Marketing is a process that facilitates goods and services to be transported from where they are produced to where they are consumed. On the same note, marketing involves creating awareness of the product or service, increasing the likeness towards them, and creating a desire for people to purchase them. Therefore, marketing involves the use of the 4p’s of marketing to ensure that goods and services reach the consumers from where they are produced (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012).
The 4p’s are as follows;
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
However, many people across the globe misunderstand marketing with other functional areas of business, and this discussion will try to explain how.
Marketing is misunderstood with selling. By definition, selling is the aspect of exchanging a product or service for money. During the exchange, sellers are less concerned about the values of buyers, because they are only concerned with getting money from their products or service (Baker & Hart, 2008). It therefore differs from marketing because marketing is all about satisfaction. Marketing creates awareness of the product, increases the demand of such products, and ensure that consumers are satisfied with them, so as to make them buy the same products or services time and time again.
Marketing is also misunderstood with human resource. Human resource entails the management of employees and to assure that they are qualified and get the necessary training that will enable them to perform the given task successfully. Human resource also entails compensation package that ensures retention of the employees in their workplace (Daley, 2006). This is completely different from marketing that entails how the products or services made by the employees reach the final users.
Marketing is also misunderstood with customer service. Unlike marketing that ensures customers are satisfied with what they buy, the work of customer service is to give clarifications and respond to any enquiries customers may have about the product or service (Stock & Lambert, 2001). Customer service handle refunds, accept payments and cash checks, as well as providing forum in which customers can express their thoughts about the products and services and how to get assistance, and this is not found in marketing.
References
Baker, M., & Hart, S. (2008). The marketing book. Routledge.
Daley, D. M. (2006). Strategic human resource management. Public Personnel Management. Current concerns, future challenges, 5, 120-134.
Jobber, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012). Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Stock, J. R., & Lambert, D. M. (2001). Strategic logistics management (Vol. 4). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
