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If you pick up any of the classic books on marketing, you’ll find a definition that goes something like this. “Marketing is the process where a company satisfies customer needs with a product and service at a price that generates a profit.”

But marketing can be seen simply in two parts. Firstly, you must be able to work out what your customers want, now and in the future, and design a product and service that they will buy. Secondly, you must be able to tell potential customers all about your products and convince them to part with their money.

So a marketing person needs a mix of analysis, guesswork and psychology. It also helps if you are creative, but that’s not essential, as you can pay someone else for creativity. Over the years, marketing people have devised some tools and techniques to help them think it all through. Traditionally they are known as the four Ps of marketing.

1 Product. You must be able to answer three questions about your product or service. Is it what customers want? How does it stack up against the competition? And when will it be out of date?

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself”

Peter F. Drucker, management guru

2 Price. What someone will pay is always a judgement, especially if you are the first in the market. It’s always better to price higher than you might initially think because you can always cut prices, whereas it’s almost impossible to increase them later.

3 Place. This is the marketing term for where your customer buys your product. These days, it can be very complicated, incorporating a variety of shop sizes and types, the Internet and mail order. You must manage all those different outlets, or places, so you don’t miss an opportunity to sell your products.

4 Promotion. There’s not much point in creating a product if nobody has heard about it. There are two vital questions. How will customers find out about our prod ucts? And will they have enough information to make a decision?

Fifty years ago, a company made a product and people bought it. Thirty years ago, companies had to sell their products. Today, companies must market their brand successfully, so that people trust them before they buy their products.

You must continuously evolve your products and services to match the changing needs of your customers.