Chapter 1: What is Marketing?

Chapter Summary:

In this first chapter, we lay the groundwork for our study of the field of marketing with a look at marketing’s key concepts and the important tasks marketers perform.  Coverage includes a close examination of the definition of marketing.  A dissection of the key terms in the definition will show that marketing’s primary focus is to identify and satisfy customers in a way that helps build a solid and, hopefully, sustained relationship that encourages customers to continue doing business with the marketer.  We also show how the field of marketing has evolved from a process centered on simply getting as many people as possible to purchase a product to today’s highly complex efforts designed to build long-term sustainable customer relationships.  Additionally, we will see marketing is not only necessary for individual organizations, it also carries both positive and negative influences at a broader societal level.  Finally, we look at the key characteristics that define successful marketers.

Index of Key Issues Covered:

  • Marketing Defined
  • The Marketer’s Toolkit
  • Marketing’s Role
  • Criticisms of Marketing
  • Ethical and Social Concerns
  • The Successful Marketer

Links to Cited References:

  1. There is no better example of the need to monitor uncontrollable marketing conditions than what organizations experienced in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.  Throughout this book we will reference this pandemic and see how it has impacted marketing.
  2. For more on misleading advertising see: “Truth in Advertising.” Federal Trade Commission.  https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising.
  3. “Google Analytics.” Google.  https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web.
  4. For more on tracking laws see: “Do Not Track Legislation.” Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track_legislation.
  5. “Google Code of Conduct.” Alphabet.  https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.
  6. “Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.” Canadian Marketing Association.  https://www.the-cma.org/regulatory/code-of-ethics.