Marketing Management: Meaning and Definition of Marketing, Who Markets? and What is Marketed?

Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs.

According to American Marketing Association, "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Marketing Management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value.

Philip Kotler defines Marketing as "The Science and art of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services."

Societal Definition of Marketing 

Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and services by value with others.

Who Markets?

A Marketer is someone who seeks a response-attention, a purchase, a vote, a donation- from another party, called the prospect.

Marketers are skilled at stimulating demand for their products but, i.e., a limited view of what they do.

Marketers are responsible for demand management. They seek to influence the level, timing, and composition of demand to meet the organization's objective. Eight demand states are possible:

1. Negative demand—Consumers dislike the product and may even pay to avoid it.

2. Nonexistent demand—Consumers may be unaware of or uninterested in the product.
3. Latent demand—Consumers may share a strong need that cannot be satisfied by an existing product.
4. Declining demand—Consumers begin to buy the product less frequently or not at all.
5. Irregular demand—Consumer purchases vary on a seasonal, monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly basis.
6. Full demand—Consumers are adequately buying all products put into the marketplace
 7. Overfull demand—More consumers would like to buy the product than can be satisfied.
8. Unwholesome demand—Consumers may be attracted to product that have undesirable social consequences.

 What is Marketed?

1. Goods:  Physical goods constitute the bulk of most countries’ production and marketing efforts.
 Each year, Companies market billions of fresh, canned, bagged, and frozen food products and millions of cars,refrigerators,televisions,machines,and other mainstays of a modern economy. 

2. Services:  With the advancement of economies,  a growing proportion of their activities focuses on production of services.
Services includes the work of airlines, hotels, barbers and beauticians, accountants, bankers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, software programmers, and management consultants etc. Many market offerings mix goods and services, such as a online shopping sites.

3. Person:  Artists, musicians, CEOs, physicians, high-profile lawyers and financiers, and other professionals all get help from celebrity marketers.
Some people have done a masterful job of marketing themselves—Virat Kohli, Ranveer Singh etc.

4. Place:  Cities, states, regions, and whole nations compete to attract tourists,residents,factories,and company headquarters.
Place marketers include economic development specialists,real estate agents, commercial banks, local business associations, and advertising and public relations agencies.The Tourism Ministry of India have done a great job to promote Indian tourism.
Incredible India, Make in India, God’s Own Country, Sweetest Part of India … There are some really catchy campaigns to promote the country.

5. Organization:  Organizations work to build a strong, favorable, and unique image in the minds of their target public. 

Example: Flipkart has created a strong impact in the mind of consumers through its Big Billion Days sale because of providing huge discounts on their products.

6. Information:  The production, packaging, and distribution of information are major industries.
Information is essentially what books, schools, and universities produce, market, and distribute at a price to parents, students, and communities.

7. Experience:  Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom allows customers to visit a fairy kingdom, a pirate ship, or a haunted house.
There is also a market for customized experiences, such as a week at a baseball camp with retired baseball greats,a four-day rock and roll fantasy camp,or a climb up Mount Everest.

8. Event:  Marketers promote time-based events, such as major trade shows, artistic performances, and company anniversaries.
Global sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup are promoted aggressively to both companies and fans.

9. Properties:  Properties are intangible rights of ownership to either real property (real estate) or financial property (stocks and bonds). They are bought and sold, and these exchanges require marketing.
Real estate agents work for property owners or sellers,or they buy and sell residential or commercial real estate. Investment companies and banks market securities to both institutional and individual investors.

10. Idea:  Every market offering includes a basic idea.  Charles Revson of Revlon once observed:“In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope.” 
Products and services are platforms for delivering some idea or benefit. 
Social marketers are busy promoting such ideas as “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk”and “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.”