The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Marketing/Marketing Science

RAQUEL BARBOSA RIBEIRO and ISABEL SOARES

University of Lisbon, Portugal

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs160

Marketing is the scientific knowledge and procedures used to persuade consumers to behave according to the objectives set by organizations and individuals. To attain these goals, organizations and individuals offer value to consumers, that is, ways of satisfying their needs and desires, in a relational process of intended reciprocal benefit. Such objectives can encompass selling products, changing attitudes and behaviors, ensuring satisfaction, and motivating adherence to causes.

Consumers are pivotal to the notion of marketing, a derivative of “market,” narrowly defined as demand. Amply, market is the network of players (providers, suppliers, partners, stakeholders, competitors etc.) intervening in the value exchange process between organizations or individuals and their consumers. Related terminology for consumers includes buyers, purchasers, users, clients, and customers. From the standpoint of marketing, voters, donors, members, fans, and supporters can also be consumers. Influencers and prescribers are relevant agents as far as the market is concerned.

The first notions regarding marketing can be traced to the industrial revolution, and were further developed in the United States in the first decades of the twentieth century. After World War II, a period of mass market expansion, marketing became a consistent managerial practice and a recognized ...