Marketing is...

...the strategic management process for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably, to create value.

What that means

There are a number of important ideas here, all worth thinking about.

• Marketing is strategic - it is critical to the long term competitiveness of your business.
• Marketing is management, so it means that you plan, act, monitor and control.
• It is a process, so it's not spur of the moment, or decided as you feel like it, it's systematic and logical.
• Identifying, anticipating and satisfying requirements - it means finding out who your best potential customers are, what they want, and how to deliver it.
• Customers - marketing is about relationships with customers, establishing dialogue, keeping close.
• Profitably, to create value - last but absolutely not least, it's about creating value for customers and for the business, by making your assets and skills work hard and deliver return in the short and long term because they are all working coherently.

Marketing Thinking from GCM Marketing Ltd. provides consultancy, advice and practical help with marketing analysis, marketing research, business and marketing strategy, marketing plans, marketing communications, brands & positioning, from a base in Scotland. Copyright © 2004, 2005,2006.