This lesson provides a foundation in basic principles of marketing. It introduces the marketing process, discusses a philosophy to guide the execution of that process, and identifies various uncontrollable factors that affect implementation. The lesson concluded by describing how marketers select markets to serve and the tools available to serve them. Upon completion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Define the marketing process and its components
• Define the marketing concept and explain its implications for a firm's relationship to its customers
• Identify and provide examples of environmental forces that affect how a firm serves its customers
• Differentiate between market segmentation and target marketing
• Compare three different approaches to market segmentation
• Define the elements of the marketing mix

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Distance and Distributed Learning