Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society. Not only businesses that are looking for profitability, but non-profit organizations use it in order to promote ideas.
In the past marketing focused on helping the seller sell. Even though many people still think that about marketing, today, it is about helping the buyer buy. Helping the buyer buy, of course, also helps the seller sell.
Marketing has passed through 4 eras which are: the production era (centered on production capability and satisfying demand), the selling era (emphasized selling and advertising to persuade consumers to buy products), the marketing concept era (divided in costumer orientation/providing needs, service orientation/customer satisfaction, and profit orientation/focus on goods and services that are most profitable), and the customer relationship era (learning about customers and exceeding their expectations with products for their ultimate satisfaction and loyalty)
Today, there is a new era emerging which is the Mobile/On-Demand Marketing Era: Increasing consumers’ power and rising demand on a constant basis as they want their products now, want exactly what they need, personalized experience, and an easy transaction.