Despite the fact that marketing might seem a relatively new concept, its origin dates back to the times when the first trade relationships where established; therefore, it can be assumed that marketing existed even in the prehistoric society when the concept of money had not been developed yet.
Defining marketing, however, remains a very complicated task. Incorporating a number of elements and relating to an even greater number of fields, such as advertising, market analysis, etc., marketing is a rather obscure concept. With the help of Glaser’s article Marketing makes the car register ring (Glazer, 2001), defining marketing, however, becomes much easier.
Glaser suggests that marketing should be considered from several viewpoints. The most obvious one concerns the advertizing aspect of marketing. Indeed, one must admit that marketing has a lot to do with promoting specific services or even an entire company; as a result, marketing is often defined from the perspective of its promotion functions. In light of the given facts, it can be assumed that marketing as a tool for enhancing sales.
In a narrow sense, the choice of an advertisement technique often is defined as a marketing practice. According to what Glazer says, “Marketing is everything that is necessary to sell the product or service” (Glazer, 2001).
However, Glazer also stresses that “Although advertising is an important part of marketing, it is just that — only a part of it” (Glazer, 2001). For instance, the recent Google Tour promotion has increased the sales of the product impressively (Chen & Lin, 2012).
Another way to define the marketing is to take a closer look at the word itself. It is obvious that the process has something to do with the market. Indeed, as Glazer explains, marketing also means exploring a specific market, learning about the current demands, the latest innovations, the existing rivals and their performance, the saturation of the market with the specified product, etc.; the list can go on forever.
The thoroughness of the research defines the resulting sales rates. Therefore, marketing can be defined as research within the boundaries of the target market. It is necessary to stress that Glazer offers a rather loose definition of marketing viewed as research. While Glazer does define marketing as a research, he still does not specify every single field that marketing research touches upon.
According to Glazer, marketing research is confined to learning about the target market, i.e., figuring out “if people will buy your good or service, who would buy it, what features they would want and how much they would pay for it” (Glazer, 2001). It would be wrong, however, to narrow marketing research down to these issues. In fact, marketing research embraces the following spheres:
- Target audience;
- Possible rivals;
- Available resources;
- Current demand;
- Probable losses;
- Expected revenues.
The given definition can be applied to the marketing strategy used by General Motors. While the company works on its promotion strategies, its leader clearly gathers the data concerning the new markets for the further expansion (Chevy marketing: Less like apple pie, more like Apple: Q & A agency and marketing executives Jeff Goodby, Goodby, Silverstein & partners, 2011).
While taking every single factor into consideration when doing the marketing research is practically impossible, it is still within the capability of the company’s manager to evaluate the chances of the company to succeed in the specified market.
Finally, Glazer offers the third way of defining marketing. According to the author, marketing can also be interpreted as the means of communicating with the customer. Indeed, marketing presupposes sending specific messages to the target audience and making sure that the latter translates these messages into creating the desired image of a company.
As Glazer explains, “Public opinion is a marketing concern, and a company will spend whatever it takes to maintain positive perception by the public” (Glazer, 2001) It is quite amazing that marketing, like any other method of communication – or even any language, if you will – can take forms of verbal, non-verbal and even subliminal messages.
For instance, a company can promote a product or services with the help of a journal or magazine advertisement or radio commercial, which presupposes that verbal messages are going to be used.
However, when it comes to advertizing specific services or products via internet or TV, it is necessary to use non-verbal messages as well, including the concepts behind the company’s logo, how the actors in the commercial move or gesticulate, etc. Therefore, it can be assumed that marketing is a specific language that creates a link between a company and its potential clients.
Thus, three ways of viewing marketing have been provided. Marketing can be considered a synonym of promotion, research and even a specific language that serves as a link between the company representatives and their target audience.
Even though the aforementioned article provides ample opportunities for finding the right definition for marketing, it is clear that defining the given phenomenon means considering it from a single perspective, which is practically impossible.
The closest one may get to the definition of marketing is introducing it as a series of actions aimed at shaping the customers’ attitude towards the company and/or its product. However, it is important to keep in mind that marketing also involves dealing with a plethora of other issues that are only slightly related to the promotion process.
Reference List
Chen, H.-T. & Lin, T.-W. (2012). How a 3D tour Itinerary promotion affects consumers’ intention to purchase a tour product? Information technology Journal, 11(10), 1357–1368.
Chevy marketing: Less like apple pie, more like Apple: Q & A agency and marketing executives Jeff Goodby, Goodby, Silverstein & partners (2011). Automotive News, 34.
Glaser, T. (2001). Marketing makes the car register ring. St. Petersburg Times. Web.