Defining marketing is one of today’s most challenging tasks. This vital business function encompasses many market aspects and is crucial for growth.

Can you grow your business without increasing sales or the average ticket price of products sold? You’ll probably say no. So, here’s another question: How can you sell more without investing in marketing? Difficult. That’s why, for many, marketing is what makes the world go round.

Marketing is essential for increasing sales and average product prices. The ability to create, explore, and deliver value satisfies market and consumer needs. It aims to attract customers, increase brand awareness, generate new relationships, and produce profitable results.

The term has become so prevalent that professional and academic courses are now dedicated to it. However, make sure its broad scope is clear to you. At its core, marketing is about understanding and meeting customer needs.

In the following sections, we’ll explore what marketing is and provide you with the essential knowledge to understand this dynamic field.

Marketing defined
Suppose you have ever looked into the concept of marketing. In that case, you must have come across the following phrases:

“Marketing is the science of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target audience with profitability.”

— Philip Kotler, American author and consultant

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes that create, communicate, deliver, and offer exchanges that create value for consumers, customers, partners, and society in general.”

— American Marketing Association

Comparing these definitions, we see that the AMA’s version is broader, reflecting the multifaceted nature of modern marketing. This expansiveness is necessary, as different marketing approaches – such as affiliate and internal marketing – often have distinct objectives.

In this way, marketing balances what the customer (or target audience) desires and the company’s goals. After all, good marketing aims to generate value for the company and its target audience.

Marketing encompasses all these aspects and more. As a field, it continually evolves, seeking innovative strategies to approach, delight, and engage its audience.

What is the origin of marketing?
Tracing the origins of marketing is challenging, as it depends on how one defines propaganda and persuasion. Notable figures in philosophy and culture used forms of marketing to attract followers and leave their mark on history. Aristotle and Napoleon, for instance, are names that have endured through time.

However, one thing is certain: marketing today is very different from the ‘advertising’ of the past. This is because today, marketing is a field of knowledge, with books and texts covering its main concepts, producing qualified professionals and opening up a range of possibilities that further complicate the use of the term.

Below is a timeline that can help you better understand marketing and its origins. Check it out!