What does the term "marketing" mean?

Marketing is very important for every business to their success. People always face difficulty in understanding that what does the term "Marketing" means ??? ... Many think, Marketing only as selling, promoting and advertising. It is no wonder everyday we are bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct-mail campaigns, internet pitches, and sales calls. However, selling and advertisement are only the steps of the marketing function. Although they are important function of marketing, but they are often not the most important ones.
      Today, marketing must be understood not in the old sense of making a sale "telling & selling" but in the new sense of "satisfying customer needs". Selling occurs only after
the product is produced. By contrast, Marketing starts long before a company has a product. Marketing is the homework that managers undertake to assess needs, measure their extent and intensity, and determine whether a profitable opportunity exists. Marketing continues throughout the product's life,trying to find out new customers and keep current customers by improving product appeal and performance, learning from product sales results, and managing repeat performance. Thus, selling, promoting and advertising are only the part of a larger "marketing mix" - a set of tools that works together to affect the marketplace.
     In Marketing terms, a customer's needs, wants or requirements tend to mean a product or service. Products are tangible, although the wider meaning of a product includes intangible benefits such as after-sales service and services are intangible. however, there are still things that the customer want in order to deal with a real or imagined requirement or to put it another way, the customer has a problem to solve.


People can satisfy their requirements or problems, in one of four ways:

• Self solution (coming up with the answer to the problem themselves)
• Force (threatening/stealing)
• Begging (pleading/seeking sympathy)
• Exchange (offering something of value to the owner).

 
 The last method, exchange, is based on a mutually beneficial outcome to both parties. Exchange summarises marketing and applies in every type of product exchange, from the simple purchase of a bar of soap by a customer in a supermarket, to the purchase of attack aircraft by a government. In every case both parties give, or exchange, something of value to the other.
For this to be possible, two parties must :

• Have something of value to exchange.
• Be capable of communicating.
• Be free to accept or reject the exchange situation. 

     Successful exchanges will only occur when there is some individual (or organisation) with enough interest (and available resources) who is prepared to enter into an agreement with the owner. or producer, of some particular items.

 

To understand marketing, following are the very important terms: needs,wants and demand; products and services; value satisfaction and quality; exchange, transactions, and relationships; and markets.   

   

 However, if a marketer does a good job of understanding consumer needs, develops products that provide superior value, and prices, distributes and promotes them effectively, then they will sell their products very easily. 

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