What is Marketing? - Week 1

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What is marketing? I would have explained it as selling a product to the consumer and would have been wrong. Jennifer Lombardo in the Introduction to Marketing Video, stated that marketing is not just personal selling or even just advertising. Marketing includes activities such as public relations, sales promotion, advertising, social media, pricing, distribution and many other functions. In other words, 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 to be able to satisfy the consumer (video).

As I dove into this weeks readings and lectures, I found that first of all, Drucker who is deemed the “world’s most influential business thinker” got me thinking. William A. Cohen, who is describing Drucker’s views, gave me a different view on marketing and business.  He first taught me that although Drucker did not use the approach of different eras of marketing development, they still exist in his mind. Drucker believed more in the power of people and adaptive nature rather than letting the economic etc. forces determine periods of time.

The craftsman and simple trade era was basically a manufacturer, a craftsman, trading something he made for something he wanted. This reminds me of a real life story of my grandma baking me apple pies in the summer to get me to come and paint or clean or do something around her house.

Another era was the production era, which arose with the innovation of technology. Technology allowed things to be made in bulk at a faster rate than ever before. The selling era was all based on the knowledge of selling a product. It's great to know what the product is but it's even better to buy the product with a sense of its benefits.

The marketing era was an interesting time for the U.S. because unlike other lands that had been destroyed by WWII, the U.S. was intact. There was a competitive advantage where techniques of analysis were developed to determine the needs of the consumer. This helped manufacturers understand the market so that a specified product could be produced. This brought Cohen to a very important point that reminds me of the Marketing Orientation Video that stated that not all businesses followed the correct orientation of: function, process and philosophy. Drucker said, “Even today, some do not understand that marketing is not simply a sophisticated way of speaking about selling” (5).

This reminded me of Jennifer Lombaro explaining how a company determines their marketing policy, which is usually deciding how to harness their internal strengths to reach their consumers. To create the organizational marketing process, companies usually choose from four philosophies including production, sales, marketing and societal marketing. This will determine how successful a business will be as well as their overall understanding of marketing to be able to reach the consumer.

This led to a discussion on Drucker’s views and how marketing is differentiated from selling. He believed that selling was persuading someone to buy something that you had and wanted to sell while marketing was having something that a prospect already wanted to buy (5). In other words, if I wanted specifically a new Polo hat, I would go online or go into a store and buy it. No one would need to persuade me to buy it because I already want it. Drucker brought up a good point that if marketing were done perfectly, selling would unnecessary and marketing and selling may be opposing each other (5).

The marketing era is clearly the era (although he did not believe) that suits Drucker the best. He notes that all business depends on only two functions: marketing and broad innovation. He wrote that marketing “is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that it, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise” (5). Basically, what really matters is that the customer’s needs are met. Product development is all about supply and demand. What the customer receives at the end of the cycle determines satisfaction, feedback, and innovative methods. As the Marketing Orientation Video stated, a satisfied customer is three times more likely to return.

Drucker also says that it is the creation of the customer, not the profit that creates a business (6). I thought that this made perfect sense because a business would not receive any profits without the customer, even though profit is very important. In other words, he believes that the process of profit maximization is dangerous because it suggests that you could save any business by maximizing profit margins (12).

Drucker also believes that there are issues with the profit motive. Meaning that there are plenty of people out there that are not motivated by money and are happy with their lives such as volunteer firefighters. Most people just want to be treated with respect and do what they love rather than put an emphasis on high pay. This concept of the profit motive in turn causes hostility to profits, which Drucker deems “the most dangerous disease of an industrial society” (15). What needs to be emphasized is the importance of a business making a profit rather than profit maximization. Profit allows a company to stay in business and allows innovation and marketing. However, with the want to constantly increase profits, the customer is no longer taken into account and the consumer’s needs are no longer met (mistakes are made) (16). A poor understanding of marketing leads to several mistakes that hinder business (Marketing Orientation Video)

Drucker, on the other hand, saw the history of marketing as a series of catalysts rather than eras. The first catalyst of course was the creation of marketing in 1650 by providing a large variety of product rather than focusing and perfecting a single product. However, it was not until the 1940s that a product was truly marketed, done by Cadillac (7). What I thought was interesting was that Drucker believed that abandoning modern production methods such as Fords assembly line, there would be major marketing advantages. I guess I just saw Ford’s production line as a way to quickly produce something but I think that Drucker believes that there needs to be a range of products or diversity in a business to have a true advantage.

Therefore, I learned that marketing is crucial to all businesses, it can be found beyond the U.S., it is preferred to be recognized as developed through critical events, and that it was systematically studied for a framework to be created.

In chapter three, Cohen stated that he struggled with some of Druckers' recommendations on marketing and I too felt the same. However, as I really read into his implications, I started to see the validity. I think that this book will be an interesting read.