Philip Ko Marketing

1. Introduction

Nowadays, marketing is often described as the soul of every business. Successful marketing strategy or lack of marketing activities are seen as crucial for the business success of a company. But before elaborating on the purpose of marketing and the value it creates for companies, let’s define its meaning and reach.

In her Marketing textbook, Neviana Krasteva, a prominent Marketing professor and author of many economic works, defines Marketing not only as an important business function, but also as an “overall organizational philosophy, which leads the organizational management and direction.”

In a successful business, this philosophy should put client needs and market demand in the center and should try to find the best

It’s unreasonable to think that every company that has a marketing department will gain fantastic benefits and return. There are many prerequisites for the success of a marketing strategy and it often requires intensive resource investment and development of specific competences inside the organization. Furthermore, companies needs to carefully examine a set of different external and internal factors, find a reliable way to understand its current and potential customers needs and desires and be persistent in following their long-term strategic

Philip Kotler’s Evolution of Marketing Concept diagram, which depicts Marketing transformation during the years.”3 (p. 28) Marketing, which initially emerged as a supporting function of production and of secondary importance for the company, transformed into something, which examines and rules the customer emotions, buying patterns, creates demand and plays a more and more important role for the businesses.

More than that, as we see in the above diagram, in the late years of marketing development, new concepts such as Customer Equity, Consumer Empowerment, Social Media, Tribalism and Co-creation emerged and customers become much more than a passive object of the external environment, which only had to be examined and understood. Not only customers are now placed in the center of every business, but they also begin to actively influence the marketing strategies of companies, by becoming an integral part of it. Innovative companies started to gradually transform the way they viewed their buyers – from pure consumers into real contributors to the brand development strategy and