what makes markerting so important in business?

Hi Brianna

When in Business, it's about fulfilling a need that your customer has. With the vast choice, that customers have in these days, it is usually up to them to decide which offer best fulfils their needs and where they go to purchase. Think about yourself. When you are about to go and purchase your next goods, how do you make that decision? Do you look where you can find it at the lowest price, do you compare quality of similar products, do you consider whether the products are being produced in an environment friendly way, do you research the ethics of the manufacturing company, etc. In fact, when you make your purchase decision, it is not only when you are standing in the shop, but this decisson process starts way earlier. And here is where Marketing comes into play.
Marketing is not about shouting as loud as possible "we have the best product", its about much more than that.
1. understanding who s the customer. Not every customer is the same, has the same needs and responds equally to my product. What might be right for customer A, might be the totally wrong product for customer B. So understanding what the needs are, how purchase decisions are being made, where the customer shops, and what influences the customer is vital for: making the right product that fullfills the needs (not too much and not too little)
2. accompanying the customer on his/her decision making journey. Making sure that at every point on the way the customer is being given the right information, at the right time in the right context, in the right format that is useful to the customer. This helps building trust over time and trust is the foundation in every long-term relationship. Marketing is there to help establish a long-term relationship. If this is not the goal, then simply sell the product at the lowest price and forget the customer again ;-)
3. ensuring the post-purchase happiness of the customer. Marketing does not stop when the purchase is complete. This is the time when the relationship between customer and brand is only starting. The promises about the product made by the brand before purchase, and which have swayed the customer to buy the product, are now being tested. If they do not meet the expectation, e.g. a service agent must ensure that any problems are being dealt with immediately and to the satisfaction to the customer. This is also a form of marketing.
So to summarize: in the early days marketing was done "inside-out". The communication went in one direction from the brand to the customer, shouting "we have the best product". Marketing was to ensure that the customer would see & hear that message as often as possible (billboards, radio, TV, magazines, etc.)
Marketing today is "outside-in": Understand the customer first, build what is right for the customer and present this to the customer in the way the customer expects it to build a long-term relationship.

Hope that helps

It is the third leg of the three legged business stool. The first leg being accounting / finance, the second being management and the third marketing. Today companies like Microsoft which has excellent product, but was able to kill wordperfect, lotus etc due to their savvy marketing skills.

So marketing is indispensable toi be successful in business

In my opinion, Marketing often represents the "soul" of the company - with the brand and creative leading the way, Marketing helps a company connect with it's target audiences in an emotional and educational way. We get to share news (PR), talk about our products (Campaigns), engage with customers (Social) and represent the "front door" to the organization (web). Marketing is also critical to driving engagement and leads for our Sales organization to follow up on - helping to drive Sales.

Hope this is helpful!

I believe marketing is important because it helps a company to start a conversation with their customers. Through that conversation, the company should get to learn more about the customers purchasing their product. That way they can produce a product that the customer is most likely to buy and position the product in a location where their customers live and shop.