Meaning and Role of a Marketer

A marketer is a person or an organisation that identifies the needs and wants of consumers and works to create, communicate, and deliver an offering — a product, a service, or even an idea — that satisfies those needs in exchange for something of value, usually money. The marketer can be a sole trader, a company's marketing department, a cooperative society, a government agency promoting a public scheme, or even an individual selling personal services; the essential role is the same in every case: connecting a genuine unmet need with a suitable offering, profitably and repeatably.

It is important to see the marketer as playing an active role in a market, not a passive one. A market can exist as a mere possibility — buyers with unmet needs and sellers with unsold capacity — but it takes a marketer's deliberate effort to bring the two together in a way that actually results in exchange. The marketer researches what people want, decides what to offer and at what price, informs potential buyers that the offering exists, makes it conveniently available, and works to keep customers satisfied so that they return or recommend the offering to others.

Why the marketer's role matters

1. Bridges the gap between production and consumption — goods are usually produced in one place and consumed in many others, at different times; the marketer's activities of transport, storage, and distribution close this gap.
2. Creates utility beyond mere production — a marketer adds place utility (making a good available where it is wanted), time utility (making it available when it is wanted), possession utility (transferring ownership to the person who values it most), and information utility (making buyers aware that a suitable offering exists).
3. Drives efficient use of resources — by correctly reading what consumers actually want, a marketer helps ensure that a society's productive resources are directed toward goods and services people genuinely value, rather than being wasted on unwanted output.
4. Generates employment and incomes — the whole chain of marketing activity (selling, advertising, transport, warehousing, retailing) creates jobs and incomes well beyond the factory or farm where a product originates. …