T oday’s successful companies have one thing in common; strong customer-focused and heavily committed to marketing. These companies share a passion for understanding and satisfying customer needs in well-defined target markets. They motivate everyone in the organization to help build lasting customer relationships based on creating value. Marketing is just as important for non-profit-making organizations as it is for profit-making ones. It is very important to realize that at the heart of marketing is the customer. It is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer requirements profitability.

Background
The term ‘‘marketing’’ is derived from the word ‘‘market’’, which refers to a group of sellers and buyers that cooperate to exchange goods and services. The modern concept of marketing evolved during and after the revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. During that period, the proliferation of goods and services, increased worker specialization and technological advances in transportation, refrigeration and other factors that facilitate the transfer of goods over long distances resulted in the need for more advance market mechanisms and selling techniques. But it was not until the 1930s that companies began to place a greater emphasis on advertising and promoting their products and began striving to tailor their goods to specific consumer needs. By the 1950s, many larger companies were sporting entire marketing departments charged with devising and implementing marketing strategies that would complement, and even direct, overall operations. Since the 1970s, the primary marketing trend has been a greater focus on providing benefits, rather than products, to consumers.

Marketing Concept
After World War II, the variety of products increased and hard selling no longer could be relied upon to generate sales. With