Almost no ads, save for those at 4am for the latest Ron Popeil invention, actually tout the benefits of a certain product in the way PyramidHead outlines above. What ads do mostly is present images of people - complete happy beautiful fictional people with unobtainable unreal lives - images that have the effect of making potential consumers feel anxious and defective when confronted with their own less than perfect state by comparison. If the marketing is successful, the consumers then sub-consciously desire the product in order to pathetically strive for the unobtainable fictional state presented.
So it can be said that the purpose and function of marketing is to make and keep potential consumers unhappy and anxious, and the more successful a marketing campaign, the more unhappy and anxious it will make the public.
A consummate example is the marketing of SUVs. By any account, these are terrible automobiles to own. The fuel economy is atrocious, they are prone to rolling over and bursting into flames, and insurance rates are sky high. For the purposes that 95% of their owners use them, i.e. hauling kids around to soccer practice, a mini van would be a much safer and more cost effective option. However, the actually qualities of the vehicles are not the features of the ads. Rather, marketers have homed in on a particular vulnerability of the demographic group that would potentially drive them. In this demographic group, although their narrow pathetic lives consist solely of commuting to mind numbing jobs and driving screaming kids around, they like to see themselves as having other qualities. Thus the SUV is marketed as an 'off road' vehicle that exciting-type people who like camping and mountain biking would drive, and the consumers who purchase them do so in an attempt to complete their defective self-image in such a way by association, even though they never use the vehicles for that purpose.
Not wanting to tread on any toes but this node would be better titled 'Popular marketing misconceptions'. The writeups contained herein describe a small part of marketing more accurately described as advertising. The Uk Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) offers the following definition:
"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumers' requirements profitably"
This definition clearly shows the difference between the simplified view of marketing as 'spreading the good news' or the antiquated Webster definition of simply buying and selling in a market compared with the modern view of marketing as an essential function of any business in identifying the wants, needs and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired products more effectively and efficiently than competitors.
It is an important distinction to make between the simple act of advertising and selling a product which has been the traditional view of a marketers role, and the accelerated responsibility of the marketing function in todays business as the driving force behind most major corporate decisions. Indeed the paradigm shift in marketing concepts in recent times has been the idea that everyone at every level of the business is involved in the marketing process.
The view of the marketer as an advertiser or a salesman is obsolete. Marketing is a highly evolved and scientific process which enables a business to develop an accurate understanding of their current and forecast position in relation to their Customers, competitors and the industry in which they operate as a whole. Increasing competition and other constraints on growth in many industries mean it is often the understanding of these factors which makes the distinction between successful and unsuccessful companies.
There is a wealth of information about marketing on the interwebnet thingy, have a look at
http://personal.dis.strath.ac.uk/people/sheila/marketing/
which offers a beginner's guide to the major concepts.
The definition that is widely accepted in academia is: "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." by American Marketing Association
Almost all people who took a course titled Introduction to Marketing are forced to memorize this definition as well as the 4Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
Product is the tangible (a can of soda) or intangible (car wash) item or service that you are trying to sell. Price is the monetary value that the customers are asked to pay in exchange of the product Place is the distribution efforts that you are making in order to sell the product. Promotion is the efforts (other than distributing) that enables the customers become aware of your product.
Mar"ket*ing, n.
1.
The act of selling or of purchasing in, or as in, a market.
2.
Articles in, or from, a market; supplies.
© Webster 1913.
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