Topic 1 - An Introduction to Marketing

Marketing, an overview...

• Marketing is the way a company or organisation promote products/services onto the market.
• Whenever marketing strategies and campaigns are being planned and subsequently implemented, it is very important that the customer is constantly kept in mind, due to the fact that the customer happens to be the most important element in the business world. A world-renowned saying by Kenneth B. Elliott has been looked up to throughout the years by several businesses and entrepreneurs:

•  “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

• Therefore, it is clear that the customer should be given immense importance and should be treated with great respect because without customers, there is no business. To know what customers need and want is also another essential knowing for businesses. As a result, such companies undergo what is known as research. This practice is normally taken care of by the Research & Development Department (R&D), where professionals in this field carefully study the market as well as customer buying behaviours, as to establish a better understanding and subsequently control of the market.