An Overview of Marketing

     Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. Marketing adds value in the form of utility, or the power of a product or service to satisfy a need. It creates place utility by making products available where customers want them, time utility by making products available when customers want them, and possession utility by transferring the ownership of products to buyers.

     Business people focused on the production of goods from the Industrial Revolution until the early twentieth century, and on the selling of goods from the 1920s to the 1950s. Marketing received little attention up to that point. After 1950, however, business people recognized that their enterprises involved not only production and selling but also the satisfaction of customers' needs. They began to implement the marketing concept, a business philosophy that involves the entire business organization in the dual process of satisfying customer needs and achieving the organization's goals.

     Implementation of the marketing concept begins and ends with marketing information about customers&-first to determine what customers need, and later to evaluate how well the firm is meeting those needs.

     A market consists of people with needs, the ability to buy and the desire and authority to purchase. Markets are classified as consumer and industrial markets.

     A marketing strategy is a plan for the best use of an organization's resources to meet its objectives. Developing a marketing strategy involves selecting and analyzing a target market and creating and maintaining a marketing mix that will satisfy that market. A target market is chosen through the total market approach or the market segmentation approach. A market segment is a group of individuals or organizations  within a market that have similar characteristics and; needs. Businesses that use a total market approach design a single marketing mix and direct it at the entire market for a particular product. The market segmentation approach directs a marketing mix at a segment of a market.

     A firm's marketing mix is the combination of product, price, distribution, and promotion that it uses to reach a target market. To achieve a firm's marketing objectives, marketing&-mix strategies must begin with an assessment of the marketing environment, which in turn will influence decisions about marketing&-mix ingredients. Market measurement and sales forecasting  are used to estimate sales potential and predict product sales in specific market segments. Strategies are then monitored and evaluated through marketing research and the marketing information system, which stores and processes internal and external data in a form that is conducive to marketing decision making.

     Buying behavior consists of the decisions and actions of people involved in buying and using products. Consumer buying behavior refers to the purchase of products for personal use and not for business purposes. Organizational buying behavior refers to the purchasing behavior of producers, resellers, governmental units, and institutions. Understanding buying behavior helps marketers predict how buyers will respond to marketing strategies.

     Personal income is the income an individuals receives, less the Social Security taxes he or she must pay. Disposable income is personal income minus all other taxes. Discretionary income is what remains after savings and expenditures for necessities. Consumers use discretionary income to buy goods and services that best satisfy their needs. If marketers are to serve this vast and affluent market effectively, they must be aware of both consumer spending patterns and spending trends.