Peter Drucker on Marketing

Few explain marketing and the purpose of business like Peter Drucker. Here are several distinguishing quotes:

• …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.
• Knowledge work is not defined by quantity. Neither is knowledge work defined by its costs. Knowledge work is defined by its results.
• Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
• The purpose of business is to create a customer.
• A company's primary responsibility is to serve its customers, to provide the goods or services which the company exists to produce. Profit is not the primary goal but rather an essential condition for the company's continued existence.

And my all-time favorite:

• Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.