Discover the word marketing

Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services;^[1][2] potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; operation of advertising campaigns; attendance at trade shows and public events; design of products and packaging attractive to buyers; defining the terms of sale, such as price, discounts, warranty, and return policy; product placement in media or with people believed to influence the buying habits of others; agreements with retailers, wholesale distributors, or resellers; and attempts to create awareness of, loyalty to, and positive feelings about a brand. Marketing is typically done by the seller, typically a retailer or manufacturer. Sometimes tasks are contracted to a dedicated marketing firm or advertising agency. More rarely, a trade association or government agency (such as the Agricultural Marketing Service) advertises on behalf of an entire industry or locality, often a specific type of food (e.g. Got Milk?), food from a specific area, or a city or region as a tourism destination.

It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.^[3] Marketers can direct their product to other businesses (B2B marketing) or directly to consumers (B2C marketing).^[4] Regardless of who is being marketed to, several factors apply, including the perspective the marketers will use. Known as market orientations, they determine how marketers approach the planning stage of marketing.^[5]

The marketing mix, which outlines the specifics of the product and how it will be sold,^[6][7] is affected by the environment surrounding the product,^[8] the results of marketing research and market research,^[9][10] and the characteristics of the product’s target market.^[11] Once these factors are determined, marketers must then decide what methods of promoting the product,^[4] including use of coupons and other price inducements.^[12]

The term marketing, what is commonly known as attracting customers, incorporates knowledge gained by studying the management of exchange relationships^[13][14] and is the business process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers’ needs and wants.

Definition

Marketing is currently defined by the American Marketing Association (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».^[2] However, the definition of marketing has evolved over the years. The AMA reviews this definition and its definition for «marketing research» every three years.^[2] The interests of «society at large» were added into the definition in 2008.^[15] The development of the definition may be seen by comparing the 2008 definition with the AMA’s 1935 version: «Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods, and services from producers to consumers».^[16] The newer definition highlights the increased prominence of other stakeholders in the new conception of marketing.

Recent definitions of marketing place more emphasis on the consumer relationship, as opposed to a pure exchange process. For instance, prolific marketing author and educator, Philip Kotler has evolved his definition of marketing. In 1980, he defined marketing as «satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process»,^[17] and in 2018 defined it as «the process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships, and create customer value in order to capture value from customers in return».^[18] A related definition, from the sales process engineering perspective, defines marketing as «a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions of a business aimed at achieving customer interest and satisfaction».^[19]

Besides, some definitions of marketing highlight marketing’s ability to produce value to shareholders of the firm as well. In this context, marketing can be defined as «the management process that seeks to maximise returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating a competitive advantage».^[20] For instance, the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing from a customer-centric perspective, focusing on «the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably».^[21]

In the past, marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry, which included advertising, distribution and selling, and even today many parts of the marketing process (e.g. product design, art director, brand management, advertising, inbound marketing, copywriting etc.) involve the use of the creative arts.^[22] However, because marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science.^[23] Marketing science has developed a concrete process that can be followed to create a marketing plan.^[24]

Concept

The «marketing concept» proposes that to complete its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of potential consumers and satisfy them more effectively than its competitors. This concept originated from Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations but would not become widely used until nearly 200 years later.^[25] Marketing and Marketing Concepts are directly related.

Given the centrality of customer needs, and wants in marketing, a rich understanding of these concepts is essential:^[26]

Needs: Something necessary for people to live a healthy, stable and safe life. When needs remain unfulfilled, there is a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as the need for food, water, and shelter; or subjective and psychological, such as the need to belong to a family or social group and the need for self-esteem.

Wants: Something that is desired, wished for or aspired to. Wants are not essential for basic survival and are often shaped by culture or peer-groups.

Demands: When needs and wants are backed by the ability to pay, they have the potential to become economic demands.

Marketing research, conducted for the purpose of new product development or product improvement, is often concerned with identifying the consumer’s unmet needs.^[27] Customer needs are central to market segmentation which is concerned with dividing markets into distinct groups of buyers on the basis of «distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviors who might require separate products or marketing mixes.»^[28] Needs-based segmentation (also known as benefit segmentation) «places the customers’ desires at the forefront of how a company designs and markets products or services.»^[29] Although needs-based segmentation is difficult to do in practice, it has been proved to be one of the most effective ways to segment a market.^[30][27] In addition, a great deal of advertising and promotion is designed to show how a given product’s benefits meet the customer’s needs, wants or expectations in a unique way.^[31]

B2B and B2C marketing

The two major segments of marketing are business-to-business (B2B) marketing and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.^[4]

B2B marketing

B2B (business-to-business) marketing refers to any marketing strategy or content that is geared towards a business or organization. Any company that sells products or services to other businesses or organizations (vs. consumers) typically uses B2B marketing strategies.

Examples of products sold through B2B marketing include:

• Major equipment
• Accessory equipment
• Raw materials
• Component parts
• Processed materials
• Supplies
• Venues
• Business services^[4]

The four major categories of B2B product purchasers are:

• Producers- use products sold by B2B marketing to make their own goods (e.g.: Mattel buying plastics to make toys)
• Resellers- buy B2B products to sell through retail or wholesale establishments (e.g.: Walmart buying vacuums to sell in stores)
• Governments- buy B2B products for use in government projects (e.g.: purchasing contractor services to repair infrastructure)
• Institutions- use B2B products to continue operation (e.g.: schools buying printers for office use)^[4]

B2C marketing

Business-to-consumer marketing, or B2C marketing, refers to the tactics and strategies in which a company promotes its products and services to individual people.

Traditionally, this could refer to individuals shopping for personal products in a broad sense. More recently the term B2C refers to the online selling of consumer products.^[32]

C2B marketing

Consumer-to-business marketing or C2B marketing is a business model where the end consumers create products and services which are consumed by businesses and organizations. It is diametrically opposed to the popular concept of B2C or Business- to- Consumer where the companies make goods and services available to the end consumers. In this type of business model, businesses profit from consumers’ willingness to name their own price or contribute data or marketing to the company, while consumers benefit from flexibility, direct payment, or free or reduced-price products and services. One of the major benefit of this type of business model is that it offers a company a competitive advantage in the market.^[33]

C2C marketing

Customer to customer marketing or C2C marketing represents a market environment where one customer purchases goods from another customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction. C2C companies are a new type of model that has emerged with e-commerce technology and the sharing economy.^[34]

Differences in B2B and B2C marketing

The different goals of B2B and B2C marketing lead to differences in the B2B and B2C markets. The main differences in these markets are demand, purchasing volume, number of customers, customer concentration, distribution, buying nature, buying influences, negotiations, reciprocity, leasing and promotional methods.^[4]

• Demand: B2B demand is derived because businesses buy products based on how much demand there is for the final consumer product. Businesses buy products based on customer’s wants and needs. B2C demand is primarily because customers buy products based on their own wants and needs.^[4]
• Purchasing volume: Businesses buy products in large volumes to distribute to consumers. Consumers buy products in smaller volumes suitable for personal use.^[4]
• Number of customers: There are relatively fewer businesses to market to than direct consumers.^[4]
• Customer concentration: Businesses that specialize in a particular market tend to be geographically concentrated while customers that buy products from these businesses are not concentrated.^[4]
• Distribution: B2B products pass directly from the producer of the product to the business while B2C products must additionally go through a wholesaler or retailer.^[4]
• Buying nature: B2B purchasing is a formal process done by professional buyers and sellers, while B2C purchasing is informal.^[4]
• Buying influences: B2B purchasing is influenced by multiple people in various departments such as quality control, accounting, and logistics while B2C marketing is only influenced by the person making the purchase and possibly a few others.^[4]
• Negotiations: In B2B marketing, negotiating for lower prices or added benefits is commonly accepted while in B2C marketing (particularly in Western cultures) prices are fixed.^[4]
• Reciprocity: Businesses tend to buy from businesses they sell to. For example, a business that sells printer ink is more likely to buy office chairs from a supplier that buys the business’s printer ink. In B2C marketing, this does not occur because consumers are not also selling products.^[4]
• Leasing: Businesses tend to lease expensive items while consumers tend to save up to buy expensive items.^[4]
• Promotional methods: In B2B marketing, the most common promotional method is personal selling. B2C marketing mostly uses sales promotion, public relations, advertising, and social media.^[4]

Marketing management orientations

A marketing orientation has been defined as a «philosophy of business management.»^[5] or «a corporate state of mind»^[35] or as an «organizational culture»^[36] Although scholars continue to debate the precise nature of specific concepts that inform marketing practice, the most commonly cited orientations are as follows:^[37]

• Product concept: mainly concerned with the quality of its product. It has largely been supplanted by the marketing orientation, except for haute couture and arts marketing.^[38][39]
• Production concept: specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service in order to achieve economies of scale or economies of scope. It dominated marketing practice from the 1860s to the 1930s, yet can still be found in some companies or industries. Specifically, Kotler and Armstrong note that the production philosophy is «one of the oldest philosophies that guides sellers… [and] is still useful in some situations.»^[40]
• Selling concept: focuses on the selling/promotion of the firm’s existing products, rather than developing new products to satisfy unmet needs or wants primarily through promotion and direct sales techniques,^[41] largely for «unsought goods»^[42] in industrial companies.^[43] A 2011 meta analyses^[44] found that the factors with the greatest impact on sales performance are a salesperson’s sales related knowledge (market segments, presentation skills, conflict resolution, and products), degree of adaptiveness, role clarity, cognitive aptitude, motivation and interest in a sales role).

• Marketing concept: This is the most common concept used in contemporary marketing, and is a customer-centric approach based on products that suit new consumer tastes. These firm engage in extensive market research, use R&D (Research & Development), and then use promotion techniques.^[45][46] The marketing orientation includes:
  • Customer orientation: A firm in the market economy can survive by producing goods that people 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.
  • Organizational orientation: The marketing department is of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from the marketing department is used to guide the actions of a company’s other departments. 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. The finance department may oppose required capital expenditures since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization.

• Societal marketing concept: Social responsibility that goes beyond satisfying customers and providing superior value embraces societal stakeholders such as employees, customers, and local communities. Companies that adopt this perspective typically practice triple bottom line reporting and publish financial, social and environmental impact reports. Sustainable marketing or green marketing is an extension of societal marketing.^[47]

The marketing mix

A marketing mix is a foundational tool used to guide decision making in marketing. The marketing mix represents the basic tools that marketers can use to bring their products or services to the market. They are the foundation of managerial marketing and the marketing plan typically devotes a section to the marketing mix.

The 4Ps

The traditional marketing mix refers to four broad levels of marketing decision, namely: product, price, promotion, and place.^[6][48]

Outline

Product

The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user’s needs and wants. The product element consists of product design, new product innovation, branding, packaging, labeling. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support. Branding, a key aspect of the product management, refers to the various methods of communicating a brand identity for the product, brand, or company.^[49]

Pricing

This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, or attention or any sacrifices consumers make in order to acquire a product or service. The price is the cost that a consumer pays for a product—monetary or not. Methods of setting prices are in the domain of pricing science.^[50]

Place (or distribution)

This refers to how the product gets to the customer; the distribution channels and intermediaries such as wholesalers and retailers who enable customers to access products or services in a convenient manner. This third P has also sometimes been called Place or Placement, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc. also referring to how the environment in which the product is sold in can affect sales.^[50]

Promotion

This includes all aspects of marketing communications: advertising, sales promotion, including promotional education, public relations, personal selling, product placement, branded entertainment, event marketing, trade shows, and exhibitions. This fourth P is focused on providing a message to get a response from consumers. The message is designed to persuade or tell a story to create awareness.^[50]

Criticisms

One of the limitations of the 4Ps approach is its emphasis on an inside-out view.^[51] An inside-out approach is the traditional planning approach where the organization identifies its desired goals and objectives, which are often based around what has always been done. Marketing’s task then becomes one of «selling» the organization’s products and messages to the «outside» or external stakeholders.^[49] In contrast, an outside-in approach first seeks to understand the needs and wants of the consumer.^[52]

From a model-building perspective, the 4 Ps has attracted a number of criticisms. Well-designed models should exhibit clearly defined categories that are mutually exclusive, with no overlap. Yet, the 4 Ps model has extensive overlapping problems. Several authors stress the hybrid nature of the fourth P, mentioning the presence of two important dimensions, «communication» (general and informative communications such as public relations and corporate communications) and «promotion» (persuasive communications such as advertising and direct selling). Certain marketing activities, such as personal selling, may be classified as either promotion or as part of the place (i.e., distribution) element.^[53] Some pricing tactics, such as promotional pricing, can be classified as price variables or promotional variables and, therefore, also exhibit some overlap.

Other important criticisms include that the marketing mix lacks a strategic framework and is, therefore, unfit to be a planning instrument, particularly when uncontrollable, external elements are an important aspect of the marketing environment.^[54]

Modifications and extensions

To overcome the deficiencies of the 4P model, some authors have suggested extensions or modifications to the original model. Extensions of the four P’s are often included in cases such as services marketing where unique characteristics (i.e. intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and the inseparability of production and consumption) warrant additional consideration factors. Other extensions have been found necessary for retail marketing, industrial marketing, and internet marketing

include «people», «process», and «physical evidence» and are often applied in the case of services marketing^[55] Other extensions have been found necessary in retail marketing, industrial marketing and internet marketing.

The 4Cs

In response to environmental and technological changes in marketing, as well as criticisms towards the 4Ps approach, the 4Cs has emerged as a modern marketing mix model.

Outline

Consumer (or client)

The consumer refers to the person or group that will acquire the product. This aspect of the model focuses on fulfilling the wants or needs of the consumer.^[7]

Cost

Cost refers to what is exchanged in return for the product. Cost mainly consists of the monetary value of the product. Cost also refers to anything else the consumer must sacrifice to attain the product, such as time or money spent on transportation to acquire the product.^[7]

Convenience

Like «Place» in the 4Ps model, convenience refers to where the product will be sold. This, however, not only refers to physical stores but also whether the product is available in person or online. The convenience aspect emphasizes making it as easy as possible for the consumer to attain the product, thus making them more likely to do so.^[7]

Communication

Like «Promotion» in the 4Ps model, communication refers to how consumers find out about a product. Unlike promotion, communication not only refers to the one-way communication of advertising, but also the two-way communication available through social media.^[7]

Environment

The term «marketing environment» relates to all of the factors (whether internal, external, direct or indirect) that affect a firm’s marketing decision-making/planning. A firm’s marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are:

• The macro-environment (Macromarketing), over which a firm holds little control, consists of a variety of external factors that manifest on a large (or macro) scale. These include: economic, social, political and technological factors. A common method of assessing a firm’s macro-environment is via a PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ecological) analysis. Within a PESTLE analysis, a firm would analyze national political issues, culture and climate, key macroeconomic conditions, health and indicators (such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), social trends/attitudes, and the nature of technology’s impact on its society and the business processes within the society.^[8]
• The micro-environment, over which a firm holds a greater amount (though not necessarily total) control, typically includes: Customers/consumers, Employees, Suppliers and the Media. In contrast to the macro-environment, an organization holds a greater (though not complete) degree of control over these factors.^[8]
• The internal environment, which includes the factors inside of the company itself^[8] A firm’s internal environment consists

of: Labor, Inventory, Company Policy, Logistics, Budget, and Capital Assets.^[8]

Research

Marketing research is a systematic process of analyzing data that 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 to attain information from suppliers. A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research involves gathering information about a particular target 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. Market research is a subset of marketing research.^[9] (Avoiding the word consumer, which shows up in both,^[56] market research is about distribution, while marketing research encompasses distribution, advertising effectiveness, and salesforce effectiveness).^[57]

The stages of research include:

• Define the problem
• Plan research
• Research
• Interpret data
• Implement findings^[10]

Segmentation

Market segmentation consists of taking the total heterogeneous market for a product and dividing it into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to be homogeneous in all significant aspects.^[11] The process is conducted for two main purposes: better allocation of a firm’s finite resources and to better serve the more diversified tastes of contemporary consumers. A firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Thus, it must make choices (and appreciate the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers. Moreover, with more diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are noting the benefit of servicing a multiplicity of new markets.

Market segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning.

Segmentation involves the initial splitting up of consumers into persons of like needs/wants/tastes. Commonly used criteria include:

• Geographic (such as a country, region, city, town)
• Psychographic (e.g. personality traits or lifestyle traits which influence consumer behaviour)
• Demographic (e.g. age, gender, socio-economic class, education)
• Gender
• Income
• Life-Cycle (e.g. Baby Boomer, Generation X, Millennial, Generation Z)
• Lifestyle (e.g. tech savvy, active)
• Behavioral (e.g. brand loyalty, usage rate)^[58]

Once a segment has been identified to target, a firm must ascertain whether the segment is beneficial for them to service. The DAMP acronym is used as criteria to gauge the viability of a target market. The elements of DAMP are:

• Discernable – how a segment can be differentiated from other segments.
• Accessible – how a segment can be accessed via Marketing Communications produced by a firm
• Measurable – can the segment be quantified and its size determined?
• Profitable – can a sufficient return on investment be attained from a segment’s servicing?

The next step in the targeting process is the level of differentiation involved in a segment serving. Three modes of differentiation exist, which are commonly applied by firms. These are:

• Undifferentiated – where a company produces a like product for all of a market segment
• Differentiated – in which a firm produced slight modifications of a product within a segment
• Niche – in which an organization forges a product to satisfy a specialized target market

Positioning concerns how to position a product in the minds of consumers and inform what attributes differentiate it from the competitor’s products. A firm often performs this by producing a perceptual map, which denotes similar products produced in the same industry according to how consumers perceive their price and quality. From a product’s placing on the map, a firm would tailor its marketing communications to meld with the product’s perception among consumers and its position among competitors’ offering.^[59]

Promotional mix

The promotional mix outlines how a company will market its product. It consists of five tools: personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, advertising and social media

• Personal selling involves a presentation given by a salesperson to an individual or a group of potential customers. It enables two-way communication and relationship building, and is most commonly seen in business-to-business marketing but can also be found in business-to-consumer marketing (e.g.: selling cars at a dealership).^[4]

• Sales promotion involves short-term incentives to encourage the buying of products. Examples of these incentives include free samples, contests, premiums, trade shows, giveaways, coupons, sweepstakes and games. Depending on the incentive, one or more of the other elements of the promotional mix may be used in conjunction with sales promotion to inform customers of the incentives.^[4]
• Public relations is the use of media tools to promote and monitor for a positive view of a company or product in the public’s eye. The goal is to either sustain a positive opinion or lessen or change a negative opinion. It can include interviews, speeches/presentations, corporate literature, social media, news releases and special events.^[4]
• Advertising occurs when a firm directly pays a media channel, directly via an in-house agency^[60] or via an advertising agency or media buying service, to publicize its product, service or message. Common examples of advertising media include:

The marketing plan

The area of marketing planning 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. An organization’s marketing planning process is derived from its overall business strategy. Thus, when top management is devising the firm’s strategic direction/mission, the intended marketing activities are incorporated into this plan.

Outline of the marketing plan

Within the overall strategic marketing plan, the stages of the process are listed as thus:

• Executive Summary
• Current marketing situation
• Threats and opportunities analysis
• Objectives and issues
• Marketing Strategy
• Action programs
• Budgets
• Control

Levels of marketing objectives within an organization

As stated previously, 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.

At the corporate level, marketing objectives are typically broad-based in nature, and pertain to the general vision of the firm in the short, medium or long-term. As an example, if one pictures a group of companies (or a conglomerate), top management may state that sales for the group should increase by 25% over a ten-year period.

A strategic business unit (SBU) is a subsidiary within a firm, which participates within a given market/industry. The SBU would embrace the corporate strategy, and attune it to its own particular industry. For instance, an SBU may partake in the sports goods industry. It thus would ascertain how it would attain additional sales of sports goods, in order to satisfy the overall business strategy.

The functional level relates to departments within the SBUs, such as marketing, finance, HR, production, etc. The functional level would adopt the SBU’s strategy and determine how to accomplish the SBU’s own objectives in its market. To use the example of the sports goods industry again, the marketing department would draw up marketing plans, strategies and communications to help the SBU achieve its marketing aims.

Product life cycle

The product life cycle (PLC) is a tool used by marketing managers to gauge the progress of a product, especially relating to sales or revenue accrued over time. The PLC is based on a few key assumptions, including:

• A given product would possess introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stage
• No product lasts perpetually on the market
• A firm must employ differing strategies, according to where a product is on the PLC

In the introduction stage, a product is launched onto the market. To stimulate the growth of sales/revenue, use of advertising may be high, in order to heighten awareness of the product in question.

During the growth stage, the product’s sales/revenue is increasing, which may stimulate more marketing communications to sustain sales. More entrants enter into the market, to reap the apparent high profits that the industry is producing.

When the product hits maturity, its starts to level off, and an increasing number of entrants to a market produce price falls for the product. Firms may use sales promotions to raise sales.

During decline, demand for a good begins to taper off, and the firm may opt to discontinue the manufacture of the product. This is so, if revenue for the product comes from efficiency savings in production, over actual sales of a good/service. However, if a product services a niche market, or is complementary to another product, it may continue the manufacture of the product, despite a low level of sales/revenue being accrued.^[4]

See also

Types of marketing

Marketing orientations or philosophies

References

Bibliography

• Bartels, Robert, The History of Marketing Thought, Columbus, Ohio, Grid, (1976) 1988 online
• 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.
• Church, Roy and Godley, Andrew (eds), The Emergence of Modern Marketing, London, Frank Cass, 2003 online edition
• Hollander, Stanley C., Rassuli, Kathleen M.; Jones, D.G. Brian; Dix and Farlow, L., «Periodization in Marketing History,» Journal of Macromarketing, Vol 25, no.1, 2005, pp. 32–41. online
• Tedlow, Richard S., and Jones, Geoffrey G. (eds), The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing, Routledge, 2014
• Weitz, Barton A. and Robin Wensley (eds). Handbook of Marketing, 2002

External links

Dictionary.com defines marketing as, «the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.»

If you work in a marketing role like I do, it’s probably difficult for you to define marketing even though you see and use it every day — the term marketing is a bit all-encompassing and variable for a straightforward definition.

This definition feels unhelpful.

The selling part, for instance, overlaps a little too snuggly with a «what is sales» definition, and the word advertising makes me think of Mad Men brainstorming sessions.

But upon digging deeper, I began seeing that actually, marketing does overlap heavily with advertising and sales. Marketing is present in all stages of the business, beginning to end.

At first, I wondered why marketing was a necessary component during product development, or a sales pitch, or retail distribution. But it makes sense when you think about it — marketers have the firmest finger on the pulse of your consumer persona.

The purpose of marketing is to research and analyze your consumers all the time, conduct focus groups, send out surveys, study online shopping habits, and ask one underlying question: «Where, when, and how does our consumer want to communicate with our business?»

Here, let’s explore the purposes of marketing, along with types of marketing, the 4 P’s of marketing, and the difference between marketing and advertising.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer looking to refresh your definitions, or a beginner looking to understand what marketing is in the first place, we’ve got you covered. Let’s dive in. 

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people started to use more than just print media to endorse a product. As TV — and soon, the internet — entered households, marketers could conduct entire campaigns across multiple platforms. And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become increasingly important to fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of marketing is to attract consumers to your brand through messaging. Ideally, that messaging will helpful and educational to your target audience so you can convert consumers into leads.

Today, there are literally dozens of places one can carry out a marketing campaign — where does one do it in the 21st century?

Types of Marketing

Where your marketing campaigns live depends entirely on where your customers spend their time. It’s up to you to conduct market research that determines which types of marketing — and which mix of tools within each type — is best for building your brand. Here are several types of marketing that are relevant today, some of which have stood the test of time:

• Internet marketing: Inspired by an Excedrin product campaign that took place online, the very idea of having a presence on the internet for business reasons is a type of marketing in and of itself.
• Search engine optimization: Abbreviated «SEO,» this is the process of optimizing content on a website so that it appears in search engine results. It’s used by marketers to attract people who perform searches that imply they’re interested in learning about a particular industry.
• Blog marketing: Blogs are no longer exclusive to the individual writer. Brands now publish blogs to write about their industry and nurture the interest of potential customers who browse the internet for information.
• Social media marketing: Businesses can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar social networks to create impressions on their audience over time.
• Print marketing: As newspapers and magazines get better at understanding who subscribes to their print material, businesses continue to sponsor articles, photography, and similar content in the publications their customers are reading.
• Search engine marketing: This type of marketing is a bit different than SEO, which is described above. Businesses can now pay a search engine to place links on pages of its index that get high exposure to their audience. (It’s a concept called «pay-per-click» — I’ll show you an example of this in the next section).
• Video marketing: While there were once just commercials, marketers now put money into creating and publishing all kinds of videos that entertain and educate their core customers.

Marketing and Advertising

If marketing is a wheel, advertising is one spoke of that wheel.

Marketing entails product development, market research, product distribution, sales strategy, public relations, and customer support. Marketing is necessary in all stages of a business’s selling journey, and it can use numerous platforms, social media channels, and teams within their organization to identify their audience, communicate to it, amplify its voice, and build brand loyalty over time.

On the other hand, advertising is just one component of marketing. It’s a strategic effort, usually paid for, to spread awareness of a product or service as a part of the more holistic goals outlined above. Put simply, it’s not the only method used by marketers to sell a product.

Here’s an example (keep reading, there’s a quiz at the end of it):

Let’s say a business is rolling out a brand new product and wants to create a campaign promoting that product to its customer base. This company’s channels of choice are Facebook, Instagram, Google, and its company website. It uses all of these spaces to support its various campaigns every quarter and generate leads through those campaigns.

To broadcast its new product launch, it publishes a downloadable product guide to its website, posts a video to Instagram demonstrating its new product, and invests in a series of sponsored search results on Google directing traffic to a new product page on its website.

Now, which of the above decisions were marketing, and which were advertising?

The advertising took place on Instagram and Google. Instagram generally isn’t an advertising channel, but when used for branding, you can develop a base of followers that’s primed for a gentle product announcement every now and again. Google was definitely used for advertising in this example; the company paid for space on Google — a program known as pay-per-click (PPC) — on which to drive traffic to a specific page focused on its product. A classic online ad.

Where did the marketing take place? This was a bit of a trick question, as the marketing was the entire process. By aligning Instagram, Google, and its own website around a customer-focused initiative, the company ran a three-part marketing campaign that identified its audience, created a message for that audience, and delivered it across the industry to maximize its impact.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960’s, E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place, promotion.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each stage of the business.

Download Now: Free Marketing Mix Templates

Product

Let’s say you come up with an idea for a product you want your business to sell. What’s next? You probably won’t be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, you need your marketing team to do market research and answer some critical questions: Who’s your target audience? Is there market fit for this product? What messaging will increase product sales, and on which platforms? How should your product developers modify the product to increase likelihood of success? What do focus groups think of the product, and what questions or hesitations do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help businesses understand the demand for the product and increase product quality by mentioning concerns stemming from focus group or survey participants.

Price

Your marketing team will check out competitors’ product prices, or use focus groups and surveys, to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay. Price it too high, and you’ll lose out on a solid customer base. Price it too low, and you might lose more money than you gain. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer analysis to gauge a good price range.

Place

It’s critical that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your business’s consumers to offer suggestions for how and where to sell your product. Perhaps they believe an ecommerce site works better than a retail location, or vice versa. Or, maybe they can offer insights into which locations would be most viable to sell your product, either nationally and internationally.

Promotion

This P is likely the one you expected from the get-go: promotion entails any online or print advertisement, event, or discount your marketing team creates to increase awareness and interest in your product, and, ultimately, lead to more sales. During this stage, you’ll likely see methods like public relations campaigns, advertisements, or social media promotions.

Hopefully, our definition and the four Ps help you understand marketing’s purpose and how to define it. Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it’s important you understand how to use marketing to increase your business’s efficiency and success.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

What is Marketing?

Marketing comes in a wide variety of flavors based on audience, media platform and business. Here are 72 Marketing Definitions to help you understand today’s evolving and dynamic marketplace.

(BTW–Here are 13 states of marketing and hot marketing tips to use them.)

Therefore, it’s no surprise that marketers define what they do differently.

Inspired by the 31 PR Definitions, here’s a roundup of 72 marketing definitions by experienced practitioners across different specialties.

► Marketing Definitions

To start, here are explanations from the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketing’s professional organization, and Dr. Philip Kotler, the author of business school marketing classics. They’re followed by the other marketing definitions in alphabetical order by author’s last name.

1. According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) Board of Directors, 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.
2. Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.  Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.”
3. Marketing is the messages and/or actions that cause messages and/or actions. Jay Baer – President, Convince & Convert. Author with Amber Naslund of The Now Revolution.
4. Marketing is traditionally the means by which an organization communicates to, connects with, and engages its target audience to convey the value of and ultimately sell its products and services.  However, since the emergence of digital media, in particular social media and technology innovations, it has increasingly become more about companies building deeper, more meaningful and lasting relationships with the people that they want to buy their products and services. The ever-increasingly fragmented world of media complicates marketers’ ability connect and, at the same, time presents incredible opportunity to forge new territory. Julie Barile – Vice President of eCommerce, Fairway Market
5. Marketing includes research, targeting, communications (advertising and direct mail) and often public relations.  Marketing is to sales as plowing is to planting for a farmer—it prepares an audience to receive a direct sales pitch. Mary Ellen Bianco – Director Marketing & Communications, Getzler Henrich & Associates LLC
6. Marketing is an ongoing communications exchange with customers in a way that educates, informs and builds a relationship over time. The over time part is important because only over time can trust be created. With trust, a community builds organically around products and services and those customers become as excited about the products as you are — they become advocates, loyal evangelists, repeat customers and often, friends. Marketing is a really great way to identify what grabs people and gets them excited about your brand and give it to them, involve them in the process, and yeah, the best part, build great friendships in the process. Renee Blodgett – Chief Executive Officer/Founder, Magic Sauce Media
7. Professor Philip Kotler explained that marketing was “meeting the needs of your customer at a profit.” For me that definition extends beyond just communicating product features. Marketers are responsible for a 360-degree experience. For example, in the social media world, a customer’s Twitter needs may differ from her needs to “play with the brand” in terms of a social game promotion. Every customer touchpoint from customer service to sales to accounting and more are part of the “new marketing.” Toby Bloomberg – Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
8. Marketing when done well is (a) the strategy of the business – its value proposition, go to market strategy, and brand positioning and image to the world. Marketing when not done well is (b) an endless checklist of advertising and promotional to-dos that can never be completed.  Marketing in the twenty-first century must be (c) largely, but not entirely, measurable and accountable around driving business goals.  Marketing when done brilliantly is driven by (a) includes a small, disciplined subset of (b), and is steeped in a culture of (c). Matt Blumberg – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Return Path
9. Marketing is the process by which a firm profitably translates customer needs into revenue. Mark Burgess – Managing Partner, Blue Focus Marketing
10. Intuitive by design, marketing matches the right message/cause to the right person. Finding someone who has a personal connection with your product, service or cause in a way that is unobtrusive and inviting. Marketing can be as simple as networking at an event or as complex as a multi-million dollar global campaign that integrates print, digital, PR, social media and broadcast delivering a specific message with one unified goal. Some of the best marketing outcomes come from the simplest initiatives. Keeping it simple is sometimes the best strategy. Lisa Buyer – President and Chief Executive Officer, The Buyer Group
11. Marketing is building your brand, convincing people that your brand (meaning your product/service/company) is the best and protecting the relationships you build with your customers. Marjorie Clayman – Director of Client Development, Clayman Advertising, Inc.
12. Marketing is meeting the needs and wants of a consumer. Andrew Cohen – President, 
The A Team (Disclaimer: I’m not related to Andrew.)
13. In line with the firm’s business goals, marketing attracts consumers’ scarce resources, attention and disposable income, to drive profitable revenues. Marketing is the process of getting a product or service from a company to its end customers from product development through to the final sale and post purchase support. To this end, marketing strategy consists of business goals, target customers, marketing strategies, marketing tactics and related metrics. As a function, marketing extends across the customer’s entire purchase process including research, engagement, purchase, post-purchase (including supplemental support and returns) and advocacy. Heidi Cohen – President, Riverside Marketing Strategies
14. Marketing is creating irresistible experiences that connect with people personally and create the desire to share with others. Saul Colt – Head of Magic, Fresh Books
15. Marketing is how you tell your story to attract customers, partners, investors, employees and anyone else your company interacts with.  It’s the script that helps users decide if they’ll welcome you into their lives as a staple, nice-to-have or necessary annoyance.  It’s the way that everyone interacts with your brand.  It’s impression, first, last and everything in between. Jeff Cutler – Executive Vice President and General Manager, Vitals.com
16. Marketing is products that don’t come back and consumers that do. Steve Dawson – President, Walkers Shortbread Inc.
17. Marketing is making connections between customers with your products, brand(s) and business, such that they are likely to buy from you. Or as Regis McKenna said, “Marketing is everything.” Sam Decker – Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mass Relevance
18. Marketing has little to do with the service provider and everything to do with the customer. Marketing educates and engages the customer, satisfying their needs while simultaneously positioning the service provider as a trusted advisor and source. Good marketing is a two way street. Great marketing understands what the customer wants and gives it to them. Shennandoah Diaz – President and Master of Mayhem, Brass Knuckles Media
19. Marketing is delighting a consumer, customer and/or user to achieve a profit or other pre-established goal. Steve Dickstein – Chief Executive Officer, Hugo Naturals
20. Marketing is essentially involved in outward communication, in promoting the corporate goals of the company it is serving. It is the process through which companies accelerate returns by aligning all communication objectives (advertising, marketing, sales, etc), into one department to more efficiently achieve the overall corporate goals. Antoine Didienne
21. Marketing is branding, naming, pricing, and the bridge between paid and earned media. It is NOT sales. Gini Dietrich – Chief Executive Officer, Arment Dietrich, Inc.
22. Marketing today is finally customer-focused. Social media made that happen. Markets are once again conversations. Marketing is about knowing the market, creating the right product, creating desire for that product and letting the right people know you have it. The old adage that says, “If you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door” doesn’t hold true without marketing. You might indeed have a better mousetrap, but if people don’t know you have it, and they don’t know where your door is, there will be no path beating and no conversation going on. Sally Falkow – APR, PRESSfeed
23. Marketing is helping people buy your product or service. Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer
24. Marketing is the business’ play-maker. As with successful hockey franchises, the most valuable player is not always the player who scores the most goals but the player who creates the play that allows others to score (think Gretzky, Crosby or Orr). A great marketing team assesses the brand’s playing field, quickly captures their competitor’s position, strengths and weaknesses, maps it against their team’s position, strengths and weaknesses and puts the puck on the stick of the salesperson with the greatest opportunity to score.” Sam Fiorella – Web/Social Media Strategist, The Social Roadmap
25. Marketing is the act of developing an engaging relationship with every single human being that shows an interest in you. Paul Flanigan – Consultant, Experiate.net
26. Marketing is the process of exposing target customers to a product through appropriate tactics and channels, gauging their reaction and feedback, and ultimately facilitating their path to purchase. Dr. Augustine Fou, Founder, Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc.
27. Marketing is the process of building relationships with prospects and customers so that you can profitably develop and promote products and services. Chris Garrett – Chrisg.com
28. Marketing is the word we use to explain how we encourage people to buy our products. If it’s going to work in a big way, there needs to be a strategy or big idea to whet peoples’ appetites for what we’re selling. When we’re marketing, we begin with a plan: objectives, strategy and tactics (how we implement the strategy). It’s a process that helps companies build relationships with prospects and customers and creates unique value for them…when it’s done right. Lois Geller – President, Lois Geller Marketing Group, Author of Response: The Complete Guide To Profitable Direct Marketing
29. Marketing should be channel agnostic, data driven and customer-centric. This provides measurable results leveraging the marketplace at large; responding to consumer/business interests and needs. Sue R.E. Germanian – Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, DMA
30. Marketing is the conversation between a company or brand and a consumer that ultimately leads to brand recall, preference or a transaction. In today’s socially networked world, that conversation is being disintermediated by word of mouth referrals.  Traditional marketers will have to work harder to get ahead of and to influence this trend. Josh Glantz – Vice President and General Manager, PCH Online-Publishers Clearing House
31. Marketing is a way to connect what products and services you have to offer with customers who want and need such products and services.  It is multi-faceted, starting with researching your target market and how best to deliver the message to coming up with a plan to execute your promotion via various marketing media.  The goal is to develop a strategy to create, price and distribute your products and services for an exchange that will satisfy both your and your customers’ objectives.  It is an ever evolving process – always evaluating that your message still meets the needs and wants of your market. Trish Green – Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing, Student Funding Group, LLC
32. Marketing is ultimately responsible to create enterprise value via the brand, the face of the business strategy.  To do so, marketing identifies the target, attractive high growth segments.  Marketing drives the organization to define the single minded, differentiated brand value proposition and deliver on it every single day across every touch point.  Marketing ensures the delivery of a compelling, differentiated offer to that target and proposition.  And, marketing measures and improves the consumers/businesses/partner satisfaction, and the brand health and strength.   Marketing is the single point of accountability for growth, identifying and delivering on new customers, new offerings & new market profitable growth. Cathy Halligan – Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, PowerReviews
33. Marketing is anything you create or share that tells your story. Ann Handley – Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs, Author with C.C. Chapman of Content Rules
34. With a good product, marketing can all be boiled down to education. Effectively educating people about any good product will create the desire needed to produce action. Jeffrey Harmon – Chief Marketing Officer, Orabrush
35. Marketing has to examine why you’re in the game and ask the tough questions. Next, there has to be a plan—and it must be tied to specific sales expectations –clear conditions of satisfaction. Passion is not a substitute for planning. Remember, buzz is NOT sales. Tension is good. Good healthy debate causes tension and moves your group forward. Take risks and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. No one ever died because of a marketing campaign. If you want to grow you’ve got to get out there. Get your business into a new stratosphere. Jeffrey Hayzlett – The Hayzlett Group, Author of The Mirror Test
36. Marketing is about knowing the customer (whether current or prospective) so well that there is no question I will read your newsletter and share it with your friends, that I will carry a frequent buyer card in my wallet, and that I already interact on your Facebook page. Ari Herzog – Policy and Communications Specialist
37. Marketing is the umbrella term covering research, branding, PR, advertising, direct response, promotions, loyalty, demand generation, etc. Anne Holland – Publisher, WhichTestWon.com
38. Marketing is defined as we help people sell more stuff. Joey Iazzetto – President, UniCom Marketing Group
39. Marketing is the art and science of creating, delighting and keeping customers, while making a profit and building enterprise value. Marketing integrates, formally or informally, many disciplines and every organizational function. Marketing should embrace the highest ethical standards, respect the environment, and strive to make the world a better place. Max Kalehoff – Vice President of Marketing, Clickable
40. Profitable marketing is reminding likely-to-buy prospects of the value of your products/services in meeting their needs, over and over, at an acquisition cost lower than your allowable acquisition cost. Jerry Kaup – MemberLink.org
41. Marketing is the art and science of persuasive communication. Dave Kerpen – Chief Executive Officer, Likeable Media
42. Marketing is the practice of increasing awareness, consideration, purchase/repurchase and preference for a product or service through consumer-driven benefits, advertising, packaging, placement, pricing and promotions. Historically, marketing was a one-way interaction but is increasingly becoming two-way through the use and influence of social media and viral marketing which is often fueled by the company offering the good or service. Robin Korman – Senior Vice President, Global Loyalty and Partnerships, Wyndham Hotel Group
43. Marketing is discovering what the prospect wants and demands and delivering it more efficiently and effectively than the competition. Paul Kulavis – Managing Partner, Sterling Park Group
44. Marketing, defined as a value-exchange, is a two-way exchange of value between a marketer and a consumer by providing the right product or service to the right target in the right state of need and by using the right vehicles for interaction and purchase. As a conversation, marketing discovers and tells the right story about its product or service that engages the consumer in an authentic conversation including true listening, engagement, affiliation, and ultimately purchase. Gerry Lantzm – Stories That Work, Inc.
45. Marketing is a strategic and tactical multifaceted process that supports sales as well as customer service and retention. The primary stages include identifying target audiences, developing a marketing/communications strategy that usually includes several methods and channels (e.g. advertising, PR, content, events/digital print, broadcast), measuring and assessing results, and constantly refining the process based on learnings and marketplace developments. Marketing can also become a feedback loop between an organization and its customers and prospects that helps to inform and shape the business going forward. Rebecca Lieb, Author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
46. Marketing defines the business opportunity, identifies profitable customers and products/services that will meet customer needs, builds customer relationships, drives customer demand and communicates corporate or product/services value.” Ann Z. Marshman – Executive Director, TheLeadersCouncil.com
47. Marketing is the art and science of creating demand to drive profitable growth. David W. Mischler – President, Altascend Consulting
48. Marketing is helping your customers understand how much they need something they never knew they needed. Doreen Moran – Digital Strategist
49. Marketing is the art and science of persuading a potential buyer of a product/ service to purchase from a company that’s responsible for creating a compelling message and communicating that message through targeted channels with enough reach and frequency to guide that potential buyer through the purchase cycle of “attention, interest, desire, action.” Paul Mosenson President, NuSpark Marketing
50. Marketing is an integrated, multi-channel (online and offline), customer-centric process used to define, segment, reach, and convince potential clients to purchase your product or service, followed by analyzing the metrics to refine your strategy and repeat the process as needed to optimize the ROI (return on investment). Sharon Mostyn – Assistant Vice President, 1st Mariner Bank
51. Marketing is the unique opportunity to establish respect and a relationship with your target audience in a way that compels them to become addicted to your products or service, your support. Successful marketing is recognized at the precise moment when your target consumer feels so strongly about your company they integrate you into their daily routines and lifestyle. Jeanniey Mullen – Global Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Zinio and VIVmag
52. Marketing is strategic communications and promotions delivered in a mix of forms, such as advertising, public relations, and direct marketing, through multiple online and offline channels, to acquire customers, retain customers, increase share of wallet and shorten the sales cycle. Valerie Oben – President, Foxboro Consulting Inc.
53. Marketing is everything a company does, from how they answer the phone, how quickly and effectively they respond to email, to how they handle accounts payable, to how they treat their employees and customers. Done right, marketing integrates a great product or service with PR, sales, advertising, new media, personal contact. In other words, marketing is not a discipline or an activity – it is everything a company is – at least if the company wants to be successful. B.L. Ochman – President, What’s Next
54. The modern definition of marketing is the practice of creating value for the mutual benefit of meeting consumer needs and business objectives. In action, that means knowing and meeting target audience/community information discovery, consumption and sharing behaviors with relevant and timely communications throughout the customer lifecycle. Those communications and relationships influence consumer behavior to drive revenue outcomes. Lee Odden – Chief Executive Officer, TopRank Online Marketing
55. Marketing is the ongoing process of engagement whereby strangers are nurtured into advocates. Trey Pennington
56. Marketing is all activities designed to attract and connect customers with the products and services they need. Includes inbound and outbound marketing tactics across all channels – one-to-one and one-to-many. Ideally, marketing fosters a long-term relationship, includes the entire customer brand experience – i.e. support and customer service. Marketing starts with the design of the product itself and extends through post purchase. Patrick Prothe – Marketing Communications Manager, Viewpoint Construction Software
57. Marketing strives to connect a product or service with a market for that product or service. Michael Puican – Associate Director of Corporate Training, DePaul University
58. Marketing is identifying the pain points of your customers, developing content and processes to best solve those pain points – which ultimately makes it easier for your customers to buy or stay customers. Joe Pulizzi – Founder, Content Marketing Institute (Disclaimer – I write for the Content Marketing Institute.)
59. Marketing is about focusing efforts to develop deep insights into customer behavior and overall market conditions to drive sustainable profitable growth for the company. Humphry Rolleston
60. Marketing is deciding how to offer something specific customers crave and then engaging customers and other stakeholders to create preference. Ken Rosen – Managing Partner, Performance Works
61. Marketing is the ability to communicate a message to your audience and soliciting a response from them. This response can take the form of a positive impression of your company brand, an urge to purchase an item, to reach out to your company for more information or even spread your message to others. And no matter what the desired response is, marketing should always map it back to your overall business objectives. Cece Salomon-Lee – PR Meets Marketing
62. Marketing is the combination of messages and programs (the 4 P’s–product/packaging, price, placement and promotion) that drive shoppers to choose your product or service over someone else’s. Charlene Samples – Director of Marketing, Heartland Sweeteners
63. Marketing is understanding your buyers really, really well. Then creating valuable products, services, and information especially for them to help solve their problems. David Meerman Scott – Bestselling author of Real-Time Marketing and PR
64. Marketing is influencing behavior to get more people to buy more stuff, more often, for more money. Mark W. Schaefer – Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions.  Author of The Tao of Twitter
65. Marketing, when done correctly, is creating such an amazing experience around your brand or product, that people with no other connection to it want to tell their friends about how amazing it is, and the cycle begins again. Peter Shankman – Founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and Social Media Consultant. Author of Customer Service – New Rules for a Social Enabled World
66. Marketing is marshaling all available resources to deliver constantly on the fundamental principle that it’s not what you want to sell, but what customers are looking to buy. Successful marketers constantly think from the customer’s viewpoint and constantly ask, ‘What’s in it for them?.’ Successful marketers earn trust through every contact and transaction. Jim Siegel – Director of Marketing and Communications, HealthCare Chaplaincy
67. Marketing creates integrated campaigns to generate leads that positively influence sales, brand, value and vision. Jayme Soulati – Soulati Media
68. Marketing, in general, is the communication of information about a product or service to an audience. Effective marketing is a two-way communication that combines both art and science. It is a discipline with no end game that must be constantly honed, tweaked, and tested. Effective marketing builds relationships and inspires trust; it is not “push” or “pull”. The key to effective marketing is getting the communication mix correct for your brand, product or service, understanding how it best interacts with customers or users in the most conducive and accepting environment. Mike Sprouse – Chief Marketing Officer, Epic Media Group
69. Marketing is building an offer you believe and know in your bones you can deliver on consistently and elegantly to the people who will love it. And it’s constantly listening to polish, tweak, and refine that offer so that it’s irresistible by taking away whatever customers don’t need, adding more of what customers love, and building in some extraordinary value that only you can provide — an extraordinary surprise that makes customers fall in love. Liz Strauss – Founder, SOBCon, and Chief Executive Officer, Inside-Out Thinking
70. Marketing from a scope perspective is anything that modifies the perceived value and/or desirability of a product or service. From a function perspective is moving the demand curve to the right, reducing the elasticity of demand. Bill Tanner – Senior Director of Strategic Research, A. H. Belo
71. Marketing is inextricably linked to sales and unless it drives a trial or sale, the effort should not be labeled ‘marketing.’  The critical steps in marketing include defining what is currently known about a business (trends, regulations, target audience, competitors), who are the target users or buyers, what are the measurable business objectives in terms of where to take that business, what is the plan to get there and what are the measures of success of initiatives defined to reach those objectives.  This marketing approach can be applied whether the objective is expanding a current business or entering new markets.  Each step in the marketing process is meant to move the user or buyer closer to making a buy decision. Alexandra Tyler – Vice President of Branded and Social Media Marketing, Citi Global Transaction Services
72. Marketing builds relationships between consumers and brands. The many disciplines that go into the process, together create a brand personality designed to be compatible with the target. Marketing romances the consumer in the hopes of establishing a long term commitment. This takes persuasion and nothing moulds opinion like the third party endorsement power of PR. As Bill Gates says “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.” Deborah Weinstein – President, Strategic Objectives

While the marketing definitions of vary based on perspective, they generally refer to engaging a target market of consumers or other users to ultimately sell a product and hopefully to maintain a relationship beyond the purchase.

Which of these marketing definitions do you think is best? Please feel free to add your own definition of marketing in the comment section below.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Big tip of my hat to everyone who contributed to this marketing definitions column and helped clarify science and art of marketing.

Here are some related columns that you may be interested in:

• Branding – Not just a logo – Branding checklist
• Do you really know how to communicate? [Chart]
• Where’s your marketing communications? [Chart]

Note: Definitions were gathered from a variety of sources. Respondents were asked to reply in one to five sentences. Understandably, some answers ran long given the topic. As editor, minor changes were made for usage and spelling. Any errors or misstatements introduced in the editing are mine. As stated above, readers are invited to add their definitions or modifications in the comment section below.
All book links are Amazon affiliate URLs.

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Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can’t do without…Marketing!

A well-thought-out marketing strategy is essential if you want to stand out and ensure the growth of your business.

For most people, marketing means advertising—in magazines, on billboards, social media channels, or on television. But marketing is much more. In fact, it encompasses so many tactics (social marketing, email marketing, referral marketing, etc.) that we can’t explain all of the elements of the marketing process in this one post.

However, we will shed some light on this broad topic and focus on:

• the definition of marketing 
• commonly used marketing terms
• the importance of marketing
• the types & principles of marketing
• examples of successful marketing techniques 
• marketing tips & more

Sounds good? Great ☺️ Let’s get started. 

Table of Contents

• What Is Marketing?

• 7 Marketing Terms Everyone Should Know

• What Is the Main Purpose of Marketing?

• Marketing & the Role of the Customer

• Types of Marketing

• Marketing Mix: The Principles & Practice of Marketing

• Marketing Done Right: Examples of a Successful Marketing Strategy

• 5 Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business [2023]

• From Zero to Marketing Superhero – with Meltwater

There are as many fish in the sea as there are definitions of marketing. 

So, how do you explain marketing?

At a fundamental level, marketing is the process of understanding your consumer as well as building or maintaining customer relationships.

We have dug out a few quotes from the World Wide Web to give you a better idea of what marketing actually is. 

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.

According to Philip Kotler, the «Father of Modern Marketing», it is …

…the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best, and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.

If you do not work in Marketing, then you still may be wondering: What do people in marketing do? As the definitions above try to explain, marketers try to attract customers that might be interested in buying a firm’s product or service through highly targeted messaging and communications or advertising. Marketers use several different channels to try and reach consumers, and there are certain marketing terms that often pop up when explaining these various methods of messaging delivery, for example:

• traditional marketing
• digital marketing 
• direct marketing
• inbound marketing

But what exactly do they mean?

Keep reading to find out. 

7 Marketing Terms Everyone Should Know

By now, you already might have sensed that marketing is a complex topic consisting of numerous concepts and terms. Especially for beginners, this can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. 

Therefore, we have prepared a short glossary of 77 important marketing terms which every marketer should be familiar with.

1. Traditional Marketing

Simply put, traditional marketing establishes a connection with the customer via offline advertising channels, e.g.:

• Word-of-Mouth marketing
• television 
• magazines and newspapers (print ads)
• posters 
• billboards
• banners
• radio

Marketers engaging in traditional advertising practices aim is to reach the masses—after all, the more people are watching your TV ad or reading an article about your product or service, the higher the chance you will attract more leads and boost your sales. 

2. Digital Marketing 

In comparison with traditional methods, a digital marketing strategy refers to online marketing efforts.

When a marketing department is focused on engaging and reaching potential new or existing customers via the Internet, the team will be using marketing channels like:

• social media platforms
• Google Ads 
• email (email marketing)
• corporate websites
• Smart TVs

Your customers may only be active on online channels, offline channels, or, most likely, a mix of both. To figure out what’s the right mix of traditional and digital marketing to engage in, companies often hire a digital marketing agency to help them reach their target audience so that they can build strong customer relationships.

Once you know where to find your customers, consider creating an omnichannel marketing strategy.

3. Direct Marketing

Direct marketing can be seen as a presentation of your company, product, or service to your target customers. It aims to find, reach and motivate customers to take action—by buying your product. Oftentimes, the call-to-action for the consumer is the buy or try your product or service, which isn’t necessarily the same with traditional and digital marketing campaigns that may focus more on brand awareness.

Direct marketing includes not only traditional (TV commercials, radio spots, magazine ads, etc.) as well as digital marketing strategies (email marketing, search engine advertising, etc.).  

Trade shows, marketing conferences, and fairs can also serve as great occasions for promoting your business directly to customers.

Here is a fictional example of direct marketing: 

Teen magazine subscribers are presented with skincare display advertisements on Facebook, Instagram & Co. 

Why? 

Because it is commonly known that teenagers often struggle with their skin and are therefore more likely to buy a skin care product compared to other age groups.

4. Inbound Marketing

In simple terms, inbound marketing (or pull marketing) is the process of helping your target audience find you and your business, for example via search engines.

It is focused on nurturing customer relationships, building the brand, and raising brand awareness by gaining the trust of (potential) customers. 

You can do this for example by creating relevant, educational, entertaining content. If you establish some kind of communication with the target audience if people are engaging with your content, the chance of them converting to customers increases. 

When done correctly, inbound marketing can give you much better results than for example traditional marketing methods. 

Why?

Because your customers don’t feel like they are being sold to. 

Here are some examples of inbound marketing:

Tip: Already a simple engagement in a discussion on social media platforms or posting a link to an informative article can work miracles for your business.

5. Outbound Marketing 

In contrast, outbound marketing (also known as push marketing) consists of traditional methods, such as direct mail, cold calling, radio or television ads, telemarketing, etc. 

In other words: A marketer reaches out to people and establishes communication with them to see if they’re interested in a product or service. 

Another term for it is interruption marketing. 

And we all have experienced it at some point…

…Being interrupted by an unwanted telemarketing call while enjoying a delicious meal or a cup of coffee. Sounds familiar? 

6. B2B Marketing (Business-to-Business)

B2B marketing (business-to-business) focuses on—as the name already suggests—selling products or services directly to other businesses and their decision-makers. 

Business-to-business marketing is essential when one company needs the services/products of another company to improve or maintain its operations. 

This can be everything from a table management software for restaurants to office spaces to rent. 

7. B2C Marketing (Business-to-Consumer)

B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing does not sell to other businesses but to customers for personal use—from clothes, electronic devices, smartphones, sunglasses to gardening services, and much more. 

Now that you know the common marketing terms, it is time to answer the following question…

What Is the Main Purpose of Marketing?

There are many articles debating the role of marketing and why every business needs it. 

We could provide you with an extensive list of bullet points demonstrating the importance of marketing, however, we have chosen to keep it simple and straightforward. 

The purpose of marketing is to:

1. Understand what your customers need and want by conducting marketing research and using these insights to boost your business.
2. Deliver revenue for your company, e.g. by building brand awareness and promoting offers on various marketing channels, during events (aka event marketing), etc.
3. Make the product or service you are bringing to the market (e.g. product marketing) memorable and relevant for the consumer. 

Tip: If you want to stand out from the rest and convey your message in accordance with your company’s principles, a striking creative is worth investing in. Also, take a look at 5 Things a Successful Marketing Manager Does Every Morning.

But wait a minute, isn’t making a profit, building brand awareness, leading customers down the marketing funnel, and building customer relationships also the purpose of sales and advertising?

Ergo…are marketing, sales, and advertising the same thing?

Not quite. 

Marketing vs. Sales 

Although many might think of marketing and sales as synonyms, there is a significant difference between them.

While sales works directly with prospects to get them to convert to customers, marketing is concerned with sparking interest in a product or service. 

Think of marketing as the forerunner for the sales team. With the marketing process, you convey to the target audience 

• who you are
• what you have to offer
• how much it costs
• how your product can solve their problems

After the people become interested in your offer, the sales team takes the lead by 

• providing additional information about the product
• answering any possible questions
• mentioning personalized solutions
• making pitches

As you can see, the terms are not interchangeable, however, both departments have to work closely together to make it work 😎 The marketing department is an essential part of the lead generation process, and plays a big part in providing Sales with qualified leads that are likely more interested in your company’s product or service than a person receiving a cold call.

In this blog more information on B2B Marketing and B2B Sales

Marketing vs. Advertising 

If marketing is a cake, advertising is a piece of it. 

The marketing process is very complex as it entails various elements, such as

• new product development
• market research 
• market segmentation
• PR
• supply chain management
• customer support & more

Marketing is essential in every stage of a company’s selling journey. It uses different distribution or marketing channels, teams, social media, etc. to determine its target audience and marketing tribes, communicate with it, and build brand loyalty. 

Advertising on the other hand is just one component of marketing, where companies pay to spread awareness about a service or product (e.g. on TV, social media platforms).  

Now that you know the difference between the concept of marketing, sales, and advertising, it is time to shift our attention to something equally important … the customer. 

Marketing & the Role of the Customer

The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or operations expertise can keep a company going.

—Theodore Levitt (Economist & Harvard Business School Professor)

The fact is, that there would be no businesses without people willing to buy the offered goods.

And marketing is instrumental in making sure companies succeed in attracting and keeping customers. Marketing supports a business’s ability to: 

1. Identify customers 
2. Satisfy customers
3. Retain customers

Those are the goals of marketing. 

Let us briefly tap into each of the steps. 

Before a company is able to create something of value, it has to identify the prospective customers and what the customer needs. One way to go about this is with the help of a social listening tool like the one from Meltwater. Don’t worry, we will cover the advantages of such a tool in more detail later on. 

The next phase is to satisfy those customer needs by launching a product or service addressing them. Make sure the customers feel like they will benefit from it. Satisfied customers are happy with the value they get for the price they pay (customer value). 

The last step for the marketing department is to retain the customers so they don’t switch to the competition. How? By constantly following the marketing trends, collecting competitive data, and creating new products which are adapted to the ever-changing desires of the target market. 

But did you know that customers can also be a very powerful marketing tool?  

Customers as Your #1 Marketing Tool

Have you recently had an amazing brunch at a new bistro and just want to share your opinion about it online?

No problemo. 

There are numerous websites specifically designed just for that. 

Service providers like restaurateurs, hairdressers, personal trainers, dentists, etc. often ask their customers to post reviews (user-generated content) about their experience on social media channels or on one of the recommendation sites like Yelp & Co. Product providers use the same tactic. 

Although you can risk getting a bad review, companies usually benefit from reviews about the authentic experience their customers share.

There is another upside to it. By reading reviews, businesses can get valuable feedback and see what they are doing right and what needs to be improved. Consequently, they can tweak their products or services to match customer needs. 

And speaking about customer needs….some restaurants, motels & Co. clearly didn’t manage to satisfy them, as the following video shows 🤣

Source: jennxpenn

Tip: To understand your customers and your marketing success better, learn more about campaign measurement, marketing campaign measurement tools, how to measure your ad campaign effectiveness, measuring email marketing campaigns, measuring digital marketing campaigns, and how to measure social media campaigns. These marketing metrics will help you put together your reports.

After that laugh, let’s now take a look at different types of marketing. 

Ready to dive into it?

Types of Marketing

Although there are hundreds and hundreds of different types of marketing, we will cover six which are commonly used by businesses (big and small) all over the world.  

1. Content Marketing 

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

— Content Marketing Institute

Content marketing is usually considered a type of digital marketing, but it can also take place offline. Examples of content marketing include blogs, social media posts, infographics, etc.

Producing great and valuable content has many benefits for your business, two of them being:

• More qualified leads: Content that is of value for your target audience not only attracts more leads to your website, but it also helps to ensure that those leads are qualified and really interested in buying what you have to offer. 
• Increased customer loyalty: If you are implementing a content marketing strategy, you have to keep in mind that your main objective should be to help your customers solve their problems, not sell to them. Identify the problems your prospects have and offer them a solution (this can be in the form of a guide, webinars, tips, etc.). Such an approach builds loyalty and your potential as well as existing customers will value your brand more. 

2. Search Engine Optimization  

Search Engine Optimization, also commonly known as SEO, is the practice of optimizing the content on your website and other channels to increase the traffic and exposure of your brand, via organic (non-paid) search engine results. 

SEO is not only about making your content more visible to search engines, but also about understanding what people are searching for online and what words they are using to find the answers.  

If you know these things, you will be able to adapt your content accordingly, which will connect you to people who are looking for the solution you are offering.  

3. Video Marketing 

Video marketing is the use of video for business promotion. It has become a necessity for marketers as it enables them to 

• reach and capture the audience
• raise awareness about a product or service
• drive leads to the website
• generate more sales

Video content can be published on different marketing channels, e.g. your website, blog, or social media, as well as on third-party sites, such as YouTube or Vimeo. 

If you want to be a successful video marketer, you need to ask yourself what kind of video content would work best for spreading your message to the target audience. 

You can choose among numerous types of videos, for example: 

• brand and product videos
• explainer videos
• interviews
• client testimonials
• webinars
• live videos 
• event recap
• workshops etc. 

Did you know live streams are also a part of real-time marketing?

Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok & Co. to market your brand. 

Sounds pretty simple, right? 

However, an important element is missing in this definition. 

The key to successful social media marketing is to publish tailored content for each of those social media channels.

Having a social media marketing strategy (whether you are a small company or an established corporation) is essential for business growth, it is all about connecting with your customers by building a relationship with your brand through social media. 

5. Influencer Marketing 

Influencers drive knowledge, opinion and “influence” their followers. They have a voice, a large audience and create quality content on social media platforms that inspires other people to engage and communicate with them. 

Companies all over the world have embraced this trend and use influencer marketing to promote their products and services.  

If you think influencer marketing might be suitable for you, make sure to approach the right influencer for the right campaign. 

Most influencers have thousands of followers and are likable. 

However, do not base your decision on this only. Instead, ask yourself…

• Is the influencer able to drive engagement?
• Does he/she have social proof?
• Is he/she an authority in his/her field?

After you have partnered up with an influencer, you need to connect your brand with the influencer’s lifestyle and overall brand image.

Always keep in mind that influencers are brands too! 

They have their own follower base with certain expectations concerning the published content. If you ignore this and don’t establish a connection between your brand and the influencer’s lifestyle/image, they might lose their authenticity and consequently, their followers. 

If you are interested in finding out more about this niche, check out our post with tips to master influencer marketing. 

6. Guerilla Marketing

As there is a little rebel in each and every one of us, we want to mention another type of marketing that stands out from the rest—guerrilla marketing. 

The goal of guerrilla techniques? Surprise!

By creating unconventional campaigns which catch people off guard amidst their daily routines, such marketing methods become memorable and tend to be very effective. 

Check out this short video showing an innovative Volkswagen guerilla marketing campaign. 

Guerilla marketing has several advantages: 

• it is creative
• relatively inexpensive
• it creates buzz
• can go viral on social media 
• it lends itself to word-of-mouth marketing opportunities 
• stirs up emotions etc. 

Well done, we have covered the types of marketing. What comes next? 

Another aspect of marketing worth mentioning is definitely the marketing mix aka. the 7Ps of marketing. 

Marketing Mix: The Principles & Practice of Marketing

If you are new to marketing and are reading posts about it on a daily basis, you have most probably encountered the term marketing mix.

Marketing mix refers to the basic principles and techniques a company uses to promote its products and services on the market. 

The marketing mix originally consisted of four elements (4Ps of marketing), however, it has now expanded to seven (7Ps of marketing). Let us briefly take a look at those. 

1. Product: what is being sold
2. Price: the price your customer is willing to pay for the product/service
3. Place: distribution channels and availability of your product/service for potential customers
4. Promotion: what is communicated, who it is communicated to, how that audience is reached and how often promotion takes place
5. People: everyone who is involved in selling a product or service, designing it, managing teams, representing customers, etc.
6. Process: actions taken to deliver the product or service to the consumer
7. Physical Evidence: proof that a purchase took place as well as confirmation of the existence of your brand (invoices, brochures, tracking information, etc.)

And now the time has come to show you some real-world examples of companies whose creative marketing strategy really paid off. 

Marketing Done Right: Examples of a Successful Marketing Strategy

Nowadays, we are exposed to numerous ads everywhere we go. Consequently, in order for an ad or a marketing campaign to captivate us, it has to be really extraordinary.  So it’s no surprise that a successful marketing campaign is in a way a work of art. 

The question is, how do you achieve this? 

There is ONE thing you HAVE to do:

Connect your brand to the aspirations and ideals of your target audience…Leverage consumer lifestyles and incorporate them into your marketing efforts (lifestyle marketing).

Below are a few examples of a marketing campaign done right. 

1. Burberry: Virtual Kisses for Everyone 💋

Burberry Kisses is probably one of the most interesting marketing campaigns out there. 

The aim was to promote a lipstick line by focusing on something we all love to do—kissing. 

For the campaign, Burberry and Google launched a special app enabling the user to select a lipstick and to send a virtual kiss to anyone around the world by pressing their lips on the smartphone display. 

And another cool thing about it…you could follow the journey of the kiss via Google Street View or Google Places. 

This marketing campaign created a lot of buzz for the brand as it focussed on two things…

…human emotions and our desire to feel connected with other people.  

2. GoPro & User-Generated Content 📸

GoPro cameras are extremely popular with adrenaline junkies and sports enthusiasts, which is something the company uses to its advantage. 

GoPro created a video editing program that incorporates the logo and branding elements in each clip. The customers create and submit their videos, and GoPro posts the user-generated content on social media channels.  

Such an approach has a snowball effect as it motivates other GoPro users to join the “hype”. 

The company even went a step further by rewarding creators of the best content with gear, cash & more. 

Result? Customer loyalty and social proof!

We are almost at the end of our guide, however, the emphasis is on ALMOST. 

5 Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business [2023]

To get you started on your journey as a marketer, we want to give you a brief overview of marketing trends in 2023. 

1. Update your website & make it mobile-friendly: Create a user-friendly and visually appealing website. Your users don’t spend much time on your website, so keep in mind that first impressions count! 
   Moreover, it is important for your website to be optimized for mobile use so you are always reachable for your visitors.
2. Invest in paid social: Paid advertising options have come up on Instagram, Pinterest & Co., they are basically everywhere. Social media platforms are adjusting their algorithms, which means that brands will get online visibility only if they are willing to spend their budget on paid promotion. 
3. Automate your tasks: By using special software to automate marketing tasks like reporting (learn more about how to create a marketing report), publishing social media posts, or sending out marketing emails you will save yourself valuable time and be able to focus on projects with a higher priority. Use the right marketing tool stack to save time.
4. Use video content on social media: Social media marketing is booming and compared to static content, video has proven to be more effective in generating leads (just think of the rise of TikTok).  
5. Be Authentic: You will only attract customers and keep their attention if you are authentic. Stay true to your core values, be sincere in your storytelling, and the audience will value it. 

Woohoo… you’ve made it! Well done 👍

We have covered all the important points you need to know if you want to make a start on marketing. 

Of Course, you will need a good team, creative ideas, an impressive product…but also the right tool! 

Meltwater can help you with the latter 😉

From Zero to Marketing Superhero – with Meltwater

Our social marketing solution has everything your business needs to excel in  

• Influencer marketing
• Social listening
• Audience insights

Below we have listed some of the awesome benefits the Meltwater tool has to offer. 

✔️State-of-the-art filters to find influencers who are relevant to your audience and the topics they care about. 

✔️One central platform to create campaign briefs, distribute communications, manage content approval and contracts.

✔️Unique influencer links, portfolio tracking & full marketing ROI analysis to justify the value of your influencer marketing campaign. 

✔️Top-notch rights management to instantly share user-generated content across your social media platforms.

✔️Automatic mapping of your products to your content images to give your audience easy ways to discover and shop the products they find in your content. 

✔️Advanced audience insight reports to understand the communities and commonalities that drive the social media conversations around your brand, your industry, and your competitors.

✔️Curated feeds to highlight brand mentions on social media platforms and in the news.

…and many more. 

Our social listening tool has also helped established corporations like SodaStream and Google to overcome their business challenges.

The influence ranking system is the best we’ve seen in the industry. It truly excels when it comes to drilling down into the content for context; for example seeing past conversations..Through looking at past conversational history, we can see if an influencer has changed their opinion of us, is consistent in their comments and the timeframe between engagements. This makes my job a whole lot easier when it comes to making sense of current and past relationships from an influencer collaboration perspective.

—Itai Bichler, Head of Global Digital Marketing at SodaStream

First, it gives us the reach, engagement and sentiment data that we’re looking for, above and beyond our own channels. We’re not just interested in understanding how our own posts perform, we want to know what the larger conversation looks like. Second, with the automation, we are able to automatically pull data into our own internal dashboards, which is incredibly valuable from a time perspective.

—Katie Miller, Program Manager, The Cloud Developer Relations Team 

To learn more about how to improve your marketing strategy with Meltwater, fill out the form below.