Definition of Marketing- a Discussion on LinkedIn.

Question

Marketing as a Business Philosophy, a way of thinking or a function? Which is your definition?

There is no one definition of marketing which describes it as it is in every organization: as a function it adaps itself to the needs of the organization, while it is also a way of thinking, a way to sell, a Business Philosophy applied to what you do.

Which is your definition of Marketing?

Answers

# 1

My company specializes in marketing that identifies and attracts customers who have already decided to buy, but are looking for the company to buy from. So, we see Marketing not only as a function of our business, but as service to be sold. Marketing is a fascinating combination of science, art, and business.

# 2

Marketing is what we tell customers about ourselves.

# 3

A wholistic view of the marketing process would be:

Determine a market, determine what that market will buy, provide it, and communicate your ability to provide it.

Often we tend to see marketing as just communicating our ability to provide something.

# 4

marketing i believe is not just a department or a function - it is a way of "be-ing" for the company. "market-ing" - i.e., creating products that are innovative and that meet consumers' needs and making those products relevant to their lives through relevant communications, distribution points, promoted by relevant channels - is a philosophy.

# 5

I'm a VP of Client Services for an integrated marketing company and believe that marketing is a part of the organization's overall philosophy. A business develops relationships with it's vendors through great process and operations. It develops relationships with it's customers through engagement. Brand Building & Positioning are still very important to a company and part of the definition of marketing, but true customer engagement (more emotional than functional) is long-term and encourages an open dialogue on both sides of loyalty and advocacy. If "what" you do and "how" you do it are equally important- this is part of your overall company's philosophy and the marketing of it- just goes hand in hand.

# 6

I majored in marketing, but never really understood how central it is.

Marketing is what we do everyday - a seamless demonstration of the value we deliver. Without delivery we have no track record, no customer referrals, no congruence and hence no credibility. It colours all our communications and behaviours. It is the base for any attempt at selling.

# 7

I'm reading just now the last Marketing Management edition by Mr Kotler.

He is the global reference about marketing, but even him sometimes is wrong on certain specific issues.

It's probably in the nature of Marketing the fact that any definition will become wrong in the future.

I think that Marketing is everything you said even if a philosophy and a way of thinking is really similar.

I'll simply say that Marketing is all the activities you can make to convince customers to buy your product or service

This definition can be applied to single people in their professional life or to big companies.

# 8

Selling = Eating today

Marketing = Eating Tomorrow

Many more elegant explanations exist and I would never attempt to use this as an example or definition in Marketing 101 or even 102, 103 and 104. But for those of us in the Linkedin community who have been around the block a few times, this offers a nice visceral description.

# 9

Marketing is a Business Philosophy and so that makes it both a way of thinking and a function for your business. I like to say advertising is what you do to tell others who don't know you what you do. Marketing is what you do to prove that your ads tell the correct story of what you do. Marketing is what you do everyday to prove to your clients that they placed their trust in the right person/company. Marketing is your way of life.

I like to use an example all the time of a new grocery store. They start by advertising that they have low prices and high quality. After a few customers have been in and seen that they do in deed have low prices and high quality they tell other people- that is marketing were you don't have to tell others what you do others brag about what they have found and your reputation spreads. If you stop doing what you advertise and start doing something else you have to begin relying on your marketing to keep you going. and allow them to spread the word of how you have changed hopefully for the better.

I know that most people would disagree with me but then most people don't get marketing and flop when they try to live on just marketing to help them survive. You have to advertise and market at the same time. When someone only advertises and never puts the marketing into practice then they will fail.Youa also cannot afford to only market and not advertise. You may have the best staff and the highest quality but if no one knows what you do then you won't make a plug nickel.

Zig Ziglar says everyone is a salesperson-either you sell them that they need to buy what you have or they sell you that they don't, the outcome is what determines who was the better salesperson that day. I would say that you can substitute the word marketer for salesperson and get the same result. I hope I was able to help all those who read this to become better marketers and sales professionals.

# 10

Thats an interesting question. I would agree to your thought of Marketing as "Way of Thinking” above all! Rather, I would say it’s a “State of Mind” or the “Mindset” which each employee should imbibe in his/her thought process.

#11

As an employee, there have been times I would not have considered marketing to be anything I was involved in or responsible for. I have since come to believe that every employee of a company is involved in marketing whether they know or understand it. I now believe that marketing is more than a function or a way of thinking or a sales approach or a business philosophy. Therefore, to describe what I mean that marketing is more than these things, then I guess I would say marketing is a lifestyle.

But, what does it mean for marketing to be lifestyle?

From the newest employee to the President/CEO of a company, so long as you work for a company your livelihood is tied to the success or failure of the company. If the company succeeds, your livelihood has a better chance for improvement, but if the company fails then your livelihood is likely to suffer until you find a new employer.

In short, when every employee for a company understands they can be a valuable contributor to the marketing and success of their company and keep that thought in the forefront of their mind, then the odds for success of the company tend to be greater. For these reasons, I've come to believe that marketing is a lifestyle or a sense of being that I can make a part of me and work towards developing it as a skill I can easily draw upon as the circumstances warrant or where I see a hint of daylight that would allow me to make an opportunity develop.

"Why and how" would put Marketing definition in the right perspective. As we all understand, Marketing in any form or function has two clear objectives:

- Understand the Need/Pain/Challenge of Customer.

- Position and Deliver the Best Solution/Product/Service.

Business and of course marketing starts and ends with customer, the very reason for its existence! With this pretext no doubt Marketing forms the very basis of any function in the organization. Let’s look at few of functions one by one:

-Human Resources – Imbibes Customer Orientation in employees and ensure the capabilities are attuned to deliver best products / services.

-Production / Operations – Ensure Customer Delight by delivering products / service of the highest quality.

-Finance – Ensure the best price to customer through effective financial planning and budgeting.(Assuming that Price is always not market)

-Research and Development – Deliver innovative products to customers based on their needs.

And this would probably be the case for every other function, thus clearly reinforcing the fact that every employee needs to have a “Marketing Mindset”, which directs his / her actions in the organization towards Customer Needs. Having said all this:

“Can we Isolate Marketing as a separate function and just let it operate in a silo?” The answer in my opinion would be “NO”.

It may be categorized as a separate function for ease of structure and operational reasons, but the mindset and objective of Marketing should be something realized and practiced across all the Business functions and its employees.

I understand that this is something hard to practice across functions...and few of the thoughts may sound a bit abstract, but then its not easy intitutionalise a "Mindset!". :)

#11