What is Marketing: Part 1 - Introduction

What is Marketing?

Many people believe - and my previous posts on this blog may serve to reinforce the belief - that "marketing" is synonymous with "advertising."  However, advertising is just one component of what marketing does.

Marketers would say that "marketing" is a broad field that includes all aspects of serving a need.

Activities conducted by the marketing department include:

1. determine the marketing mix (product, price, positioning)
2. make the product available to the consumer through appropriate channels
3. inform the consumer that the product is available (that's the advertising bit)
4. Finally, evaluate the success or failure of past marketing efforts.   

Trying to sum up the entire field of marketing got a bit unwieldy for a single blog post, so I’ll tackle this topic in a “What is Marketing” miniseries.

Next up: the Marketing Mix.