INTRODUCTION

Facebook is the current market leader in social network industry. Facebook recorded
$7.87bn revenue for the year 2013, increased 55% from the previous year (Investor.fb.com,
2014). Even though the competition in social media getting more rigorous from year to year,
Facebook proves itself as the strongest in the competition. Facebook, however, is not the
first one to introduce the term social media to the world. Friendster and Linkedln were
launched prior to Facebook, but they were all lost to the newer contender. Furthermore,
Facebook even seldom creates advertisements to promote itself and ask customers to use
their product. The fact is that Facebook has been able to capture what customer need and
provide them properly. Thus, it is the customers who come to Facebook, not the other way.
The Facebook case is an example from the successful marketing, which is in line with
Peter Druckers quote (1999):
The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know
and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells
itself
This quote will be the main focus for this essay. The essay will start by discussing the
development of business from the production era until now in order to explain the change in
need of selling and marketing function. Furthermore, this essay will also discuss the
characteristics and features of marketing that differs it from the selling function. To sum up,
this essay will also present the criticism towards marketing.
THE HISTORY OF SELLING AND MARKETING
In order to discuss the Druckers quote, it would be good to start from the history of
marketing. Keith (1960) divided 3 eras that influenced the development of selling and
marketing. The first one named Production Era happened from 1870-1930 in which
demand exceeds supply. Producers produce what they can produce and the business
focused on the number of sales. At this point there was no need to do sophisticated selling
or marketing as all products would be absorbed by the market due to the limited supply.
Product will sell themselves at this time.
From 1930-1950, the era moved into the Sales Era (Keith, 1960). At this time, the
supply started exceeding the demand so there was competition within the market.
Companies were focusing on disposing all the products produced at a favourable price. The
importance of good advertising was also understood during this era as the customers did not
have enough information to decide which producers to choose.
The last era defined by Keith (1960) is the Marketing Era. The supply exceeds
demand even more compare to the previous era. As a result, customers become more
aware about product choice that can satisfy them more. Starting from this era, companies

start to pay more attention to customer value and try to focus on fulfilling customers
demand.
All approaches from different eras are still implemented around the world nowadays. But
which one fit the best in the current situation?
THE FALL OF SELLING AND THE RISE OF MARKETING

Kotler and Armstrong define selling as part of bigger marketing.

Furthermore, Levitt (1960) even argued that selling is different from marketing. Selling
focuses on generating cash from the product that seller have made; marketing, otherwise,
starts with the idea of customers demand and converting it into products that can satisfy the
demand.

THE MARKETING PROCESS

Kotler and Armstrong defined marketing as the process by which companies create
value for customer and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from
customers in return (see Figure 1)
Figure 1. An Expanded Model of the Marketing Process

Source: Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2014) Principles of Marketing. 15th ed. Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
The first step in the marketing process is to understand the customers demand. Customers
demand is based on their basic need, shaped by culture and personality, and backed by
buying power. Understanding what product that could meet customers demand will result in
customer satisfaction and loyalty, therefore the relationship between the companies and
customers will be established.
Furthermore, in the second stage, the company has to decide which market to serve. This
based on the argument that it is more difficult, even sometimes impossible, to fulfil all market
demand. Kotler and Armstrong (2014) stated if the companies try to serve all customers, the
may not do it well. The process will be started for segmenting the market and choose which
segment to target. The companies, then, need to set its position within the targeted segment
and have to define its differentiation compare to the competitors.
As the companies have set the targeted market,
From all of these marketing process steps, it can be seen that the marketing is more
complex compared to selling. However, this sophisticated process will result better
advantage for the companies in the long run rather than focusing in the short term, which
can also be fulfilled by the selling function.

THE CRITICISM OF MARKETING

Kotler and Armstrong defined marketing as the process by which companies create
value for customer and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from
customers in return (see Figure 1). The process started from the efforts of understanding the
customers demand. Customers demand is based on their basic need, shaped by culture
and personality, and backed by buying power. Understanding what product that could meet
customers demand will result in customer satisfaction and loyalty, therefore the relationship
between the companies and customers will be established.
Figure 1. An Expanded Model of the Marketing Process

Source: Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2014) Principles of Marketing. 15th ed. Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.

Furthermore, in the second stage, the company has to decide which market to serve. This
based on the argument that it is more difficult, even sometimes impossible, to fulfil all market
demand. Kotler and Armstrong (2014) stated if the companies try to serve all customers, the
may not do it well. The process will be started for segmenting the market and choose which
segment to target. The companies, then, need to set its position within the targeted segment
and have to define its differentiation compare to the competitors.
As the companies have set the targeted market, the companies have to decide its marketing
strategy by setting what their products design is (Product), how much they will charge the
customer to pay for their product, how and where the products will be distributed (Place),
and How to communicate the products to the customers (Promotion).
From all of these marketing process steps, it can be seen that the marketing is more
complex compared to selling. However, this sophisticated process will result better
advantage for the companies in the long run rather than focusing in the short term, which
can also be fulfilled by the selling function.