It is more than selling. Marketing comprises both selling and advertising, but it also involves developing products that people wish for, pricing those products, and distributing them to probable customers. Marketing is not always viewed with favor by persons who do not understand it. Nor is it always well characterized by those who would misuse it. But few would argue that when properly done, it is a powerful tool of business.

The activities of marketing are all around us. Goods stream from forests, farms, and factories to marketing units. We are all familiar with outlets such as grocery or department stores that retail goods to customers. Behind these retail stores are the wholesalers, agents, brokers, warehouses, advertisers, and transporters. Goods are frequently on the move to meet people’s needs and wants. Marketing is a vital and integral part of our economic system.

The term marketing is described as the process of planning and executing the development, pricing, promotion and distribution of an organization’s goods or services. When marketing is profitable, it helps satisfy the needs of both the organization doing the marketing and the individuals to which the market is targeted.

The selling of goods and services – a significant aspect of marketing – requires, of course, a market. What do people in the marketing profession suggest when they use this term? Basically they are referring to all individuals, businesses, and organizations with a specific need that may be willing and able to satisfy the need through purchase or other forms of exchange.

Marketing has evolved over the years. In the early days of the U.S. business, marketing was product-oriented. The idea was to manufacture as many goods as possible, because companies could usually persuade somebody to buy whatever they produced. This orientation toward production had begun to change, however, by the end of the 1800’s.

By this time, various businesses had become large and were mass-producing their products, causing excess supply of some goods. As an outcome, some firms turned to increased advertising, further personal selling, and broader distribution of their goods and services. The center of marketing shifted from the product to the various facets of selling. Marketing was now sales oriented.

After World War II, business in the United Sates burgeoned and marketing began changing again. Managers saw the call to work with their customers, and another approach, which came to be known as the Marketing Concept, emerged. The marketing concept, which remains largely the same today, has three components. Customer orientation, Profit orientation, Integration of marketing activities.

In this sequence of articles on Marketing, we explain and illustrate the process of marketing to help you appreciate such things as the marketing concept, functions of marketing, and the role of the consumer in marketing.