Definition of Marketing free essay sample

Marketing does not lend itself easily to definition, as there are numerous ways to define the term ‘marketing. ’ Marketing has had a long history of being associated and involved with advertising, promoting or selling, in other words persuading consumers to purchase their products, however, these aspects are just the basic and typical generalisation that are used when defining marketing. This essay will analyse various definitions of marketing and highlight how they are different. In the text book â€Å"Principles of Marketing† Kotler et al (2008, p. ) define marketing as ‘an activity, a set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. ’ This definition of marketing presented in the textbook accurately describes marketing in today’s times. It broadens one’s understanding of marketing beyond that of advertising, promoting or selling, to that of other vital factors such as the production concept, the product, the selling concept and the marketing concept which are necessities for success in today’s times. Kotler et al, 2008). Figure 1. 8 gives a summary of the extended marketing mix:(Kotler et al, p,21, 2008) The academic journal article â€Å"The History of Marketing thought as reflected in the definitions of marketing† does not give a specific definition of marketing, however, Cooke, Rayburn and Ambercrombie (1992), examine the definition of marketing over the history, through four different viewpoints, and they are, Economic Utilities Viewpoint, Consumers Viewpoint, Societal Viewpoint and Managerial Viewpoint. To clarify this, Cooke, Rayburn and Ambercrombie (1992, p. 5-16) provide two simple definitions which combines the above viewpoints, ‘Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups get what they need and want through creating and exchanging products of value with others’ (Kotlers, Cited in Cooke, Rayburn and Ambercrombie, 1992, p15) and ‘Marketing is a process by which satisfactory exchanges of ideas, goods and services are managed from conception to final consumption’ (Cook, Cited in Cooke, Rayburn and Ambercrombie, 1992, p16) These Definitions which are presented through the four viewpoints, reflect on the 1985 AMA definition of Marketing. There is change of focus on the managerial process, not organizational which was emphasized above, and that these definitions are needed to change to reflect the changes in the Macro environment (Daroch et al, 2004) The second academic Journal article â€Å"the 2004 AMA definition of marketing and its relationship to a market orientation: An extension of Cooke, Rayburn, amp; Abercrombie (1992)† Daroch et al, (2004, p30) defines marketing as ‘an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. This definition of marketing takes on a very similar meaning to that which was described in the text book â€Å"Principles of Marketing,† it Highlights that marketing is an organizational factor and takes on an additional view point, which is the stakeholder. It also highlights the importance of managing relationships with both stakeholders and customers. Therefore this includes the importance of the fundamental mechanics of creating a product, compose a means of distribution, advertisement as well as the rate of consumption. (Daroch et al, 2004) The text book ‘Marketing a Practical Approach’ Rix (2007, p7) defines marketing as ‘a system of business activities aimed at achieving organizational goals by developing, pricing, distributing and promoting products, services and ideas that will satisfy customers wants’ This definition involves identifying customers who have particular needs or wants and then creating the goods or services to meet customers demands, and how they are better than other competitors (Rix, 2007) A real life of example of this definition being implemented is in a newspaper article, the daily telegraph reports how the NRL and state government will market the grand final week of the NRL competition in Sydney. Walters (2010) writes, ‘It admitted the NRL had to become more creative in promoting the biggest game of the year – and branding the final would be part of the plan. ’ In this case the David Gallop the NRL CEO has indentified the needs and wants of the customers and therefore implemented a weeklong festival to promote the final, and at the same time remain competitive with other football codes. (Walters, 2010) The definition which best reflects the concept of marketing is in the second academic journal ‘the 2004 AMA definition of marketing and its relationship to a market orientation: An extension of Cooke, Rayburn, amp; Abercrombie (1992)’ this definition best reflects marketing as it highlights that marketing is more than just methods of advertising or selling but a complete process for running and organising a business which can be known as the marketing concept. For a business to follow the marketing concept it must focus on customer orientation and that customers are the main priority to the way it considers it strategy and operations, and therefore guides the business in decision making. (Daroch et al, 2004). In summing up the above definitions all have similarities, and clearly shows that there is more to marketing then advertising, promoting and selling, and that there is much more thought needed to meet and carry out customers needs wants and demands.