The Function of Marketing
“Marketing” is probably one of the most confusing terms in use in business today. It does not conjure up the uniform mental picture that older terms do, such as manufacturing, accounting, selling, purchasing, or personnel administratiion.
Some say marketing is another term for selling or for selling and advertising. Some say it it filling costumers need and wants. Some think of it as those functions, other than selling, needed to market a product it with the marketing concept.
But marketing is not the same as marketing research or planning. Neither is it the same thing as selling, not is it a synonim for the marketing concept. Marketing as it is conceived by business authorities today -and is broad function of business composed of many elements.
Until recently marketing was defined even by outstanding authorities as “the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. While this definition goes far beyond the old selling and advertising concept of marketing, it is still not broad enough.
It does not encompass the idea that marketing also includes the identification of the market and the market`s needs and that it guides the development of the products and services to fulfil those needs profitably.
Victor P. Buell define marketing as:
Those business activities devoted to 1) identifying specific markets for products and services; 2) identifying existing and future needs and wants of these markets; 3) guiding the deevelopment of products, packages, and services to fill these needs at a profit; and 4) selling, delivering, and collecting for, and effecting legal transfer (or rights to the use) of these goods and services to the ultimate consumer or user.