1/7/22, 1:10 PM1.1 Defining Marketing – Principles of Marketing2/111.Creating. The process of collaborating with suppliers and customers to create offerings thathave value.2.Communicating. Broadly, describing those offerings, as well as learning from customers.3.Delivering. Getting those offerings to the consumer in a way that optimizes value.4.Exchanging. Trading value for those offerings.The traditional way of viewing the components of marketing is via the four Ps:1.Product. Goods and services (creating offerings).2.Promotion. Communication.3.Place. Getting the product to a point at which the customer can purchase it (delivering).4.Price.The monetary amount charged for the product (exchanging).Introduced in the early 1950s, the four Ps were called the marketing mix, meaning that a market‐ing plan is a mix of these four components.If the four Ps are the same as creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging, you might bewondering why there was a change. The answer is that they arenotexactly the same. Product,price, place, and promotion are nouns. As such, these words fail to capture all the activities ofmarketing. For example, exchanging requires mechanisms for a transaction, which consist ofmore than simply a price or place. Exchanging requires, among other things, the transfer of own‐ership. For example, when you buy a car, you sign documents that transfer the car’s title from theseller to you. That’s part of the exchange process.Even the termproduct, which seems pretty obvious, is limited. Does the product include servicesthat come with your new car purchase (such as free maintenance for a certain period of time onsome models)? Or does the product mean only the car itself?Finally, none of the four Ps describes particularly well what marketing people do. However, oneof the goals of this book is to focus on exactly what it is that marketing professionals do.ValueValue is at the center of everything marketing does (Figure 1.1). What does value mean?
