We often think that we don’t know something only because we are unable to easily put it into words. If this were true, then hardly anyone would know what marketing is. How could this be possible when all of us experience marketing multiple times every day?

Trying to define what marketing is is one tough task. In the past, and still today, many distinguished minds have interpreted with words those processes that happen within society. The definition given by The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is one of the most recognised and accepted and states that marketing is ‘the management process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably.’

In the second part of the CIM’s definition we quickly recognise the dynamics of  markets for goods and services that we experience as customers: we have needs (requirements) that are satisfied in exchange of currency. The first part refers to a management process which anticipates and identifies our needs and is what we call ‘marketing’.

We have hundreds of needs (and probably even more desires) and only by consuming goods and services we can satisfy them. How do we choose what product is the best to satisfy them? Most likely we wouldn’t know how to choose unless someone showed us that this product rather than that adds a higher value to our choice.

Marketing is, therefore, the activity that matches the needs of customers with the offer by understanding and, eventually, anticipating their needs.

By Alessia Cacaveri