Book profile

Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach

William D. Perreault, Joseph P. Cannon, E. Jerome McCarthy

A foundational textbook that teaches managerial marketing through the four Ps and a target-market-centered marketing strategy planning process.

Basic Marketing, 16th edition, is the market-leading introductory marketing text built on three foundation pillars: the four Ps framework, a managerial orientation, and a strategy planning focus. It teaches readers to see marketing through the eyes of the marketing manager, showing how to narrow down from broad opportunities to a specific target market and a blended marketing mix (Product, Place, Promotion, Price) that delivers superior customer value, satisfies customers profitably, and builds customer equity. With hundreds of real-world examples spanning profit and nonprofit organizations, domestic and international settings, e-commerce, and services, the book equips students to analyze marketing situations and develop exceptional, integrated marketing strategies rather than just memorize lists.

The model

A managerial causal framework in which a firm narrows down from broad opportunities by selecting a target market and blending the four Ps into a marketing mix that creates superior customer value, drives customer satisfaction and retention, and builds customer equity and profit.

Frameworks you can use

Begin with customer needs, not the production process.
All four Ps must be blended together with the target customer at the center.
Satisfy customers at a profit through total company effort.
Offer superior customer value to win, keep, and grow customers.
Marketing decisions should be socially responsible and ethical.
Narrow down from broad opportunities to the single best target market and mix.

Key terms

Target Market Selection: The decision to focus marketing efforts on a fairly homogeneous group of customers the firm chooses to serve.
Product Mix Decisions: Choices about the good or service offered to satisfy target market needs.
Place (Distribution) Decisions: Choices about how the product reaches the target market's place.
Promotion Decisions: Choices about communicating the product's value to the target market and channel.
Price Decisions: Choices about what price to set given costs, competition, and customer reaction.
Marketing Orientation: A company philosophy of satisfying customers at a profit through total company effort.
Competitive and External Environment: External conditions shaping which strategies can succeed.
Customer Value: The customer's perceived difference between benefits and total costs of an offering.