Definitions of marketing

Here are some definitions of marketing, oldest first, starting with the 1922 OED (Oxford English Dictionary). The increasingly broad nature of these marketing definitions reflects the increasing dimensions by which organizations engage with their markets, and consequently how the meaning of marketing has grown.

"The action of selling, i.e., to bring or send to market..." and also, "Produce [verb meaning] to be sold in the market." (1922 OED - Oxford English Dictionary, paraphrased)

"The action or business of promoting and selling products and services, including market research and advertising". (1998-2005 revised, modern-day Oxford English Dictionary)

"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably." (The UK Chartered Institute of Marketing, CIM, official definition 2012.)

"Marketing encompasses and includes all organizational activities which involve or affect the relationship between a supplier/provider organization and its audience and stakeholders." (Businessballs.com, A Chapman, 2012)

Definition of advertising and advertisement

We now see more clearly that advertising is quite different to, and actually within, marketing:

"The activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services." (2005 Oxford English Dictionary)

Advertisement is defined as: "A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service or event, or publicizing a job vacancy." (2005 Oxford English Dictionary)

"Communicating by print or electronic or other media to a customer/audience/market about a product/service/organization so as to improve the desire for or view of the product/service/organization." (Businessballs.com, A Chapman, 2012)

(Extending usefully as:) "...Advertising seeks, in measurable, cost-effective, controllable ways, to generate enquiries or sales and/or to raise awareness/perceptions of a supplier/provider/organization, by presenting motivating communications to an appropriate audience." (Businessballs.com, A Chapman, 2012)

In summary

Marketing and advertising are different.

Marketing is an extremely broad area that includes advertising, not vice-versa.

Marketing also includes PR, online presence/activities, customer service, selling/sales admin (methods and structure/strategy), branding, exhibitions, sponsorship, new product development, merchandising, surveys and market research, political lobbying, and even extends to ethos, culture, training, and organizational constitutional issues, since all this affects the image and trading style of an organization or product/service provider.

Advertising is far more specific than marketing; advertising is a function of marketing, and basically encompasses methods of communication with audience designed to produce sales enquiries, and/or improve awareness/perceptions of product/brand/organization. Advertising refers to printed and electronic media that is presented one way or another to market or audience, including packaging, point of sale, brochures and sales literature. Advertising increasingly extends to 'advertorial' in traditional and online media, which combines provision of objective helpful information and more subjective advertising/endorsement. Advertising (when properly executed) is the statistically driven and measurable implementation of marketing strategy, via carefully selected communications methods, targeted at predetermined audiences.

Advertising is one of several instruments/means by which marketing operates.

We might also regard advertising as one means of tactical implementation of the strategic aims of marketing.

You will often find that many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While both components are important they are very different. Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let's start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I'll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so lets break it down a bit.

Advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

Professional ethics

Professional ethics encompass the personal, organizational and corporate standards of behaviour expected of professionals.^[1]

Professionals, and those working in acknowledged professions, exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional ethics.^[2]

Professionals are capable of making judgements, applying their skills and reaching informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not received the relevant training.^[3] One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is probably the Hippocratic oath to which medical doctors still adhere to this day.

Components[edit]

Some professional organisations define their ethical approach in terms of a number of discrete components.^[4] Typically these include:

· Honesty

· Integrity

· Transparency

· Accountability

· Confidentiality

· Objectivity

· Respectfulness

· Obedience to the law

· Loyalty

Implementation[edit]

Most professions have internally enforced codes of practice that members of the profession must follow to prevent exploitation of the client and to preserve the integrity of the profession. This is not only for the benefit of the client but also for the benefit of those belonging to the profession. Disciplinary codes allow the profession to define a standard of conduct and ensure that individual practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the professional body if they do not practice accordingly. This allows those professionals who act with conscience to practice in the knowledge that they will not be undermined commercially by those who have fewer ethical qualms. It also maintains the public’s trust in the profession, encouraging the public to continue seeking their services.

Internal regulation [edit]

In cases where professional bodies regulate their own ethics, there are possibilities for such bodies to become self-serving and to fail to follow their own ethical code when dealing with renegade members. This is because of the nature of professions in which they have almost a complete monopoly on a particular area of knowledge. For example, until recently, the English courts deferred to the professional consensus on matters relating to their practice that lay outside case law and legislation.^[5]

Statutory regulation[edit]

In many countries there is some statutory regulation of professional ethical standards such as the statutory bodies that regulate nursing and midwifery in England and Wales.^[6] Failure to comply with standards can thus become a matter for the courts.

Examples[edit]

For example, a lay member of the public should not be held responsible for failing to act to save a car crash victim because they could not give an appropriate emergency treatment. This is because they do not have the relevant knowledge and experience. In contrast, a fully trained doctor (with the correct equipment) would be capable of making the correct diagnosis and carrying out appropriate procedures. Failure of a doctor to help in such a situation would generally be regarded as negligent and unethical. An untrained person would not be considered to be negligent for failing to act in such circumstances and might indeed be considered to be negligent for acting and potentially causing more damage and possible loss of life.

A business may approach a professional engineer to certify the safety of a project which is not safe. Whilst one engineer may refuse to certify the project on moral grounds, the business may find a less scrupulous engineer who will be prepared to certify the project for a bribe, thus saving the business the expense of redesigning.^[7]

Separatism [edit]

On a theoretical level, there is debate as to whether an ethical code for a profession should be consistent with the requirements of morality governing the public. Separatists argue that professions should be allowed to go beyond such confines when they judge it necessary. This is because they are trained to produce certain outcomes which may take moral precedence over other functions of society.^[8] For example, it could be argued that a doctor may lie to a patient about the severity of their condition, if there is reason to think that telling the patient could cause them so much distress that it would be detrimental to their health. This would be a disrespect of the patient’s autonomy, as it denies them information on something that could have a great impact on their life. This would generally be seen as morally wrong. However, if the end of improving and maintaining health is given a moral priority in society, then it may be justifiable to contravene other moral demands in order to meet this goal.^[9] Separatism is based on a relativist conception of morality that there can be different, equally valid moral codes that apply to different sections of society and differences in codes between societies (see moral relativism). If moral universalism is ascribed to, then this would be inconsistent with the view that professions can have a different moral code, as the universalist holds that there is only one valid moral code for all.^[10]

International Business Ethics

When business are engaged in multinational activities, a variety of important issues arise that do not have the same easy answers as are offered by doing business in only one area of legal jurisdiction or nation. Because of this dilemma that is increasingly plaguing the large multinational corporations, international business ethics has arisen to help address these sticky subject matters. International business ethics attempts to deal with questions of what to do in situations where ethical morals come into conflict as a result of the differing cultural practices.

There are many international business ethics discussions going on that believe the question of how to behave in the home country versus the host country are the central point. The argument in favor of behaving according to host country socially accepted morals shows respect both to the citizens and the culture of the hosting country in which the business is conducting affairs. Such an argument would tell the business to follow the ancient world adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do, not simply for etiquette, but also for business ethics. The other side of the argument counters with questions of what a business representative should do when socially accepted norms are morally repugnant to the cultural values of the business' home. As an example, in many Latin American countries, bribing public officials is necessary for doing business. Does this countenance the multinational corporation representatives doing the same out of respect for the host country, or instead argue against participating as it is morally repugnant to the home country of the business in question?

A middle ground approach emerges as central to international business ethics. This lies in creating a list of internationally accepted morals that should be consulted in the performance of multinational business dealings. As an example, the United National Global Compact, or the older UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, would be put forward as an appropriate conduct guide for international business ethics. The United Nations Global Compact encourages business everywhere to advance and honor the internationally accepted human rights, to uphold the right of collective bargaining, to avoid being involved with human rights' abuses, to have no part in compulsory human labor, to do away with child labor, to support a caring and cautious approach to the environment, to reduce any kind of employment discrimination, to encourage the creation of technologies that are friendly to the environment, to encourage more significant personal environmental responsibility, and to work to stamp out corruption in all of its many ugly guises, such as bribery and extortion.

Other justice or moral ground theories create different lists of ethical practices for multinational corporations conducting business in countries featuring lower levels of development. One source, DeGeorge, called in 1993 for ten guidelines for the behavior of multinational corporations in other countries. Among these were avoiding harm, honoring human rights, affecting good, respecting local cultures, accepting the responsibilities for individual behaviors, working fairly with honorable institutions and governments, and ensuring that dangerous technologies and factories are made safe for workers and the community.

Although such intentions are good and honorable, there are still three different problems with such approaches to international business ethics. First, they ignore or avoid the reality of competition. A real life example involves a company trying to do business honorably in a country that takes and accepts bribes as a regular part of doing business. The business wants to help improve the environment as they do their business, but refuses to pay the government officials bribes. Licenses can not be secured form the governmental officials since no bribes are paid. Market share begins to erode, along with the purpose for having operations placed in the country, as competitors without scruples pay their bribes without any moral restrictions. The company will have to decide which moral is more important, refusing to endorse corruption in paying bribes, or staying to help improve the environment and employ the locales through paying the necessary bribes.

A second limitation to such list approaches lies in them only replicating the home country versus host country question that they are supposed to answer. Since the one list advocated working with just institutions and governments, the argument comes full circle again. Whose morals or sense of justice will determine if such entities are just and should be cooperated with or not?

Finally, respect for moral norms and local cultures have to come from some culture's concept of justice. Those of the west for ethics, fairness, and justice in general are the ones that are commonly sourced. Clashes between host and home countries must be resolved by some culture's guidelines, whether Western or non-Western.

As the process of globalization has increased its pace and depth, the problem and need for international business ethics has only intensified. With falling communication and transaction costs that are encouraged by telecommunication and computer technology advances, the global market has recently become a truly global marketplace. Multinational business is more often the standard and not the exception. This is particularly the case where the production of cars, clothes, shoes, and commodity types of goods are concerned.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14