The role of marketing is to facilitate exchanges. Its essence is to create greater contentment and satisfaction by recognizing the preference structures of both parties and crafting the basis for exchanges. Marketing’s value to society is that it creates more efficient and effective interaction between and among individuals and organizations.
Five conditions must be met for an exchange to take place:
1.There are at least two parties.
2.Each party has something that might be of value to the other party.
3.Each party is capable of communication and delivery.
4.Each party is free to accept or reject the offer.
5.Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.
These five conditions are inherent in ancient markets, where farmers and craftsmen brought their produce and wares to a central market. So too it applies to today’s flea markets, garage sales and ebay transactions. It also applies to the sophisticated supply chains necessary to stock a Wal-Mart store or build a missile system for the military.
Marketing is pervasive in all human endeavors. Most
human interaction requires an understanding of the other party’s perspective in
order to have a productive relationship. Therefore the principles of marketing
are applied in both for-profit and not-for-profit settings, including the
marketing of places, causes, events, organizations, and persons. For simplicity
of presentation in this book, we will refer to the parties in the exchanges as
buyers and sellers to represent a commercial transaction between a producer and
a customer,