What is Marketing?

Definition of Marketing

Our starting point for learning about marketing is to begin with the basics and that starts with defining marketing.  Since marketing has been an important part of business for a long time we could consult one of the many hundreds of books written on the subject to locate a definition.  Or, as is more the custom today, we could search the Internet to see how marketing is defined.  Whether we search print or electronic form we will find that marketing is defined in many different ways.

Some definitions focus on marketing in terms of what it means to an organization, such as being the key functional area for generating revenue, while other definitions lean more toward defining marketing in terms of its most visible tasks, such as advertising and creating new products.

There probably is no one best way to define marketing, however, whatever definition is used should have an orientation that focuses on the key to marketing success – customers.

For the purpose of this tutorial we will define marketing as follows:

Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer.