We can distinguish between a social and a managerial definition for marketing. According to a social definition, marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and exchanging products and services of value freely with others. As a managerial definition, marketing has often been described as “the art of selling products.” But Peter Drucker, a leading management theorist, says that “the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy.”7 The American Marketing Association offers this managerial definition: Marketing (management) is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.
Company Orientation towards the marketplace
there are 5 alternative concepts under which organisations may conduct their marketing activities: the production concept, product, selling and societal marketing concepts.
1. THE PRODUCTION CONCEPT: the philosophy that consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable, that management should therefore focus on improving production and distribution efficiency.
2. THE PRODUCT CONCEPT: the idea that consumers favor products that offer the most quality, performance and features, and that the organisation should therefore devote its energy into making continuous product improvements; a detailed version of the new product idea.
3. THE SELLING CONCEPT: the idea that consumers wont buy enough of the organisations products unless the organisation undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort.4. THE MARKETING CONCEPT:achieving organisational goals depends on determining the needs and