MARK2012 · Marketing Fundamentals
What Is Marketing? Creating and Delivering Value
Week 1 opens MARK2012 by defining marketing as the process of creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging value, introducing the 4Ps marketing mix and the structure of a marketing plan. These core concepts are the vocabulary every later chapter and every assessment uses, and naming them correctly is exactly what the Week 2/3 in-class reflection and the 500-word Learning Reflection reward. Ground yourself in the “Marketing Essentials” podcast so you can label the concept an experience illustrates.
What this chapter covers
- 01Marketing defined: creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings of value for customers, partners and society
- 02Needs vs wants vs demands (a want backed by buying power)
- 03Value = perceived benefits ÷ perceived costs — raise value by adding benefits or lowering costs
- 04Marketing orientations: production → sales → marketing (customer) → value-based / societal
- 05The 4Ps marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) — extended to 7Ps for services
- 06The marketing plan: mission → situation analysis → STP → marketing mix → implementation & control
- 07Value co-creation and the exchange relationship between firm and customer
Applied: raising customer value for a coffee-subscription service
- +1(a) Define value as perceived benefits ÷ perceived costs — not just price. Benefits include coffee quality, convenience, freshness and the experience; costs include price, delivery hassle, risk and effort.
- +1(b) Raise the numerator: add benefits — flexible pause/skip, freshly roasted-to-order beans, brewing guidance and a loyalty perk — so perceived benefits rise for the same price.
- +1(b cont.) Or lower the denominator without discounting the headline price: cut non-price costs — free reliable delivery, easy cancellation, a satisfaction guarantee that removes purchase risk.
- +1(c) Name the orientation: designing the offer around customer benefits and long-term relationships (not just pushing volume) reflects a marketing/value-based orientation rather than a production or sales orientation.
Key terms
- Marketing
- The activity and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society.
- Marketing mix (4Ps)
- The controllable set — Product, Price, Place, Promotion — a firm uses to create value for a target market; extended to the 7Ps (adding People, Process, Physical evidence) for services.
- Value
- Perceived benefits relative to perceived costs; raised by increasing benefits or reducing costs. The core of value-based marketing.
- Need / want / demand
- A need is a felt deprivation; a want is a need shaped by culture and personality; a demand is a want backed by buying power.
- Marketing orientation
- A customer-led philosophy — succeeding by satisfying customer needs better than rivals — contrasted with production- and sales-led orientations.
- Marketing plan
- A structured document: mission → situation analysis → STP → marketing mix → implementation and control.
What Is Marketing? Creating and Delivering Value FAQ
What is the difference between the marketing concept and a sales orientation?
A sales orientation pushes what the firm already makes and focuses on closing volume; the marketing concept starts from customer needs and designs the whole offer (and the mix) to satisfy them profitably, building a relationship rather than a one-off transaction. MARK2012 expects you to frame examples through the customer-value lens, not the sales-push one.
How do the 4Ps become the 7Ps?
The 4Ps — Product, Price, Place, Promotion — describe a goods marketing mix. Because services are intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable, three more Ps are added for services: People (the staff who deliver it), Process (how it is delivered) and Physical evidence (the tangible cues). You use the 7Ps in the services chapter and the AI Service Marketing Simulation.
How does Week 1 show up in the assessment?
The Learning Reflection asks you to reflect on a personal experience and name the marketing concept it illustrates, so you need Week 1 vocabulary — value, needs/wants, orientation, the mix — at your fingertips. It also underpins the situation analysis in the group Business Report.
Can Sia help me with the marketing concept and the value equation in MARK2012?
Yes, as a study aid. Sia can explain the marketing concept and the value equation step by step, walk through a worked application to a real brand, and check whether your reasoning uses the framework correctly for your reflection, presentation or report. It teaches the method and checks your thinking; it does not complete graded assessment for you, and the UNSW academic-integrity policy applies — confirm assessment rules on Moodle.
Assessment move
Learn the value equation (benefits ÷ costs) and the marketing-plan sequence cold, because everything else hangs off them. Each time you meet a brand this term, jot its 4Ps and one way it raises customer value — that habit turns abstract definitions into the concrete examples the Learning Reflection rewards. Watch the “Marketing Essentials” podcast before the Week 1 class and keep the podcast notes for the PodQuiz. Reference any market facts you cite (Harvard) and confirm the reading list on Moodle.
Working through What Is Marketing? Creating and Delivering Value in MARK2012? Sia is AskSia’s AI Business and Economics tutor — ask any MARK2012 What Is Marketing? Creating and Delivering Value question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how MARK2012 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
