The holistic view of the role of marketing within the firm has been
expressed by a leading authority on management thinking, Peter F.
Drucker, who stated: Marketing is not only much broader than selling,
it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire
business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its
end result, that is, from the customer’s point of view, concern and
responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the
enterprise. Marketing cannot exist in a vacuum. To be really effective it must
permeate the whole company. What is needed is an integrated approach,
not just the creation of a marketing department. It is the company’s
whole approach to business problems that is the key issue. Such firms do not see marketing simply as yet another
functional area of management but more as overall business philosophy,
a way of thinking about business, and a way of working which runs
through every aspect of the firm’s activities. Hence, marketing is
viewed not as a separate function, but rather as a profit-oriented
approach to business that permeates not just the marketing department
but the entire business. Looked at from this point of view, marketing
is seen as an attitude to mind or an approach to business rather than
a specific discipline.Peter Drucker’s wise observation, “The purpose of a company is to
create customers.” And he added, “A business has two — and only two —
basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation
produce results: all the rest are costs.”
Every company has to decide what markets and customer segments to
serve and how to understand their needs, wants, perceptions and
preferences so that the company is favoured over its competitors.
Clearly, this calls for superior skills in selecting the best markets
and customers and fully understanding their conscious needs and
unconscious thoughts and emotions. Skills in economic analysis and
psychological...