A Year with Peter Drucker - 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness

Week 24

A Primer on Market Research of Noncustomers

Introduction

One of Drucker’s major contributions was his insistence that “[marketing] is the distinguishing, the unique function of a business” (The Practice of Management, 1954, p. 37). Moreover “marketing is so basic that it is not just enough to have a strong sales department and entrust marketing to it. Marketing is not only much broader than selling; it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise” (p. 38).

Bill Hybels was an early practitioner ...