(a) What is marketing? (b) Distinguish between marketing and selling. (c) Explain five functions of marketing.

Answer Details

(a) What is marketing?

Marketing is the whole range of business activities involved in identifying the needs and wants of consumers and in getting the right goods and services to them at the right place, right time and right price. It covers everything from finding out what customers want, through producing and pricing, to distributing and promoting the product until it reaches and satisfies the consumer.

(b) Distinction between marketing and selling

(c) Five functions of marketing

• Buying: obtaining the right goods and raw materials needed for resale or production.
• Selling: finding customers and persuading them to buy the goods, thereby creating demand.
• Transportation: moving goods from the point of production to the point of sale and to consumers.
• Storage (warehousing): keeping goods safely until they are needed, so as to ensure steady supply.
• Market research and grading/standardisation: finding out consumers' needs and sorting goods into uniform qualities and sizes to make buying and selling easier. (Financing and risk-bearing are also recognised marketing functions.)