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What Is Marketing

This website provides a lot of information on various marketing topics, and some of it is quite advanced. But many people prefer to start with the basics by asking the question, What is marketing in the first place? For these people, we offer the following definitions of marketing.

Marketing Defined

Ask 100 different people what the definition of marketing is and you'll get 100 slightly different responses. But all of them will have certain things in common. So let's start with a simple definition that we can all agree on, and then we will look at some other definitions.

Marketing is the act of promoting something in order to make someone else aware of it. That "something" might be a product or service, a company, a political cause, a person — really, anything at all can be marketed. But the end goal is the same. When you are marketing something, you are trying to make others aware of it for some reason.

Now let's look at some other definitions from around the web:

• What is marketing ... "In plain and simple terms, marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products." -Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
• What is marketing ... "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution (4 Ps) of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges (with customers) that satisfy individual and organizational objectives." -Source: University of Delaware
• What is marketing ... "an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations." -Source: Wikipedia
• What is marketing ... "Convincing a specific target audience that your product is better than that of the competition is the essence of marketing." -Source: School of Business Administration, Duquesne University

Like I said, ask a bunch of folks the question "What is Marketing?" and you'll get a bunch of different answers. Some will be stale textbook recitations. Others will be stings of useless buzzwords and jargon.

So let's simplify things once more. What is marketing ... it's putting the word out about a particular thing to a particular audience, in order to accomplish a particular goal. The thing will vary, the audience will vary, and the goals will vary. But the essence of marketing remains constant.