Marketing

Kotler defines marketing as, “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and exchanging products and services of value with others.”

The definition is understood better by having clarity on various terms use din the definition.

A human need is a state of deprivation of some basic necessity for existence. People require food, clothing, shelter, safety, belonging, and esteem. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a useful concept to think of in this content. The hierarchy is given as

1. Physiological needs
2. Security needs
3. Social needs
4. Need for power and esteem
5. Self actualization

Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of needs. People of different countries want different things for their lunch. While people’s needs are few, their wants are many. Human wants are continually shaped and reshaped by social forces and institutions that include family, religious organizations, educational institutions, and business firms.

A product is anything that can be offered to people to satisfy a need or want. A product includes in its meaning a tangible good, service or an idea.

People obtain what they want in many ways.

The first way is self production.
The second way is coercion
The third way is begging.
The fourth way is transfer by somebody
The fifth way is exchange.

In exchange two things of value are exchanged between two parties.

Marketing includes actions undertaken to grasp what each party expects to give and get from the transaction or exchange. Then, the business entity has to create products that the other party (consumer) is willing exchange or transact and then complete the exchange at the terms and location desired by the consumer.

Reference
Philip Kotler, Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, Ninth Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1997