Preface
Marketing remains one of the key functions of profit seeking organizations. Business organizations produce goods or services for consumers with the hope of making sales and earning desired profits. To achieve these goals, especially in the competitive, dynamic, turbulent, and complex business environment of the 21st century, firms need to identify their target market or consumers and determine their needs through marketing research before embarking on the production of goods and services. Subsequently, they must price, distribute, and promote their products effectively to satisfy consumers’ needs, and consequently realize profits. Noting that companies’ existing consumers and customers can be snatched away by competitors, firms nowadays strive to establish strong and lasting relationships with their existing customers to make them (the customers) loyal, that is, immune to competitors' marketing offers.
This book, titled Introduction to Marketing, explains how managers of business organizations as well as marketers can achieve the primary tasks of identifying a target market, developing a product, pricing, distributing, and promoting the product effectively. The book is so titled because it encompasses introductory and fundamental aspects of marketing. Introduction to marketing, otherwise titled Elements of Marketing or Principles of Marketing, is a prerequisite course for students pursuing a diploma or degree certificate in Business Administration, Management, Marketing, Purchasing and Supply, Accounting or related fields in the polytechnics or universities.
The book contains thirteen chapters, which were developed by the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) course outline/content for Elements of Marketing. Above all, the book is an essential guide for students, practitioners, consultants, managers, and lecturers in a developing economy like Nigeria.
However, hardly can any textbook exhaust all discussions on a given subject matter. This book – introduction to Marketing – is not an exception. The author intends to expand and enrich the chapters in the subsequent editions. Hence, the author welcomes constructive criticisms and observations about the book. The author also intends to add more relevant chapters as the curriculum for Element of Marketing is reviewed by the NUC.
All errors and inaccuracies contained in the book are purely the authors.
M.A. Mawoli (KPT, B.Sc., PGDE, MBA, M.Sc., PhD, MNIM, MTAN)
Department of Business Administration, IBB University, Lapai. Nigeria.
Email: iammawoli@gmail.com; mamawoli2009@yahoo.com
GSM: 08052869787
January, 2023.