Chapter Overview

Marketing is pervasive. It is a social process involving the activities that facilitate exchanges of goods and services among individuals and organizations.
Customers buy benefits, not products. The benefits a customer receives from a firm’s offering, less the costs he or she must bear to receive those benefits, determine the offering’s value to that customer.
Delivering superior value to one’s customers is the essence of business success. Because delivering superior value is a multifunctional endeavor, both marketing and nonmarketing managers must adopt a strong focus on the customer and coordinate their efforts to make it happen.
A focus on satisfying customer needs and wants is not inconsistent with being technologically innovative.
The marketing management process requires an understanding of the 4Cs: the company and its mission, strategies, and resources; the macroenvironmental context in which it operates; customers and their needs and wants; and competitors. Obtaining an objective, detailed, evidence-based understanding of these factors is critical to effective marketing decision making.
Marketing decisions—such as choices about what goods or services to sell, to whom, and with what strategy—are made or approved at the highest levels in most firms, whether large or small. Therefore, managers who occupy or aspire to strategic positions in their organizations need marketing perspectives and analytical skills.

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