What is marketing?

In this article, we are using Philip Kotler’s definition of what marketing is and some related concepts that he has talked about related to the marketing and its difference with sales.

Marketing is the science and art of recognizing, creating, and offering value in order to meet the needs of specific groups of customers and provide profits”. In reality, marketing is regarding with identifying the unmet needs and wants of customers. Defining, measuring, and evaluating the size of a specific market and its potential to provide us profit is considered in marketing.
In this regards, it will be clear the company is able to accommodate the needs of which segment of the market. After identifying this segment, the company can design a particular product or service in order to serve that segment and promote this product or service in that.

Most of the marketing activities are handled inside of the company. This approach has both positive and negative consequences. The positive aspect of this approach is related to gathering professional and educated people inside a company to focus on related marketing activities of the corporation. On the other hand, the negative aspect of this approach is related to just focusing all the marketing activities in a single department rather than making these marketing activities visible in all different departments of the firm.

The most important subjects that we need to consider in the marketing field include segmentation, identifying an appropriate target market, positioning, needs and wants, offerings, brands, value and satisfaction, exchange, transaction, communication and networks, marketing channels, supply chain, competition, marketing plans and etc. These are some of the practical and functional words for the marketing professionals.

The main processes that marketing is engaged with include:
1- Identifying an opportunity
2- Developing a new product
3- Attracting customers
4- Retaining customers and creating loyalty among them
5- Delivering the orders

Indeed a company that is able to perform all these activities in the best possible way will be successful. In contrast, a company that can not deliver one of the mentioned processes above will not be able to survive in today’s competitive environment.

Misconceptions related to the marketing

There are a lot of misconceptions related to the marketing. Many businesses think that marketing is essential for supporting production processes in order to sell the produced product and make the companies’ inventories empty. However, in the reality, the situation is vice versa and many production processes need to support marketing activities. It is always possible for a company to outsource its production processes but what makes a company is its ideas and offerings regarding its marketing. Different departments of the organization such as production, logistics, research and development, finance, and etc. are created to support the core business of the company that occurs in a customer market.

Many consider that Marketing is the same concept as Sales, but this view is totally wrong. Sales is just a part of marketing and its ice berg. The hidden part of the marketing is analyzing the market, research and development of a proper product, deciding a correct price, distributing and creating awareness regarding the products and services. So, marketing is more complicated compared to sales.
In reality, sales and marketing are totally different. Marketing can not be considered as a smart way for get rid of those products that companies have developed. Marketing is the art of creating value for the customers. It is the art of helping your customers in enhancing their lives. There are three words that marketing professionals need to consider: quality, service, and value.

Sales just happens when you have a finished product. But marketing starts before any product exists. Companies perform marketing to distinguish the needs and wants of their customers and through that they will identify which products or service they need to develop. Marketing will determine how the product or service must be introduced to the market, what price must be considered for that, how you have to distribute it, and how you are going to promote your product/service in the market. Marketing will assess the results of these activities in the long term and enhance the company’s offering. Additionally, marketing will decide when to discontinue an offering.
Marketing is not a short term sales and it’s a long term investment. The process of marketing will be best performed when it begins before starting the production process of any product or entering to a new market and it continues in the long term after launching and selling the product in the market.