Marketing

Marketing is a term used to describe all the different activities involved in the selling of goods and services from producers to consumers. The modern marketing concept, which is applied by most successful small businesses, is intended to focus all of a company's activities upon uncovering and satisfying customer needs. Functions which are generally associated with it are advertising, sales and promotion. Marketing also encompasses the development of product, packaging, distribution, pricing, and other functions. Looking at the timeline of marketing, the modern concept of marketing evolved during the industrial revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. At this particular time, the proliferation of goods and services, increased worker skills, and technological advances in the area of transportation, refrigeration, and other factors which facilitated the transfer of goods over long distances and resulted in the demand for more advanced market mechanisms and selling techniques. Marketing is the source of many important new ideas in management thought and practice such as flexible manufacturing systems, flat organizational structures, and an increased emphasis on service all of which are designed to make businesses more responsive to customer needs and preferences. This suggests that small business owners must master the basics of marketing in order to succeed.

It was not until the 1930s that companies began to place a greater emphasis on promoting and advertising their products and started tailoring their goods to specific consumer needs. By the 1950s, larger companies begin developing and implementing marketing strategies which would complement and direct their overall operations. By the 1970s, the primary marketing trend had a gr...

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...Withal a firm would logically price a product at the caliber that would maximize

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING profits. The price that a company culls for its products, however, will vary according to its long- term marketing strategy. For example, a company may price a product extremely lower and its product in the hopes of incrementing market share and ascertaining its competitive presence, or simply to engender a desired level of flow. Another engenderer may price a good astronomically high in the hopes of eventually conveying to the consumer that it is a quality product. Other reasons a firm might offer a product at a very high price is to discount the good gradually in an effort to maximize the dollars available from consumers inclined to pay different prices for the good. In any case, price is utilized as an implement to achieve comprehensive marketing goals.