A Generic Concept of Marketing

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A Generic Conceptof Marketing

PHILIP KOTLER

The proposal that marketing is relevantto all organizations having customergroups was advanced in the January, 1969

issue of this journal.It is now stated that the original broadening

proposal should be broadened still furtherto include the transactions between an

organization and all of its publics. The au-thor sees marketing as the disciplined taskof creating and offering values to others forthe purpose of achieving a desired response.

The generic view of marketing is definedby a set of four axioms and leads to new

marketing typologies and views of thetasks of marketing management.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Philip Kotier is A. Montgomery Ward Professor ofMarketing at the Graduate School of Management,Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Journal ol Marketing, Vol. 36 (April , 1972) , pp. 46-54.

ONE of the sign8 of the health of a discipline ia itswillingness to reexamine its focus, techniques, andgoals as the surrounding society changesand new problems require attention . Ma rketinghas shown this aptitude in the past. It was originally founded as a branchof applied economics devoted to the study of distribution channels. Later ma rketing becamea managemendiscipline devoted to engineering increases in salesMore recently, it has taken on the character of an ap-plied behavioral science that is concerned with undestanding buyer and seller systems involved in the mar-keting of goods and services.

The focus of marketing has correspondingly shifteover the years. Mark eting evolved througha commoditfocus (farm products, minerals, manufactured goodservices) ; an institutional focus (producers, wholesalerretailers, agents) ; a functional focus (buying, sellingpromoting, transporting, storing, pricing); a managerial focus (analysis, planning, organization, controland a social focus (market efficiency, product qualitand social im pa ct). Each new focus had its advocateand its critics. Ma rketing emerged each time witharefreshed and expanded self-concept.

Today marketing is facing a new challenge concerninwhether its concepts apply in the nonbusiness as well asthe business area. In 1969, this author and ProfessoLevy advanced the view that marketing is a relevandiscipline for all organizations insofar as all organizations can be said to have customers and products.^ Thi"broadening of the concept of marketing" proposal re-ceived much attention, and the 1^70 Fall Conference ofthe American Marketing Association was devoted tothis theme.

Critics soon appeared who warned that the broadeninconcept could divert marketing from its true purposeand dilute its content. One critic did not deny thamarketing concepts and tools could be useful in fundraising, museum membership drives,and presidentiacampaigns, but he felt that these were extracurriculapplications of an intrinsical business technology.*

'Philip Kotier and 8idney J. Levy, "Broadening the C!on-cept of Marketing," JOURNAL or MARKETING. Vol. 33(January, 1969), pp. 10-15.

2David Luck, "Broadening the Concept of MarketingToo Far," JOURNAL or MARKETING. Vol. 33 (July, 1969)pp 53-54


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A Generic Concept of Marketing

Several articles have been published which describeapplications of marketing ideas to nonbnsiness areassuch a8 health services, population control, recycling ofsolid wastes, and fund raising.^ The refore, the under-lying issues should be reexamined to see whether a moregeneric concept of marketing can be established. Thisauthor concludes that the traditional conception of mar-keting would relegate this discipline to an increasingly

narrow and pedestrian role in a society that is growingincreasingly post-ind ustrial. In fact, this article willargue that the broadening proposal's main weakness wasnot that it went too far but that it did not go farenough.

This article is organized into five parts. The first dis-tinguishes three stages of consciousness regarding thescope of mark eting. The second presents an axiomatictreatmen t of the generic concept of marke ting. Thethird suggests three useful marketing typologies thatare implied by the generic concept of ma rketing. Thefourth describes the basic analytical, planning, organi-

zation, and control tasks that make up the logic ofmarke ting managemen t. The fifth discusses some inter-esting questions raised about the generic concept ofmarketing.

Three Stages of Marketing ConsciousnessThree different levels of consciou.sness can be dis-

tinguished regarding the boundaries of marketing. Thepresent framework utilizes Reich's consciousness cate-gories withou t his specific meanings.* The traditionalconsciousness, that marketing is essentially a businessBnbject, will be called consciousnenn one. Consciousness

one is the most widely held view in the mind of practi-tioners and the public. In the last few years, a market-ing consciou.iness two has appeared among some mar-keters holding that marketing is appropriate for all or-ganizations that have customers. This is the thrust ofthe original broadening profwsal and seems to be gain-ing adhe rents. Now it can be argued that even con-sciousness two expresses a limited concept of marketing.One can propose connciousness three that holds that mar-keting is a relevant subject for all organizations in theirrelations with all their publics, not only customers. Thefuture character of marketing will depend on the par-ticular consciousness that most marketers adopt regard-ing the nature of their field.

Consciousness One

Consciousness one is the conception that marketing isessentially a business subject. It maintains that market-ing is concerned with sellers, but/ers, an d "economic"productK and servire.


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48 Journal of Marketing. April, 1972

not in the normal fashion. Police services are paid forby taxes, and religious services are paid for by dona-tions.

Each of these organizations faces marketing prohlemswith respect to its product and customer group. Theymust study the size and composition of their market andconsumer wants, attitudes, and habits. They must designtheir products to appeal to their target markets. Theymust develop distribution and communication programsthat facilitate "pu rch ase" and satisfaction. They mustdevelop customer feedback systems to ascertain marketsatisfaction and needs.

Thus consciousness two replaces the core concept ofmarket transactions with the broader concept oforgani-zation-client transactions. Marketing is no longer re-stricted only to transactions involving parties in a two-way exchange of economic resources. Ma rketing is auseful perspective for any organization producing prod-ucts for intended consumption by others. Marketingconsciousn ess tu-o states that mark eting is relevan t inall situations where one can identify an organiza tion, aclient group, and products broadly defined.

Consciousness Three

The emergence of a marketing consciousness three isbarely visible. Consciousness three marketers do notsee why marketing technology should be confined onlyto an organization's transactions with its client group.An organizationor more properly its nmnagementmay engage in marketing activity not only with its cus-tomers but also with all other publics in its environment.A management group has to market to the organization'ssupporters, suppliers, employees, government, the gen-eral public, agents, and other key publics. Marketingconsciousness three states that marketing applies to anorganisation 's attempts to relate to all of its publics,not just its consuming public. Marketing can be usedin multiple institutional contexts to effect transactionswith multiple targets.

Marketing consciousness three is often expressed inreal situat ions. One often hears a mark eter say thathis real problem is not outside marketing but innidemarketing; for example, getting others in his organiza-tion to accept his ideas. Companies seeking a pre ferred

position with suppliers or dealers see this as a problemof mar keting themselves. In addition, companies try tomarket their viewpoint to congressmen in Washington.These and many other examples suggest that marketerssee the marketing problem as extending far beyondcustomer groups.

The concept of denning marketing in terms offunc-tion rather than structure underlies consciousness three.To define a field in term s of function is to see it as aprocess or set of activitie s. To define a field in termsof structure is to identify it with some phenomena suchas a set of instit ution s. Bliss pointed out that manysciences are facing this choice." In the field of political

'Perry Bliss, Marketing Managem ent and the Behavioral

science, for example, there are those who adopt a strtural view and define political science in terms of pocal institutions such as legislatures, government agencjudicial courts, and political parties. There are othwho adopt a functional view and define political scieas the study of power wherever it is found. The lattpolitical scientists study power in the family, in labmanagement relations, and in corporate organizatio

Similarly, marketing can be defined in terms of futional rather than structura l considerations. Markettakes places in a great number of situations, includexecutive recru iting, political .cam paign ing, church mbership drives, and lobbying. Examining the marketaspects of these situations can yield new insights ithe generic natu re of marketin g. The payoff may higher than from continued concentration in one tof structural setting, that of business.

It is generally a mistake to equate a science witcertain phenomenon. Fo r examp le, the subject ofmater does not belong exclusively to physics, chemistry,

biologj. Rather physics, chemistrj', and biology logical systems that pose different questions about mter. Nor does human nature belong exclusively to pchology, sociology, social psychology, or anthropoloThese sciences simply raise different questions about same phenomena. Sim ilarly, tradi tiona l business sjects should not be defined by institutional charactetics. This would mean that finance deals with banproduction with factories, and marketing with distrtion channels. Yet each of these subjects has a setcore ideas that are applicable in multiple institutiocontexts. An important means of achieving prog

in a science is to try to increase the generality ofconcepts.

Consider the case of a hospital as an institu tion. production-minded person will want to know about locations of the various facilities, the jobs of the varpersonnel, and in general the arrangement of the ments to produce the product known as health care.financial-minded person will want to know the hospisources and applications of funds and its income expenses. A marketing-minded person will want to kwhere the patients come from, why they appearedthis particular hospital, and how they feel about hospital care and services. Thus the phenomena docreate the questions to be asked; rather the questions suggested by the disciplined view brought to the nomena.

What then is the disciplinarj- focus of marketing!core concept of marketing is thetransaction. A transation is the exchange of values between two parties.Th

thing8-of-values need not be limited to goods, servand money; they include other resources such as tenergy, and feelings. Transac tions occur not onlytween buyers and sellers, and organizations and cli

but also between any two partie s. A transaction tplace, for example, when a person decides to wattelevision program he is exchanging his time for en


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votes for a particular candidate; he is exchanging histime and support for expectations of better government.A transaction takes place when a person gives moneyto a charity; he is exchanging money for a good con-science. Marketing is speciflcally concerned tiith howtransactions are created, stimulated, facilitated, andvalued. This is the generic concept of marketing.

The Axioms of Marketing

The generic concept of marketing will now be morerigorously developed. Marke ting can be viewed as acategory of human ctction distinguishable from othercategories of human action such as voting, lovnng, con-suming, or fighting. As a catego rj' of human action, ithas certain characteristics which can be stated in theform of axiom s. A suflBcient set of axioms abo ut mar-keting would provide unambiguous criteria about whatmarketing is, and what it is not. Fo ur axioms, alongwith corollaries, are proposed in the following section.

Axiom 1. Marketing involves two or more social units,each consisting of one or more human actors.

Corollary 1.1. The social units may be individuals,groups, organizations, communities, or nations.

Two important things follow from this axiom. First,marketing is not an activity found outside of the humanspecies. Anima ls, for example, engage in productionand consumption, but do not engage in marketing. Theydo not exchange goods, set up distribution systems, andengage in persuasive activity. Marketing is a peculiar-ly human activity.

Second, the referent of marketing activity is anothersocial unit. Ma rketing does not apply when a personis engaged in an activity in reference to athing orhimself. Eating, driving, and manufacturing are notmarketing activities, as they involve the person in aninteractive relationsh ip prim arily with things. Jogg ing,sleeping, and daydreaming are not marketing activities,as they involve the person in an interactive relationshipprimarily with himself. An interesting question doesarise as to whether a person can be conceived of mar-keting something to himself, as when he undertakeseffort to change his own behavior. Normally, however,marketing involves actions by a person directed towardone or more other persons.

Axiom 2. At least one of the social units is seeking aspecific response from one or more other un its con-cerning some social object.

Corollary 2.1. The social unit seeking the response iscalled the marketer, and the social unit whoseresponse is sought is called themarket.

Corollarj- 2.2. The social object may be a product, ser-vice, organization, person, place, or idea.

Corollary 2.3. The response sought from the marketis some behavior toward the social object, usuallyacceptance but conceivably avoidance. (More sp>e-ciflc descriptions of responses sought are pur-chase, adoption, usage, consumption, or their

i Th h d d

or supporters.)Corollary- 2.4. The marketer is normally aware

he is seeking the specific response.Corollarj- 2.5. The response sought may be exp

in the short or long run.Corollarj- 2.6. The response has value to the markCorollary 2.7. Mutual marketing describes the

where two social units simultaneously seek

sponse from each other. Mutual marketing icore situation underlying bargaining relations

Marketing consists of actions undertaken by peto bring about a respK)nse in other persons concesome specific social object. A social object is any eor artifact found in society, such as a product, seorganization, person, place, or idea. The marnormally seeks to influence the market to acceptsocial object. The notion of marketing also covertempts to influence persons to avoid the object, asbusiness effort to discourage excess demand or social campaign designed to influence people to smoking or overeating.^ The marketer is ba.oicallying to shape the level and composition of demandhis product. The marketer undertakes these influactions because he values their consequences. The ket may also value the consequences, but this is necessary- condition for defining the occurrence of keting activitj'. The marketer is normally consthat he is attempting to influence a market, but also possible to interpret as marketing activity where the marketer is not fully conscious of his endmeans.

Axiom 2 implies that "selling" activity rather "buying" activity is closer to the core meaning of keting. The merchant who assembles goods for thepose of selling them is engaging in marketing, inas he is seeking a purchase response from others buyer who comes into his store and pays the quprice is engaging in buying, not marketing, in thdoes not seek to produce a specific response in the swho has already pa t the goods up for sale. Ifbuyer decides to bargain with the seller over the the too is involved in marketing, or if the seller had reluctant to sell, the buyer has to market himself attractive buyer. The terms "bu yer" and "seller"not perfectly indicative of whether one, or both, oparties are engaged in marketing activity.

Axiom 3. The market's response probability is notfirCorollary 3.1. The probability that the market

produce the desired response is called themarkresponse probability.

Corollarj- 3.2. The market's response probabilitgreater than zero; that is, the market is capof producing the desired response.

Corollary 3.3. The market's response probabililess than one; that is, the market is not intern

compelled to produce the desired response.

8See Philip Kotier and Sidney J. Levy, "Demark


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50 Journal of Markefing, April, 1972

Corollarj' 3.4. The market's response probability canbe altered by marketer actions.

Marketing activity makes sense in the context of amarket that is free and capable of yielding the desiredresponse. If the targe t social unit cannot respond tothe social object, as in the case of no interest or noresources, it is not a marke t. If the target social unitmust respond to the social object, as in the case ofaddiction or perfect brand loyalty, that unit is a marketbut there is little need for m arketing activity. In caseswhere the market's response probability is fixed in theshort run but variable in the long run, the marketer mayundertake marketing activity to prevent or reduce theerosion in the response probab ility. Normally, market-ing activity is most relevant where the market's responseprobability is less than one and highly influenced bymarketer actions.

Axiom 4. Marketing is the attempt to produce the de-sired response by creating and offering values to

the market.Corollarj' 4.1. The marketer assumes that the market'sresponse will be voluntary.

Corollary 4.2. The essential activity of marketing isthe creatio n and offering of value . Value isdefined subjectively from the market's point ofview.

Corollary 4.3. The marketer creates and offers valuemainlj' through configuration, valuation, symbo-lization, and facilitation. (Configuration is theact of designing the social object. Valuation isconcerned with placing terms of exchange on the

object. Symbolization is the association of mean-ings with the object. Facili tation consists ofaltering the accessibility of the object.)

Corollary 4.4. Effective marketing means the choiceof marketer actions that are calculated to pro-duce the desired response in the market.Efficientmarketing means the choice of least cost marketeractions that will produce the desired response.

Marketing is an approach to producing desired re-sponses in another party that lies midwaj' betweenco -ercion on the one hand and brainiva.'hing on the other.

Coercion involves the attempt to produce a responsein another by forcing or threatening him with agent-inflicted p ain. Agent-inflicted pain should be distin-guished from object-inflicted pain in that the latter maybe used bj' a marketer as when he sj'nibolizes somethingsuch as cigarettes as potentially harmful to the smoker.The use of agent-inflicted pain is nonnally not a mar-keting solution to a respon se problem. This is not todeny that marketers occasionally resort to arranging a"package of threa ts" to get or keep a customer. Forexample, a company may threaten to discontinue pur-chasing from another company if the latter failed tobehave in a certain waj'. But normally, marketing con-sists of noncoercive actions to induce a response inanother.

foundly altering his basic beliefs and values. Insteadtrying to persuade a person to see the social objectserving his existing values and interests, the agent tto shift the subject's values in the direction of the soobject. Brainw ashing , fortun ately , is a very diffifeat to accomplish. It requires a monopoly of commcation channels, oprant conditioning, and much tience. Sho rt of pu re brainw ashing efforts are attem

by various agents to change people's basic values in cnection with such issues as racial prejudice, birth ctrol, and private property . Marketing has some usinsights to offer to agents seeking to produce bachanges in people, although its main focus is on creatproducts and messages attuned to existing attitudes values. It places more empha sis on preferen ce eneering than attitude conditioning, although the lais not excluded.

The core concern of marketing is that of producdesired responses in free individuals by the judicicreation and offering of values. The markete r is

tempting to get value from the market through offevalue to it. The ma rketer 's problem is to create attrtive values. Value is completely subjective and exin the eyes of the beholding market. M arkete rs munderstand the market in order to be effective in ating value. This is the essential meaning of the mketing concept.

The ma rkete r seeks to create value in four waj's. can trj- to design the social object more attractiv ely (figuration) ; he can put an attractive terms on the soobject (valuation) ; he can add symbolic significancthe social object (symb olization) ; and he can m ak

easier for the marke t to obtain the social object (fatat ion). He maj' use these activities in reverse ifwants the social object to be avoided. These four tivities have a rough correspondence to more contional statements of marketing purpose, such as theof product, price, promotion, and place to stimuexchange.

The lajTiian who thinks about marketing often oidentifies it with one or two major component activisuch as facilitation or symbo lization. In scarcity ecnomies, marketing is often identified with the facilitafunction. M arketin g is the problem of gettin g scgoods to a mar ketpla ce. There is little concern configuration and symbo lization. Inaffluent econommarketing is often identified with the symbolizafunction. In the pop ular mind, mark eting is seethe task of encoding persuasive messages to get peto buy more goods. Since most people resent p ersion attempts, marketing has picked up a negaimage in the minds of many people. They forgeoverlook the marketing work involved in creating vthrough configuration, valuation, and facilitation. the future post-industrial society concern over the ity of life becomes paramount, and the public unstanding of marketing is likely to undergo fu

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Typologies of Marketing

The new levels of marketing consciousness make itdesirable to reexamine traditional classifications of mar-keting activity. Marketing practitioners normally de-

scribe their type of marketing according to thetargetmarket or product. A target-market classification ofmarketing activitj' consists of consumer marketing, in-dustrial marketing, government marketing, and interna-tional marketing.

A product classification consists of durable goodsmarketing, nondurable goods marketing, and servicemarketing.

With the broadening of marketing, the precedingclassifications no longer express the full range of mar-keting application. They pertain to business marketing,which is only one tj'i>e of mark etin g. More comprehen-

sive classifications of marketing activity can be formu-lated according to the target market, product, ormarketer.

Target Market Typology A target-market classification of marketing activitj'

distinguishes the variouspublics toward which an organ-ization can direct its marketing activity. A public isany group with potential interest and impact on anorganization. Every organization has up to nine dis-tinguishable publics (Figu re 1). There are threeinputpublics (supporters, employees, suppliers), two output

publics (agents, consumers), and four sanctioning pub-lics (government, competitors, special publics, and gen-eral pub lic) The organiz ation is viewed as a resource

porters (e.g., stockholders, directors), employees,suppliers and converts these into products that grectly to consumers or through agen ts. The orgation's basic input-output activities are subject towatchful eye of sanctioning publics such as governcompetitors, special publics, and the general publicof these publics are targets for organizational maing activity because of their potential impact onresource converting efficiency of the organization. Tfore, a target-market classification of marketing acconsists of supporter-directed marketing, emploj'rected marketing, supplier-directed marketing, adirected marketing, consumer-directed marketing, eral public-directed marketing, special public-dirmarketing, government-directed marketing, and comtor-directed marketing.

Product Typology

A typologj' of marketing activity can also be structed on the basis of the product marketed. Uthe broadened concept of marketing, the produno longer restricted to commercial goods and serAn organization can try to market to a public usix tj'pes of products or social objects. A product cflcation of marketing consists of goods marketingvice marketing, organization marketing, person ming, place marketing, and idea marketing.

Goods and service marketing, which made up the wof traditional marketing, reappear in this classificIn addition, marketers can specialize in the marketiorganizations (e g governments corporations or


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52 Journal of Marketing, April, 197

places (e.g., real estate developments, resort areas, states,cities),and ideas (e.g., family planning. Medicare, anti-smoking, safe-driving).

Marketer Typology

typology can also be constructed on the basis ofthe marketer, that is, the organization that is carryingon the marke ting. A first approximation would call fordistinguishing between business and nonbusiness organi-zation marke ting. Since there are several types of non-business organizations with quite different products andmarketing tasks, it would be desirable to build a mar-keter classification that recognizes the different types oforganizations. This leads to the following classifications :Business organization marketing, political organizationmarketing, social organization marketing, religious or-ganization marketing, cultural organization marketing,and knowledge organization marketing.

Organizations are classified according to their primary

or formal character. Political organizations would in-clude political parties, government agencies, tradeunions, and cause groups. Social organizations wouldinclude service clubs, fraternal organizations, and pri-vate welfare agencies. Religious organizations would in-clude churches and evangelical movements. Culturalorganizations would include museums, symphonies, andart leagues. Knowledge organizations would includepublic schools, universities, and research organizations.Some organizations are not easy to classify. Is a non-profit hospital a business or a social organization? Isan employee credit union a political or a social organi-zation? The purpose of the classification is primarilyto guide students of marketing to look for regularitiesthat might characterize the activities of certain basictypes of organizations.

In general, the purpose of the three classifications ofmarketing activity is to facilitate the accumulation ofmarketing knowledge and its transfer from one market-ing domain to another . Thus political and social or-ganizations often engage in marketing ideas, and it isdesirable to build up generic knowledge about idea mar-keting. Similarly, many organiza tions try to communi-cate a program to government authorities, and they

could benefit from the accumulation of knowledgeconcerning idea marketing and government-directedmarketing.

Basic Tasks of Marketing Management

Virtually all persons and organizations engage inmarketing activitj* at various times. They do not allengage in marketing, however, with equal skill. A dis-tinction can be drawn betweenmarketing and marketingmanagement. Marketing is a descriptive science involv-ing the study of how transactions are created, stimu-lated, facilitated, and valued.Marketing managementia a normative science involving the efficient creationand offering of values to stimulate desired transactions

of the task of achieving specific responsethrough the creation and offering of values.

Marketing management is not a set of much as an orderly set of questions by whiketer determines what is best to do in eacEffective marketing consists of intelligentlplanning, organizing, and controlling mark

The marketer must be skilled at two basi

tasks. The first ismarket analysis. He must be to identify the market, its size and locationwants,perceptions and values. The secondskill isproduct analysis. The marketer must dewhat products are currently available to thehow the target feels about each of them.

Effective marketing also calls for four maskills. The first isproduct development, i.e., confition. The marketer should know where tappropriate ideas, how to choose and refineconcept, how to stylize and package the phow to test it. The second ispricing, i.e., valua

He must develop an attractive set of termproduct. The third isdistribution, i.e., facilitationmarketer should detennine how to get the circulation and make it accessible to its taThe fourth ispromotion, i.e., symbolization. Thketer must be capable of stimulating markethe product.

Effective marketing also requires three orskills. The first isorganizational design. The markshould understand the advantages and disadorganizing market activity along functionand market lines. The second isorganizational staffi

He should know how to find, train, and assco-marketers. The third isorganizational motivatiHe must determine how to stimulate the beeffort by hisstaff.

Finally, effective marketing also calls for skills The first ismarket results measurement, wherthe marketer keeps informed of the attitbehavioral responses he is achieving in the The second ismarketing cost measurement, wherebymarketer keeps informed of his costs and carrying out his marketing plans.

Some Questions About Generic Marketing

The robustness of the particular conceptketing advocated in this article will be knthrough testing the ideas in various situaquestion is whether the logic called markhelp individuals such as educational adpublic officials, mu8eum directors, or churcbetter interpret their problems and construcgies. If these ideas are validated in the mthey will be accepted and adopted.

However, academic debate does contribtially to the sharpening of the issues and Several interesting questions have arisen i


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of marketin g. Three of these questions are raised anddiscussed below.

(1 ) Isn't generic m arketing really using influence asthe core concept rather than exchangef

It is tempting to think that the three levels ofconsciousness of marketing move frommarket trans-actions to exchange to influence as the succeedingcore concepts. The concept of influence undeniably

plays an important role in marketing thought. Per-sonal selling and advertising are essentially influenceefforts. Prod uct design, pricing , packag ing, anddistribution planning make extensive use of in-fluence considerations. It would be too general tosay, bowever, that marketing is sjTJonjTiious withinterpersonal, intergroup, or interorganizational in-fluence processes.

Marketing is a particular way of looking at theproblem of achieving a valued response from atarg et mark et. It essentially bolds that exchangevalues must be identified, and the marketing pro-

gram must be based on these exchange values. Thtisthe anticigarette marketer analyzes what the marketis being asked to give up and what inducementsmight be offered. The marketer recognizes thateverj-action by a person has an opport uni ty cost. Themarketer attempts to find ways to increase the per-son's perceived rate of exchange between what hewould receive and what he would give up infreelyadop ting that behavior. The mark eter is a special-ist at understanding human wants and values andknows what it takes for someone to act.

(2 ) How would one distinguish between marketing anda host of related activities such as lobbying, propa-gandizing, publicizing, and negotiating?

Marketing and other influence activities and toolsshare some common characteristics as well as exhibitsome unique featu res . Each influence activity- hasto be examined separately in relation to marketing.Lobbying, for example, is one aspect of govern-ment-directed mar keting . Tbe lobbyist attem pts toevoke support from a legislator through offeringvalues to the legislator (e.g., information, votes,friendship, and favo rs). A lobbyist thinks through

the problem of marketing his legislation as carefullyas the business marketer thinks through the problemof marketing his product or service. Propagandiz-ing is the marketing of a political or social idea toa mass audience. The prop agand ist attempts topackage the ideas in such a way as to constitutevalues to the target audience in exchange for sup-port. Publicizing is the effort to create attentionand interes t in a target audience. As such it is atool of marketing. Negotiation is a face-to-facemnta al marketing process. In general, the broad-ened concept of marketing underscores the kinship

of marketing with a large number of other activitiesand suggests that marketing is a more endemicprocess in society than business marketing alone

(3 ) Doesn't generic marketing imply that a marketcould be more capable of managing political charitable campaigns than professionals in thebusinesses t

A distinction should be drawn between markeas a logic and marketing as a competence. Anyowho is seeking a response in another would benfrom applying marketing logic to the problem. Ta company treasurer seeking a loan, a comprecruiter seeking a talented executive, a consetionist seeking an antipollution low, would all beflt in conceptualizing their problem in marketerms. In these instances, they would be donninmarketer's hat although they would not be perfoing as professional marketers. A professional mketer is someone who ( 1 ) regularly works with mketing problems in a specific area and (2) haspecialized knowledge of this area. The politstrategist, to the extent he is effective, is a pfessional marketer. He has learned how to eftively design, package, price, advertise, and tribute his type of product in his type of marA professional marketer who suddenly decideshandle political candidates would need to devecompetence and knowledge in this area just aswould if he suddenly decided to handle soapsteel. Being a mark eter only means that a perhas mastered the lc ^c of marketing. To mathe particular market requires additional learnand experience.

Summary and Conclusion

This article has examined the current debate in mketing concerning whether its substance belongs in business area, or whether it is applicable to all areaswhich organizations attempt to relate to customers other public s. Specifically, consciousness one marketholds that marketing's core idea ismarket transactionand therefore marketing applies to buyers, sellers, commercial products and services. Consciousness twmarketing holds that marketing's core idea isorganistion-client transactions, and therefore marketing applin any organization that can recognize a group cacustomers. Consciousness three marketing holds thmarketing's core idea is transactions, and therefore mketing applies to any social unit seeking to exchavalues with other social units.

This broadest conception of marketing can be cageneric marketing. Generic marketing takes a futional rather than a structural view of marketing. Faxioms define generic marketing. Axiom 1 : Marketiinvolves two or more social units. Axiom 2: At leaone of the social onitB is seeking a specific respofrom one or more other units concerning some soobject. Axiom 3: The market's response probabilitynot fixed. Axiom 4: Marketing is the attempt to p

duce the desired response by creating and offering vato the ma rket. These four axioms and their corollare intended to provide unambiguous criteria for


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54 Journal of Marketing, April, 1972

Oenec marketing further implies that marketingactivity can he classified according to thetarget market(marketing directed to supporters, employees, suppliers,agents, consumers, general public, special puhlics, gov-ernmen t, and comp etitors) ; the product (goods, ser-vices, organizations, persons, places, and ideas) ; andthe marketer (business, political, social, religious, cul-tural, and knowledge organizations).

Marketers face the same tasks in all types of market-ing. Their major analytical tasks aremarket analysisand product analysis. Their major planning tasks areproduct development, pricing, dLitribution,and promo-tion. Their major organizational tasks are design.

staffing, and motivation. Their major control tasks amarket results measurement and marketing cost meaurement.

Generic marketing is a logic available to all organitions facing problems of market response. A distinctshould be drawn between applying a marketing point view to a specific problem and being a marketing pfessional. M arketing logic alone does not make a mketing professional. The professional also acquires copetence, which along with the logic, allows him to intpret his problems and construct his marketing strategin an eflFective way.

^ M A R K E TI N G M E M O -

One Man's View: A Frustrated "Middle America" . . .

Hiere is an alarming problem in this country today, the alienation of alargesegment of the population , the white working class. Forty m illion strong , the w hiteworkers form the bulk of this natio n's labor force. Attached to them are the whitecivil servants, the small entrepreneurs, the shopkeepers, all the people encompassedin the term "midd le Americ a." They add up to sixty or seventy million.

The white worker earns from five or six thousand dollars to somewhere aroundfifteen thousand dollars a year. Typically, he has a wife, two children, a house intown or the inner sub ur bs . He is the buffer between th e ghe tto and th e afiSuentsociety. He owes far too much on installment debts on his car, appliances and h om e.He finds his tax burden increasingly heavy, his neighborhood services low or invisible,and his political clout diminishing.

Typically, he attended public school and graduated from high school, which wasprobably the high point of his life, at least socially. But school to him was generallyan abysmal failure. It had sold him and his parents on the legitimacy of a systemthatabused him by putting him on the vocational and general education track, meaningdead end. At seventeen he already knew he had n't m ade it. All, then, that he has tolook forward to is the work ethic, and he sees people making fun of it, particularlythe young . He is confused, and now he is grow ing increasingly ang ry. . . .

These people want to be recognized, they want to be told that they exist, and not

only as a negativ e force in Am erican life. They ar e not hap py, because they d on 'tknow what to do with their lives. Tliey are insecure in man y ways. And theyarefearful. The fear can produce fury in the absence of direc tion .

M ichael M. Schneider, "Middle Am erica:Study in Frustration," The Center Maga-zine, Vol. I l l (November /December,1970) , pp . 2-9, at p. 2 and 3 in part.


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Documents

A Generic Concept of Marketing