Mrketing reversed prior business logic 50 years ago and said
«the customer is king», and the companies began to recognize
that it was not just the product that was the most important aspect of
their business. Companies recognized that consumers had a myriad
of choices of product offerings and marketing was responsible
to ensure that the company's products had the benefits and
attributes that customers wanted and were willing to pay for. Today,
considering the technology development, which influences every
function of the company, the focus of the successful marketing
oriented companies has changed from «the customer is king» to
«the customer is a dictator!!!».
However, and despite the new trends in marketing, like any social
science, marketing has basic principles, and these principles need to
be considered when making any type of marketing decisions. So, the
major step of a student of marketing, whether it is a young university
student or an experienced business executive, is to understand
the principles of marketing, and reading the present book will be
the first step in accomplishing this task. This book describes these
basic principles of marketing, and while the authors recognize that
each decision may be slightly different from any previous decision,
the rules or principles remain the same. The present book presents
these basic marketing principles and tries to capture the essence
of practical and modern marketing today. Therefore, the purpose
of Principles of Marketing is to introduce readers to the fascinating
world of marketing today, in an easy, enjoyable and practical way,
offering an attractive text from which to learn about and teach
marketing.