MARKETING

the sum of activities involved in directing the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. Marketing's principal function is to promote and facilitate exchange. Through marketing, individuals and groups obtain what they need and want by exchanging products and services with other parties. Such a process can occur only when there are at least two parties, each of whom has something to offer. In addition, exchange cannot occur unless the parties are able to communicate about and to deliver what they offer. Marketing is not a coercive process: all parties must be free to accept or reject what others are offering. So defined, marketing is distinguished from other modes of obtaining desired goods, such as through self-production, begging, theft, or force. Marketing is not confined to any particular type of economy, because goods must be exchanged and therefore marketed in all economies and societies except perhaps in the most primitive. Furthermore, marketing is not a function that is limited to profit-oriented business; even such institutions as hospitals, schools, and museums engage in some forms of marketing. Within the broad scope of marketing, merchandising is concerned more specifically with promoting the sale of goods and services to consumers (i.e., retailing) and hence is more characteristic of free-market economies. Based on these criteria, marketing can take a variety of forms: it can be a set of functions, a department within an organization, a managerial process, a managerial philosophy, and a social process. the sum of activities involved in directing the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. In advanced industrial economies, marketing considerations play a major role in establishing corporate policies. Where once corporate marketing departments were primarily concerned with increasing sales through advertising and other promotional techniques, they now typically concern themselves with credit policies, product development, customer support, personal sales, distribution, and corporate communications. Consumer goods, those whose final sale is to individual users, are sold through a variety of channels. Retail stores, which may be chain stores (with many branches under a single owner or franchiser), offer great economies of scale that can translate into lower prices and a wider variety of products offered. Direct marketing, which is a form of retailing, operates through catalogs and broadcast advertisements. Wholesalers sell merchandise in large quantities to retail stores or other users at prices below the final selling price. Manufacturers may wholesale their own goods, or they may rely on agents, brokers, or regional distributors. Goods sold for the purpose of manufacturing other goods or providing services are known as industrial products. They include raw materials such as ores and crude oil, partly processed goods such as textiles, and capital equipment such as computers and machinery. Such sales are frequently consummated at high levels of corporate management. Marketers may make psychological and demographic studies of a potential market for goods, may experiment with various marketing approaches, and may conduct informal interviews with target audiences. Marketing may be used to increase sales of an existing product (by suggesting new uses for it or redefining its image). New products may be marketed in many wayse.g., to appeal to a user's status or vanity or to be seen as a solid bargain. Products may be aimed at audiences of a particular age or income level. Credit arrangements and guarantees are frequently an important part of marketing. Additional reading The most widely used textbook is Philip Kotler, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 8th ed. (1994). Robert Bartels, History of Marketing Thought, 3rd ed. (1988), provides an overview of marketing through the years and contains an extensive bibliography. A more conceptual and theoretical treatment may be found in the work by Wroe Alderson, Dynamic Marketing Behavior: A Functionalist Theory of Marketing (1965).Various strategic and tactical aspects of marketing are explored in the following studies: Steven P. Schnaars, Marketing Strategy: A Customer-Driven Approach (1991); Jack Trout and Al Reis, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, rev. ed. (1986); Thomas T. Nagle and Reed K. Holden, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, 2nd ed. (1994); Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr., Neil M. Ford, and Orville C. Walker, Jr., Sales Force Management, 4th ed. (1993); Don E. Schultz, Stanley I. Tannenbaum, and Robert F. Lauterborn, Integrated Marketing Communications (1992); Mary Lou Roberts and Paul D. Berger, Direct Marketing Management (1989); David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management, 3rd ed. (1991); Glen L. Urban and John Hauser, Design and Marketing of New Products, 2nd ed. (1993); and Stan Rapp and Thomas L. Collins, Beyond Maximarketing (1994). The importance of marketing intermediaries is outlined by Louis W. Stern and Adel I. El-Ansary, Marketing Channels, 4th ed. (1992). Theodore Levitt, The Marketing Imagination, new, expanded ed. (1986); and Regis McKenna, Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customer (1991), discuss the evolving discipline of marketing.The role of marketing research is investigated in the extended work by Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr., Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, 5th ed. (1991). The role the consumer plays in the marketing process is examined in Michael R. Solomon, Consumer Behavior, 2nd ed. (1994); and David A. Aaker and George S. Day, Consumerism: Search for Consumer Interest, 4th ed. (1982).Advertising's role in the marketing process is explored in David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising (1983); John Lyons, Guts: Advertising from the Inside Out (1987); and William Wells, John Burnett, and Sandra Moriarty, Advertising: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed. (1992).Marketing in several different sectors is dealt with in the following selected works: David A. Aaker and Alexander L. Biel, Brand Equity & Advertising (1993); David A. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity (1991); Christopher H. Lovelock, Services Marketing, 2nd ed. (1991), and Managing Services: Marketing, Operations, and Human Resources, 2nd ed. (1991); Michael D. Hutt and Thomas W. Speh, Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of Industrial and Organizational Markets, 4th ed. (1992); Philip Kotler and Alan R. Andreasen, Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations, 4th ed. (1991); Philip Kotler and Roberta N. Clarke, Marketing for Healthcare Organizations (1986); Philip Kotler and Eduardo Roberto, Social Marketing: Strategies for Changing Public Behavior (1989); Philip Kotler, Donald H. Heider, and Irving Rein, Marketing Places: Attracting Investment, Industry, and Tourism to Cities, States, and Nations (1993); and Michael R. Czinkota and Ilkka A. Ronkainen, International Marketing, 3rd ed. (1993).Current marketing trends are reported in a number of trade journals and newspapers, including Marketing News (biweekly); Marketing Management (quarterly); Journal of Retailing (quarterly); Advertising Age (weekly); Business Marketing (monthly); Harvard Business Review (bimonthly); Wall Street Journal (daily); Business Week (weekly); Fortune (biweekly); California Management Review (quarterly); and Business Horizons (bimonthly). More scholarly research journals include Journal of Marketing Research (quarterly); Journal of Marketing (quarterly); Journal of Consumer Research (quarterly); and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (quarterly). Jonathan D. Hibbard Philip Kotler Kent A. Grayson