Narrator Listen to part of a lecture in a marketing class. Now get

Professor
    Production and marketing of goods, services, and causes are the essence of economic life in any society. All organizations perform these two basic functions to satisfy their commitments to society, their customers, and their owners. They create a benefit that economists call utility. Utility is the power of a good or service in satisfying a need. There are four basic kinds of utility, that is, form utility, time utility, place utility and ownership utility.
    First, let’s have a look at form utility. Form utility is created when the firm changes raw materials and component inputs into finished goods and services. For example, RAC uses glass, plastics, metals, circuit boards and other components to create a television set. Ethan Allen produces a sofa with such materials as fabric, thread, wood, springs, and down feathers. The television show Friends starts with writers, actors, scripts, director, producer, technical crew, and sound stage. Although marketing offers these products to the consumers, it is the organization’s production department that actually creates the form utility.
    But, marketing creates the other three kinds of utility, namely, time utility, place utility and ownership utility. When consumers need goods and services, if they can find the goods and services at the right time and the right place, time utility and place utility are created. For example, Federal Express and Airborne Express provide overnight courier service. They create time utility. People can buy newspapers, snacks, and soft drink at vending machines. These vending machines focus on providing place utility.
    Now I will explain what ownership utility is. When consumers buy goods and services, the title of goods and services are transferred. In this case, ownership utility is created.
    Now, let’s look at this example. Uh...on planes, in front of the seats, there are GTE Airfone, so that air travelers can make calls, send e-mail messages, retrieve voice mail and even surf the Internet from 35 000 feet above the earth. Customers may swipe a credit card along a special reader and then the telephone is activated. By doing this, the customers buy the service. So, here, you may have seen marketing’s function in creating utilities.
    All organizations must create utility in order to survive. To create utility, the foundation is to design and produce market goods, services and ideas that can satisfy consumers’ needs. However, only recently have people noticed that marketing is extremely important for an organization.
    Then, you may ask what marketing exactly is. If you ask five people to define the term marketing, you may get five definitions. People are continuously exposed to advertisements and personal selling, so marketing may be simply selling. Or... marketing only begins after the goods or services are produced.
    Actually, marketing involves other activities. For instance, you have to analyze customers’ needs and seek essential information before you design and produce goods or services. After selling the goods or services, you still need to maintain relationships with costumers. Besides, marketing exists not only in profit-oriented firms but also in thousands of not-for-profit organizations.
    All of these factors are taken into account in today’s definition of marketing. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations, and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
    As we can see, in this definition, all organizational functions are involved. So, we can say, marketing serves the interests of both society and the organizations, or, say, the interests of both the consumers and the enterprises. Is that OK? ...Maybe... in another way. We see, the four variables of marketing are also included, that is, product, price, promotion and distribution. In addition, this definition also emphasizes creating and maintaining relationship with customers. Finally, it recognizes that marketing applies to not-for-profit organizations as well as to profit-oriented businesses. So, you must have got a clear understanding of marketing now.