Marketing and Marketing Mix

ELEMENTS OF MARKETING

MARKETING AND MARKETING MIX

Introduction

Marketing is one of the business functions that all activities that take place in relation to markets for actualise potential exchanges for the purpose of satisfying human needs and wants. In other words marketing is the performance of buying activities that facilitate to more flow of goods and services from producer to ultimate user. Selling is basically concerned with putting the goods into the hands of the buyers for a price, but marketing is much wider than selling.

The development of marketing is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. There is no single answer to the question of what is marketing? To understand, it may be explained in brief, as “Marketing is what a marketer does,” But this meaning lacks clarity in understanding the subject. The evolution of marketing is as old as the Himalayas. It is one of the oldest professions in the world.

Marketing is indeed an ancient art; it has been practiced in one form or the other since the days of Adam and Eve. The word, marketing has been defined differently by authorities in different ways. The traditional objective of marketing had been to make the goods available at places where they are needed. This idea was later on changed by shifting the emphasis from “exchange” to “satisfaction of human wants”. Different authors tried to give suitable definition from their viewpoint. Some are very broad; others are rather too narrow. Some emphasise on the traditional view of producing goods and finding out customers, others emphasise on the modern view that marketing must first find out what customers want and then plan a product to satisfy the wants. As any other subject, it has its own origin, growth and development.