CHAPTER 1

One more time: what is marketing? MICHAEL J. BAKER

The enigma of marketing is that it is one of man’s oldest activities and yet it is regarded as the most recent of the business disciplines.
Michael J. Baker, Marketing: Theory and Practice,
1st edn, Macmillan, 1976

Introduction
As a discipline, marketing is in the process of transition from an art which is practised to a profession with strong theoretical foundations. In doing so it is following closely the precedents set by professions such as medicine, architecture and engineering, all of which have also been practised for thousands of years and have built up a wealth of descriptive information concerning the art which has both chronicled and advanced its evolution. At some juncture, however, continued progress demands a transition from description to analysis, such as that initiated by Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood. If marketing is to develop it, too, must make the transition from art to applied science and develop sound theoretical foundations, mastery of which should become an essential qualification for practice. Adoption of this proposition is as threatening to many of today’s marketers as the establishment of the British Medical Association was to the surgeon–barber. But, today, you would not dream of going to a barber for medical advice.
Of course, first aid will still be practised, books on healthy living will feature on the bestsellers list

and harmless potions will be bought over the counter in drug stores and pharmacies. This is an amateur activity akin to much of what passes for marketing in British industry. While there was no threat of the cancer of competition it might have sufficed, but once the Japanese, Germans and now the emerging economies invade your markets you are going to need much stronger medicine if you are to