What is marketing?

If you were to ask 100 marketing experts this question, you are likely to get 100 different answers and variations on the theme. I am not a marketing expert; I am a business owner with significant experience in what marketing is and should be for start-ups and micro businesses, and so it is from that position that I provide my answer to what is marketing.

In its purest form, marketing is all about internal and external communications. Marketing is a method of communicating that allows the receiver of the communication to gain a good understanding of the core values, core principles, mission and vision of the business.

Marketing should be the preamble to sales and, when done well, will turn the activity of overt selling into a simple order-taking activity. This can be achieved by understanding that marketing is all about understanding your target market so well and in such detail that you know exactly what they need. All that is left is for you to design your product or service so that it fits perfectly with that need and then communicate that fact to your market so that they can then initiate their purchase.