Essentials of Marketing has provided a clear outline of the principle theories of
marketing in clear, jargon-free language for almost eight years now. The book is
intended to provide an overview of marketing thought and practice for students
new to marketing, for students on short introductory marketing courses, for overseas
students who need a plain-English guide, and to anyone who needs a quick
grasp of the subject.
The book seeks to avoid a UK-centred viewpoint, and examples are used from
throughout the world: where specific technical terms are used, they are explained
in the glossary, in direct and straightforward language.
Specific features of this edition are:
• Relevant and up-to-date case studies, all of which are new for this edition.
• Self-test questions designed to aid student learning.
• Up-to-date and full referencing for the more academic student.
• Recommended further reading for each chapter.
• Extended coverage of global marketing theory.
• A fully-rewritten Chapter 12, covering relationship marketing, Internet marketing,
marketing ethics, and the changing conceptual position of marketing in
the 21st century.
Overall, the book is intended to offer an insight into what marketing is all about:
it is written by an enthusiast, a believer in the marketing ethos. Marketing is
about facilitating exchange, it is about allowing people the choices to be able to
live the kind of lives they would wish for themselves and their families, and it
delivers a standard of living, but above all marketing is about ensuring that business
meets the needs of its customers.
Sadly, despite more than fifty years of marketing thought, many companies
still measure their success in financial terms (instead of in customer satisfaction
terms), still calculate the profitability of products (rather than the profitability of
groups of customers), and still often act as if customers have no choice about
where they spend their money. This book is intended to go some way towards
showing why (and how) this can be changed.