ABSTRACT
There is no agreement on a definition of marketing. A shelf-full of textbooks on the subject produces a shelf-full of differences. Some authors attempt a definition of the term, others avoid it, presuming that readers will be enlightened about its meaning as they proceed. Nevertheless there are ideas which are common to most volumes. They are that marketing has as its end-product purchases of goods and/or services, or at least a greater awareness of their existence, by an identified range of customers or consumers. Such sales and awareness are created largely through advertising in the media, and possibly also on bill-boards and in other public places, and through personal contacts made by purveyors of the goods and services, or people acting on their behalf. Market research builds up profiles of the finances, interests, wants, needs, and likes and dislikes of cross-sections of the population: from these surveys possible customers and consumers of the product or service in question are identified, and advertising calculated to appeal to their large or small numbers is created. The correct placement of marketing departments within corporations is of crucial importance to those corporations.
