'Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered as separate function. It is the  whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view'.

- Peter Drucker.

Marketing is indeed an ancient art; it has been practiced in  one form or  the other, since the days of Adam and Eve. Today,  it  has  become  the most vital function in the world of business.

Marketing is the business function that identifies unfulfilled needs and wants, define and measures their magnitude, determines which target market the organization can  best serve, decides on appropriate products, services and programmes to serve these markets, and calls upon everyone in the organization to think and serve the customer.

Marketing is the force that harnesses a nation's industrial capacity to meet the society's material wants. It uplifts the standard of living of people in society.

Marketing  must  not  be seen narrowly as the task of finding clever ways  to sell the company's products. Many people  confuse  marketing  with some of its sub functions, such as advertising and selling.

Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profit to the producers, and benefits for the stakeholders.

Market leadership is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality, and customer service. If these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion, or salesmanship can compensate.

William Davidow observed: 'While great devices are invented in the laboratory, great products are invented in the  marketing  department'. 

Too many wonderful laboratory products are greeted with yawns or  laughs. The job of marketers is to 'think customer'  and  to  guide companies to develop offers that are meaningful and attractive to target customers. Already sea changes have been taking place in the global economy. Old business road maps cannot be trusted.

Companies are learning that it is hard to build a reputation and easy to lose it. The companies that best satisfy their customers will be the winners. It is the special responsibility of marketers to understand the needs and wants of the market place and to help their companies to translate them into solutions that win customers approval.

Today's smart companies are not merely looking for sales; they are investing in long term, mutually satisfying customer relationships based on delivering quality, service and value.

Definitions and Terminology 

There are as many  definitions of  marketing  as many scholars or writers  in this field. It has been defined in various ways by different writers.

There are varying perceptions and viewpoints on the  meaning  and  content of marketing. Some important definitions are:

  • Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and exchanging products of value with
  • Marketing is the process by which an organization relates  creatively, productively and profitably to the market
  • Marketing is the art of creating and satisfying customers  at  a 
  • Marketing is getting the right goods and services to the right people at the right places at the right time at the right price with the right communication and
  • Much of marketing is concerned with the problem of profitably disposing what is
  • Marketing is the phenomenon brought about by the pressures of mass production and increased spending
  • Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the
  • Marketing is the economic process by which goods and services are exchanged between the maker and the user and their values determined in terms of money
  • Marketing is designed to bring about desired exchanges with target audiences for the purpose of mutual
  • Marketing activities are concerned with the demand stimulating  and demand fulfilling efforts of the
  • Marketing is the function that adjusts an organization’s offering to the changing needs of the market
  • Marketing is a total system of interacting business activities designed to plan, promote, and distribute need satisfying products and services to existing and potential
  • Marketing origination with the recognition of a need on the part of  a consumer and termination with the satisfaction of that need by   the delivery of a usable product at the right time, at the right place, and at an acceptable price. The consumer is found both at the beginning and at the end of the marketing
  • Marketing is a view point, which looks at the entire business  process as a highly integrated effort  to  discovery,  arouse  and satisfy consumer