Why is the term marketing surrounded by confusion?
First, the word marketing means very different things to different people in different industries. For example, a coal producer in Kentucky just needs to understand what price the local buyer will be paying for the product and s/he can then plan to market (or just sell) the coal produced to the local buyer. Second, think about how much different the above situation is from another case in which marketing must be done. Lets say that you are a product-marketing engineer at Agilent Technologies and your Product Marketing Manager has informed you that you will be responsible for marketing a new product that has been conceptualized by engineers in the Research and Development (R&D) Department. Finally, assume a good friend of yours who has invented a new way for people to wash their car. She has asked you to market her product for her. In all three of these situations, the product has already been conceptualized and produced. It wont help the individual marketer at all to consider how the m
