What marketing is

Marketing is a social process by which people get what they need and want by creating and exchanging things of value with others.

It is much more than selling. Selling is only one part: handing over the product for money. Marketing starts before production (finding out what people need, and designing a product for it) and goes on after the sale (service, keeping customers happy). Hospitals, schools and charities use marketing too.

A neat way to remember the difference: selling bends the customer to fit the product ('please buy what we made'); marketing bends the product to fit the customer ('we made what you need'). Selling ends when ownership passes to the buyer; marketing aims at the buyer's lasting satisfaction.

A market, in modern marketing, means the set of all actual and potential buyers of a product, not just a place.

Features of marketing:

• Needs and wants: a need is a basic lack (food, shelter); a want is a need shaped by culture and personality (a pizza rather than plain bread).
• Creating a market offering: a complete offer of product, price, place and information.
• Customer value: buyers choose what gives them the most value for their money.
• Exchange mechanism: exchange is the core of marketing.

For an exchange to happen, there must be: at least two parties; something of value for each to offer; the ability to communicate and deliver; and each party must be free to accept or reject, and willing to deal.