What is Marketing?

Read this chapter, which defines and discusses the four components of marketing, identifies the various institutions and entities that engage in marketing activities, and emphasizes the importance of marketing in society. This chapter also outlines the marketing plan.

What Is Marketing?

What makes a business idea work? Does it only take money? Why are some products a huge success and similar products a dismal failure? How was Apple, a computer company, able to create and launch the wildly successful iPod, yet Microsoft's first foray into MP3 players was a total disaster? If the size of the company and the money behind a product's launch were the difference, Microsoft would have won. But for Microsoft to have won, it would have needed something it's not had in a while - good marketing so it can produce and sell products that consumers want.

So how does good marketing get done?


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