Marketing

What is Marketing, after all?

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, services and ideas to create exchanges with target groups that satisfy customer and organizational objectives. (American Marketing Association)

The Marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired  satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors (...) The marketing concept rests on four main pillars, namely target market, customer needs, coordinated marketing, and profitability. (Philip Kotler)

If you do, there are a few ways you can increase your knowledge on this, depending on the time you can spare:
- No time! (on-line info);
- Some time (look for books on the subject);
- Lots of time... or lots of sacrifice:
      taking a course on Marketing (Portugal only).

In Portugal, the Marketing approach is gaining increasing importance. With the advent of European and Global competition, local companies had to adjust to more demanding customers, where quality is the key to retain them. Quality of life has boosted and the economy is healthy. Recently, the Lisbon Stock Exchange has entered the Morgan Stanley Developed Countries Index. State-owned telecoms operators, however, were given until 2000 to adjust, in an effort to hinder fierce outside competitors from taking over.

rui.antunes@writeme.com