Without marketing, the public is not aware of new products and services, even those that come from established companies.

The most successful companies selling products usually have marketing play a large part. One example is the two beverage giants PepsiCo and Coca Cola. No one can argue the success of these organizations. For most of this researchers' life, Pepsi and Coke marketing plans and ploys have existed. Each company has tried to outdo each other with television commercials featuring sports heroes, (Mean Joe Green and the little kid), or taste tests (take the Pepsi challenge). In the NASCAR world of which this...