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Marketing is often confused with public relations or communications, whereas others may consider marketing as the process of selling, with selling being the final act of ordering and invoicing for a product or service.
In reality, marketing is or should be the process that starts from the conception of an idea; its development to a product or service that can be sold; the support before, during and after the act of sell; and the maintaining of the product/service’s image and presence in the market. Marketing is one of the most central aspects of commercialism, especially when products of added value are concerned. Lamentably, those involved in commodities and then expand in added-value products confuse the difference between selling on price and selling on value. Here comes marketing which, in the case of price-based selling, constitutes only, say, 10 percent of the total effort, whereas in added-value products, marketing can be even up to 90 percent of the process. Perhaps, this is an over-dramatization, but the basic concept is as such.
There is also the mistaken notion that marketing starts and ends in placing an advertisement. Perhaps this is all most can afford, but certainly it is not the only activity of marketing. Advertising works wonders in building brand image and for campaigns launching new products and services, but one can only fit so much information in the limited space of even a full-page advertisement. And, of course, marketing is not a one-on-one visit to present the new developments of our company....