Critically discuss the following statement What is marketing Easy its what marketers do - Essay Example
A series of theories has been gradually developed aiming to help the transformation of marketing in accordance with the current market rules. Current paper focuses on the examination of the context and the role of marketing within the modern market; the specific field is evaluated using relevant theories – as published in the academic literature. Moreover, efforts are made in order to present and explain the practical implications of marketing – as these implications are understood and handled by marketers. It is concluded that the current forms of marketing are difficult to be fully explored and evaluated – being differentiated within each commercial sector; however, the theoretical explanations on marketing – as identified through the relevant literature – can help to understand the actual role of marketing in the modern market but also its potentials for further transformation in the future. 2. Marketing – Description and functions 2.1 The context of marketing - definitions One of the key characteristics of marketing is its ability to be transformed being aligned with the market trends and demands. Initially, marketing was a discipline rather foreign to academic study; it had been rather considered as a series of practices used by professionals who deal with the promotion of products/ services within a pre-arranged market (also known as target market); the above issue is highlighted in the study of Baker et al. (1998) who noted that marketing gradually entered the academic field of knowledge; however, despite the fact that a wide range of studies has been developed in regard to the content and the role of market, still there are many of its aspects that are not clear (Baker et al 1998). Probably the reason is that the changes of the market are too quick and extensive, marketing’s rules and forms are transformed - in order to be aligned with these changes - but there is no adequate time for the phases of this transformation to be monitored and evaluated. From a similar point of view Viardot (2004) noted that the context and the role of marketing can be differentiated when having to enter a particular sector; reference is made, for example, to the term ‘marketing for high tech firms’ (Viardot 2004, 1); it is suggested by Viardot (2004) that marketing is described as follows: ‘putting on the market’ (Viardot 2004, 2) – a description which presents the practical use of marketing as a range of tasks focusing on the achievement of a particular target. Baker et al. (2007) use a similar approach; they note that marketing is still in a period of transition from ‘a pure professional practice to an activity explained through appropriate theoretical models’ (Baker et al 2007, 3). Kotler et al. (2010) give a different, more analytical, description of marketing; in accordance with the above researchers, marketing is ‘the process of building profitable customer relationships by creating value for customers and capturing value in return’ (Kotler 2010, 53). In the above description marketing is presented as being closely related to customers; in this way, the main priority of marketers is set: marketers should focus on the development of the relationship between the products/ services
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Witchcraft in Salem
In the past, the word Salem has always been somewhat synonymous with the infamous witch trials. Thanks to works such as Arthur Miller’s “The Crucibleâ€, many people find it hard not to envision a community torn apart by chaos, even though Miller’s play was not so much about the witch trials but instead a commentary on the rampant McCarthyism going on at the time he wrote it. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, however, see a very different picture when the Salem witch trials are mentioned. Rather than overlook the “ordinary†people living in the towns in which they write about (in the case of Salem Possessed, the town of Salem, Massachusetts), they instead take the instance of the witch trials of 1692 and springboard from them into a detailed inquisition into the entire history of the small village of Salem; or, in their own words, Boyer and Nissenbaum have “exploited the focal events of 1692 somewhat as a stranger might make use of a lightning flash in the night: better to observe the contours of the landscape which it chances to illuminate†(xii). That is to say, the authors strive to show how the witch trials were not simply a completely spontaneous event, but rather a long, horrible process by which individuals were singled out, tried, and executed in order to vent emotions of hostility towards change. The way in which the authors go about this, however, is in a somewhat difficult to comprehend style that goes back and forth between the years, forcing one to rethink all the facts thus far each time a new chapter is introduced. In addition, the authors tend to focus mostly on the social and economic aspects of witchcraft, with little to nothing as far as further explanation of the actions of the women accused. In the year 1692, the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts saw a social phenomenon that would propel the village into the history books: the calamity that was witchcraft. The witch trials were initiated whenever three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam were caught performing fortune telling rituals in the woods, trying to gather information on what type of man would be best for them. Soon thereafter, the girls began experiencing hysterical fits, prompting Betty Parris’s father, Reverend Samuel Parris, to call in the authorities to confirm the cause of the girls’ symptoms. ... ...rought into the case would treat it as though it were a completely rational occurrence. But then again, this is perhaps more of a fault of my own than of the authors. In the end, Salem Possessed did indeed leave me with more of an understanding of the events that took place in Salem Village, even though that understanding did seem a little shallow, as I felt it only focused on one aspect of the whole. But regardless of my unpleasant viewpoint on said novel, Mr.’s Boyer and Nissenbaum have done an admirable thing by taking the Salem witch trials and examining them by today’s standards. By going strictly from church records and personal accounts, the authors have brought a whole new light to what was once percieved as a purely tyrannical act of prejudice against seemingly random people, letting the public know that it was in fact a calculated attack on many ‘radical’ individuals. And, while the book did occasionally fall short on offering a complete picture of the events, it was still a fairly succinct guide to the economic factors involved with the village of Salem and its “fifteen minutesâ€, as it were, and as such would be reccommended to history buffs around the world. |