Marketing affects us in our daily lives even when we are unaware of its presence. Broadly defined as the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user, market has evolved into the anticipation, management and satisfaction of demand (12). Marketing itself is concerned with what goods and services to produce, how to distribute them, the promotional efforts (including advertising) that go into supporting those products and services, and the pricing strategy that is used (12). The marketing concept, which has largely evolved since the Industrial Revolution, has three components: it requires that an organization be consumer-oriented, have a coordinated marketing program, and be goal-oriented (14). Where a sales approach to business concentrates on selling product and assessing the revenue from that product (a narrow view), the marketing concept takes a broad view and considers consumer demands and tastes as well as long-term strategy.
All marketing decisions are made within the confines of the marketing environment, which consists of five components: controllable factors, uncontrollable factors, the organization's level of success or failure in reaching its objectives, feedback and adaptation (32). In an effective business environment, those factors that can be controlled are determined both by top management (strategic direction of the company) and by the marketing department (selecting target markets, for example). Uncontrollable factors are those which exist in the environment, such as economic conditions, which are not under the purview of either top management or the marketing department (41). Feedback and adaptation are important because they are the tools by which the company can gauge the success of its programs, and which help the company achieve long-term success (53).
Successful marketing organizations take on the issue of strategic planning, which determines what marketing actions to perform, the pe...