Chapter 1 Summary

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. Everyone is involved in marketing in some facet of business and life. In fact in business settings, every department in a firm interacts with marketing at some level, including manufacturing, finance or accounting, engineering, or even human resource management. It is marketing that assists in forecasting demand, contacting the customer to fulfill needs, making sure that the product is delivered, and ensuring that the customer is satisfied. This is accomplished through the implementation of the marketing concept, which is defined as satisfying customers' needs and wants, with an overall organizational commitment, while maintaining a profit motive (this takes on other objectives in a non-profit environment).

If this marketing concept is properly managed, marketing has the ability to give a competitive advantage to its firm by developing superior value in the eyes of customers. In this context, superior value is created when the customer sees that the benefits (functional, social, personal, and experiential) of the product exceed the cost of the product (monetary, temporal, psychological, behavioral, and transactional) and/or the product is of superior value when compared with alternatives. It is through the establishment of marketing management that a superior competitive advantage is delivered and maintained. In essence, marketing management is the development of marketing plans and strategies and the execution of the marketing activities to implement and control the plans and strategies. One of the primary strategic tools available to the marketing is managing the marketing mix. The marketing mix is composed of four elements commonly referred to as the "four Ps," (i.e., product, price, placement, and promotion).