Marketing has been described in various ways approaching the subject from various angles: as both an art and a science, as an exchange, as a function of business, as a process and as a relationship. It has even been described as a philosophy.
Marketing is a Practice
Since business is a practice, marketing, which is integral to business, can also be described as a practice. What needs to be clarified here is that it is being practiced in many differing ways and has not been put into one tightly codified practice.
Marketing is a Process
Marketing is certainly a process. It is so in several senses. First, in the market, it works out as a process. Marketing takes place when a transaction takes place between the seller and the buyer. But does it stop with a single transaction? No. It goes on from transaction to transaction and leads to a relationship with the customer. It is thus a larger process. It is a process that delivers benefits to customers and also captures benefits for the firm from the customers.
A Process of Interaction Between Environment and the Firm’s Marketing Mix
To understand this, you have to formulate the ‘Marketing Strategy’. The firm mainly tackles the environmental variables faced by the business such as the consumer, competition, industry, trade, the government and natural forces, and to do so it relies on its internal resources/internal variables, alternatively known as ‘marketing mix variables’ such as the product, price, channel and promotions. For the firm, the ‘environmental variables’ are non-controllable variables, while the company’s internal/marketing mix variables are controllable variables. In carrying out marketing, the firm essentially tackles the ‘environmental variables’ by using its ‘marketing mix variables’. Marketing, thus, is a process of interaction between the environment and the firm’s ‘marketing mix’.
Marketing is an Orientation
We will be discussing in detail in a succeeding section how marketing is more often viewed as an orientation towards the marketplace/consumer.
Can We Say Business = Marketing? Yes, Almost
When we get into the real world of business, we readily gather that marketing is the most vital function of business. It is when this function is practiced well that the best growth of the enterprise is ensured. Many entrepreneurs and practicing managers appreciate this and concur with the view that Business = Marketing, that it is almost so.
Understanding Marketing by Checking ‘What Does It Do’
If we want to get a more practical understanding of marketing, we have to move away from the above descriptions and ask the question, ‘What is marketing’s basic task?’ or more plainly, ‘What does it do?’
Marketing’s Task is ‘Meeting Customer Needs’
‘Marketing is meeting human needs’ is one common description we hear about marketing. It gives us a somewhat better understanding of marketing’s basic role. It incidentally highlights that ‘customer needs’ is one central idea in marketing.
