1.2 Marketing Defined
Learning Objectives
- Explain how the marketplace addresses customer wants and needs by creating opportunities for the exchange of products, services, and experiences
- Describe the role marketing plays in facilitating the exchange of value
- Define marketing
Marketing is more than just banner ads, television commercials, and people standing on roadsides dressed up like the Statue of Liberty during tax time. It’s a complex set of activities and strategies that influences where we live, what we wear, how we conduct business, and how we spend our time and money. Marketing activities are conducted in an environment that changes quickly both in terms of customer demand and the methods by which consumers obtain information and make purchases. However, before you learn about these complex variables, you will need a good working definition of marketing. The following video has one (actually two).
You can view the transcript for “What Is Marketing? Two Answers To This One Question”. (opens in new window)
Marketing Concept
According to Philip Kotler, one of the most influential marketing authors, the marketing concept holds that:
“The key to achieving organizational goals is to identify the needs and wants of target markets and deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors.”[1]
Let’s explore this definition to clearly understand how needs, wants, and demands differ, as they are central to the definition of the marketing concept.
| Needs | State of felt deprivation.
• Physical, social and individual needs. |
|---|---|
| Wants | The form taken by human needs as they are shaped by culture and individual personality. • E.g. want a Big Mac |
| Demands | Human wants that are backed by buying power. • Willingness and ability to pay and purchase. |
So if we take the above definition for need, want and demand, according to the marketing concept, a need is something people must have to live or function, like the need to communicate. How people choose to meet that need depends on their wants, which are shaped by their lifestyle, culture, and personal choices. For example, a student in 2025 might want the newest iPhone 16 or Samsung Galaxy Z Flip to stay connected, instead of just using any basic phone. When that want is supported by the ability and willingness to pay, it becomes demand. If the student has the money or a payment plan and really values the phone’s special features, like AI tools, a foldable screen, and a great camera, they are creating demand for that specific product. This shows how marketers need to understand the difference between needs, wants, and demand to offer the right products to the right people.
Let’s move ahead so that you can gain a richer definition and understanding of marketing.
Learning Activities
- Reading: Marketing Defined
Chapter Revisions: New content added. Section on Marketing Concept.
Creation notes: Chat GPT was used to update and shorten text to include current examples and create a table.
- Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2018). Principles of Marketing (17th ed.). Pearson. ↵
