Introduction 

Marketing is an ancient art and has, since the day of Adam and Eve, been practiced in one form or the other. In the modern world, Marketing is everywhere; most of the task we do and most of the things we handle are linked to marketing. Marketing is an activity. Marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products. Your morning tea, your newspaper, your breakfast, the dress you put on for the day, the vehicle you drive, the mobile in your pocket, the quick lunch you have at the fast food joint, the PC at your desk, your internet connection, your e-mail ID almost everything that you use and everything that is around you, has been touched by marketing. Marketing has its imprint on them all depending on the product and the context/experience the imprint may be visible or subtle. But it is very much there. Marketing permeates most of your daily activities. Marketing is an omnipresent entity. 

Meaning of Market and Marketing

A market is any such person, group or organization which has existing or potential exchange relationship. It starts with customers and ends with customers. Creation of superior customer value and delivering high levels of customer satisfaction are at the heart of present day marketing. Companies today, needs to understand customer needs, study competition, develop and offer superior value at reasonable price, and make the product available to customer at convenient place. Only then their products will be in demand and sell consistently.

Marketing deals with customers. It is delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit. The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep current customers by delivering satisfaction.

Marketing is such an economic activity through which the commodities and services are exchanged in lieu of money. Marketing really refers to those efforts which help in the transfer of the commodities and services, and manage for their physical transfer.

In ordinary sense, the purchase and sale of commodities is designated as 'marketing. Within the term 'marketing', the activities, preceding and following the purchase or sale, are included.

Marketing occupies prime position in the organization of a business unit. It is one of the important and core activities of all business operations. It consists of those activities which lead to transfer of ownership of goods and also some aspects of physical distribution. Form an economist’s point of view; marketing is a function of production because from economic point of view, a product is not completely produced until it is in the hands of the customer. It is the process by which products are made available to the ultimate consumer. It consists of all activities which are meant to ensure the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer. However, this concept of marketing is very limited. In modern managerial terminology, marketing is used in a much wider perspective.

Definition of Market

The concept of market has undergone significant changes over the years, commensurate with the changes in the structure and scope of markets.

Kotler defined market as - “A set of all actual and potential buyers of a product.”

This definition implies that wherever there is a buyer of a product or service, there is a market. It succeeded in changing the view that market is a place. Further this definition also indicates that market refers to the existence of buyers of a product or service, that when these things get exchanged, the marketing process commences.

Kohl's and Uh characterized market as - “an arena, wherein all buyers and sellers were highly sensitive to each other‟s transactions, and where what one did affected the other.”

This concept of market focuses on a situation where all buyers and sellers would be able to communicate with one another; they would also be capable, of exchanging products with each other. It could also be inferred from the definition that buyer-seller interaction is crucial to market.

According to Cochrane - “a market is some sphere or space, where certain physical and institutional arrangements could be seen, and the forces of demand and supply are at work to determine prices with a view of transferring the ownership of some quantity of good or service.”

This definition brings to light that the exchange takes place in a market for a consideration, i.e., price. Apart from that, the exchange takes place with certain physical and institutional structure, there by the role of various facilities required to facilitate transfer of ownership are indicated.

Definition of Marketing

Marketing refers to the various groups of activities that take place in a market. These activities are either planned or spontaneous. For example, production, assembling, distribution and storage could be planned, consumption is often spontaneous.

The American Marketing association defined marketing as - “Market is an organizational function and a set of process for creating, communicating value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."

According to Dahl and Hammond - the purpose of production, assembling, storage, and transportation was consumption. All these steps from production to ultimate consumption were included in the term marketing. Hence, marketing is a set of activities without which what is produced cannot reach the ultimate consumer. Hence it might be said that the importance of these activities is the study of marketing.

Kotler says - “Marketing is a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others.”

To him, to define a marketing situation there should be two or are parties with potential interest, capable of communicating with each other and each possessing things of value to the other. From this definition is could be noted that marketing consists of a number of facilitating activities.

From the managerial point of view, marketing is a dynamic process through which a business enterprise tries to meet the needs of its environment.

In the words of Cundiff and Still, “Marketing is the term used to describe collectively those business functions most directly concerned with the demand stimulating and demand-fulfilling activities of the business enterprise."

The committee of Marketing Teacher’s Association of the U.S.A. has defined marketing as follows: "Marketing consists of the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user."

The traditional description of the marketing was mainly concerned with the physical movement of goods while the modern concept of Marketing is ‘customer-oriented’. It makes ‘customer’ the focus of all the business activities. As an area of business management, “It has to do with the definitions of market opportunities and the design of appropriate strategies for tapping these profitable opportunities.” In its fullest sense, the marketing concept is a philosophy of business which states that the customer’s want satisfaction is the economic and social justification of a company’s existence. Consequently all company activities in production, engineering and finance, as well as in marketing must be devoted to determining the customer’s wants, and then satisfying these wants while still making a reasonable profit. Marketing begins and ends with the customer. It’s beginning is the identification of customer’s needs and its end is involved in the satisfaction of those needs. This long process involves itself number of activities which are the subject matter of marketing. Assimilating this point of view, the definition of Marketing given by the Institute of Marketing, England is a follows:

"Marketing is the creative management function which promotes trade and employment by assessing consumer needs and initiating research development to meet them. It coordinates the resources of production and distribution of goods and services, determines and directs the nature and feels of the total efforts required to sell profitable the maximum production to the ultimate use."

Thus, Marketing Management is a functional area of business management which has to do with the broad problem of consumer’s satisfaction. Its main purpose or objective is to plan, organize and control the marketing activities of the concern in order to rely the marketing goals.