Marketing Defined

The field of marketing is broadly defined as the way in which companies and individuals promote themselves to their target audience. This original definition has grown in a number of ways as new tools are being used by successful marketers.

Every time you turn on the television, read a magazine, or go online you are able to see countless examples of marketing. These are the examples that most people think of when they try to define what the field of marketing actually is. However, this is only one small facet of a subject that is constantly growing and changing to meet the needs of both businesses and consumers in the modern world.

By dictionary standards, marketing is the act of buying or selling. Students who go on to pursue a marketing degree learn that it is the act of interesting potential customers or clients in your goods or services. But neither of these definitions are wholly true or untrue. Marketing has become such a huge field that no one or two-sentence definition is capable of telling an audience what it is.

It is the job of an individual in a marketing career to not only devise ways of promoting products but to understand the audience, the product, and the market itself well enough to figure out what the best means of doing this is. As such, student who get their marketing degree will learn to research current trends in marketing, to understand the psychology of potential consumers, and to learn to appeal to both.

The most definite shift in the field of marketing has come in recent years. Decades ago when newspapers, magazines and televisions were the primary source of information for consumers, placing an advertisement in this media assured businesses the visibility of their product. Now, advertising is no longer delivered to the consumer - the consumer seeks out the advertising.

Because of this shift, students will learn in a marketing degree program how to pique the interest of potential customers by gaining their attention through various online and media sources. Successful marketers of this day and age must learn to appeal to more than a customers basic needs and wants, as was exemplified by the ads of earlier years. They must appeal to a consumer’s need to be entertained or informed, as well.

With this in mind, a new definition of marketing is proposed: that marketing is the act of understanding and actively engaging a consumer in order to inform them about your product.