15/11/2021
BUSINESS BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
Marketing
By ALEXANDRA TWIN Updated November 10, 2021
Reviewed by AMY DRURY
Fact checked by ARIEL COURAGE
What Is Marketing?
Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. Some marketing is done by affiliates on behalf of a company.
Professionals who work in a corporation's marketing and promotion departments seek to get the attention of key potential audiences through advertising. Promotions are targeted to certain audiences and may involve celebrity endorsements, catchy phrases or slogans, memorable packaging or graphic designs and overall media exposure.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Marketing refers to all activities a company does to promote and sell products or services to consumers.
Marketing makes use of the "marketing mix," also known as the four Ps—product, price, place, and promotion.
At its core, marketing seeks to take a product or service, identify its ideal customers, and draw the customers' attention to the product or service available.
Understanding Marketing
Marketing as a discipline involves all the actions a company undertakes to draw in customers and maintain relationships with them. Networking with potential or past clients is part of the work too, and may include writing thank you emails, playing golf with prospective clients, returning calls and emails quickly, and meeting with clients for coffee or a meal.
At its most basic level, marketing seeks to match a company's products and services to customers who want access to those products. Matching products to customers ultimately ensures profitability.
Product, price, place, and promotion are the Four Ps of marketing. The Four Ps collectively make up the essential mix a company needs to market a product or service.
