Marketing Definition Paper

The American Marketing Association (2008) defines marketing as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Perreault & McCarthy, Jr. (2004) expand upon this definition calling it “micro-marketing” and defining it as the performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization’s objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client. To simplify these definitions further marketing could be defined as the process used to get customers to purchase products or services. However marketing is defined it is one most important aspects of building and maintaining a successful organization. Effective marketing can help guide businesses in making strategic decisions by identifying growth opportunities and developing creative ways to approach those opportunities. In order for a marketing campaign to be successful a business will conduct extensive research, strategize and plan how to brand their product or services using the four ‘Ps’ of marketing: product, place, price and promotion. Unless a business is satisfying its customer’s needs it cannot be successful. It is not enough to produce a quality product or service for a business. Although the idea is to create a product or service that “sells itself,” the product or service must create some customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can only be achieved if economic utility can be taken from the product or service. An effective marketing campaign will form the backbone of any successful business or organization. In the business world one example of successful marketing is the organic industry. According to the Agricultural Marketing Research Center (2006) organics have grown at a rate of nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years

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