The act of defining marketing has remained one of the difficult things on this planet. Marketing has remained one of the most misunderstood business disciplines. While the general tasks of marketing are somewhat straightforward, defining marketing has been difficult. Often, it has assumed to be just one aspect of what it involves, such as advertising. Its full extent is often underestimated and misunderstood, largely by people in other areas of business.
However, marketing is a specialist activity that influences the success of any organization. Despite organizations becoming increasingly marketing-focused, some marketers often find wrong assumptions made about their role. This mistaken perception matters. Because many people in an organization are (wittingly or not) part of its marketing, or they are affected by it.
Marketing's effectiveness is largely influenced by a lot of factors. It is therefore important that marketing is not seen as an isolated function. It should be widely understood so that everyone can play their part, in order to make marketing effective in its role of "bringing in the business".
What is Marketing?
There is a myriad of definitions of marketing. According to the UK's Chartered Institute of Marketing, it is 'the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirement profitably'. American marketing guru, Philip Kotler, defined marketing as 'the business function that identifies current unfulfilled needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude, determines which target markets the organization can best serve and decides on appropriate products, services, and programs to serve these markets. Thus marketing serves as a link between a society's needs and its pattern of industrial response'.
From these two definitions, the complexity involved is uncovered. It is therefore clear that marketing is more than just the 'marketing department'. Peter Drucker, a leading management thinker, however, was content to say: 'Marketing is looking at the business through the customers' eyes'. Indeed, everything stems from that.
Marketing can be said to begin even before production or manufacturing starts. And ends after delivering after-sales satisfaction. It must not be regarded merely as a business practice, but as a social institution. The specific role of marketing is to assist in identifying, satisfying, and retaining customers.
https://thepelinam.com/2020/05/14/towards-defining-marketing/