What is the Meaning of Marketing?

What does marketing mean to you?

For the past 13 years, I’ve asked this question to my students at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. Most answers center on advertising or selling more products. While not wrong, those answers only scratch the surface.

Marketing is not just messaging—it’s the study of trade and commerce. At its core:

  • A product exists because it fills a need (Product)

  • People know it exists and understand its benefits (Promotion)

  • It’s available where and when it’s needed (Place)

  • Its value matches or exceeds the price asked (Price)

Marketing, then, is about how customers, companies, and collaborators come together to create value. Each of these groups often has competing goals—customers may want customization, while companies and collaborators may push for standardization. Balancing those tensions is where real strategy happens.

As a business executive, I saw firsthand how success came when I kept these fundamentals in mind—and setbacks followed when I didn’t. Later, as a professor, I wanted to give students a practical process they could apply to any situation. That’s where MVOSSTE (Mission, Vision, Objectives, Situation Analysis, Strategy, Tactics, Execution) came in. It became a powerful framework for building strong strategies.

With the arrival of Generative AI, the process became even stronger—helping generate more options, deeper analysis, and better outcomes at every stage. This work eventually became my book, Winning Marketing Strategies Using Generative AI, now the foundation of an executive education program at Bauer College.

👉 If you’re interested in developing superior marketing strategies, you can:

So, let me ask again: What does marketing mean to you?

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