Marketing is considered to be the most important activity of the present day business. Without it, business will be meaningless. Quite often the success of a business is considered synonymous with the success of its marketing. Apart form becoming so crucial to a business, it is also helpful to the consumer and the development of the economy as well as the society. Over a period of time, business have realised various dimensions and significance of this function and a more comprehensive view is being adopted. Specialised branches of marketing like the marketing of consumer goods and services, industrial goods and services, have developed with their own unique features.
Marketing is a concept applicable not only to goods but also to services such as health service, investment counselling, bank deposits and loans, etc. Marketing is important to the business, consumer and the society. For the business house marketing brings in revenue, for the consumer it provides the goods and services of utility, for the society it enables a redistribution of income and generation of employment, and improving the standard of living of people. Major advantages of marketing are briefly discussed below:
1) Marketing is important to the business organisation, since it is the activity that sells the product and brings revenue to the company, and it is also the key to its success. Research and development and production become meaningless if the product is not marketed successfully. Scanning the environment, finding marketing opportunities, formulating product policies, evolving distribution and pricing strategies are some of the problem areas which pose challenges to the success of a business. Marketing takes care of all these challenges.
2) Marketing enables the consumers to exercise choice and to improve their levels of consumption. In a sense, marketing is defined as the delivery of a standard of living. The easy availability of goods and services of good quality at competitive prices is made possible only by an efficient marketing system. In such a system the consumer is the king.
3) Marketing creates time, place and possession utilities to products and services. Products are useful only when they are available at the required time and place as well as to the person who needs them. Marketing creates these utilities.
4) Marketing contributes to the economic development of the country. It symbolises the economic development of a country. This is because on the one hand marketing activities generate employment and income. On the other hand the development of a country is reflected in the variety and volume of goods available and consumed by the people of that country. The per capita availability of essential consumer goods is an indicator of the level of poverty or affluence in a country.
5) Marketing offers career opportunities to a large number of people. Marketing related occupations account for a significant portion of the employment generated in a country.
