What is marketing? Explain different functions of marketing.

Answer: Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and satisfying them through the exchange of goods and services at a profit. Its functions include market research, product planning, buying and assembling, standardisation and grading, packaging, branding, pricing, promotion, storage, transportation, distribution and financing.

Meaning: Marketing includes all activities involved in the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. Modern marketing begins with finding out what customers want and ends with satisfying them, even after the sale. According to Philip Kotler, marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.

Functions of marketing:

1. Market research: Collecting and analysing information about consumers, their needs, competitors and market conditions.
2. Market planning: Setting marketing objectives and deciding the strategy to achieve them.
3. Product designing and development: Designing the product with the right features, quality and appearance as per consumer needs.
4. Buying and assembling: Purchasing raw materials or goods and collecting them at one place.
5. Standardisation and grading: Fixing standards of quality, size, etc. and sorting goods into classes by quality.
6. Packaging and labelling: Protecting the product, making it attractive and giving information about it.
7. Branding: Giving a name or symbol to the product to distinguish it from competitors.
8. Pricing: Fixing a price that covers costs, earns profit and is acceptable to customers.
9. Promotion: Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity to inform and persuade customers.
10. Storage (warehousing) and transportation: Keeping goods safely till demand arises and moving them to markets, creating time and place utility.
11. Distribution: Choosing channels like wholesalers and retailers to make the product available to customers.
12. Financing and risk bearing: Arranging funds for marketing activities and bearing risks like price fall, loss and damage.
13. Customer service: After-sales service, handling complaints and building long-term relationships.