“Any business enterprise has two, and only two basic functions – Marketing and Innovation” – Peter F. Drucker
“Marketing is the distinguishing, the unique function of the business. A business is set part from all other human organizations by the fact that it markets a product or a service. Neither church, nor army, nor school, nor state does that. Any organization that fulfills itself through marketing a product or service is a business. Any organization in which marketing is either absent or incidental is not a business and should never be run as if it were one.”– Peter F. Drucker
“Our biggest competitor in software is not a very good technical company. But it’s one of the best marketing companies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve spent twenty years in marketing.”– Lou Gerstner of IBM about Bill Gates and Microsoft
“Customers don’t always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they weren’t enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call ‘the third place’. A gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect. They found we were filling a need they didn’t know they had.”– Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee
“No great marketing decisions have ever been made on qualitative data.”– John Scully (Former CEO of Apple and former President of PepsiCo)
“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately, it takes a lifetime to master.”– Philip Kotler
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”– Jeff Bezos
“Let’s say you have $1,000,000 tied up in your little company and suddenly your advertising isn’t working and sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family’s future depends on it, other people’s families depend on it. Now, what do you want from me? Fine writing? Or do you want to see the goddamned sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?”– Rosser Reeves
“Firms need to ensure that their ability to provide effective customer service keeps pace with their growth. If you’re marketing your firm to new customers, you better be able to provide them service when they do business with you.”– Arthur Levitt