Philip Kotler

Philip Kotler, 2009

Philip Kotler (born May 27, 1931) is an American marketing author, business consultant, and professor; currently the S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Quotes

• Marketing management is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives.
  • Philip Kotler (1993), as cited in: Gerald A. Cole (2003), Strategic Management, p. 131

• The sales department isn't the whole company, but the whole company had better be the sales department.
  • Philip Kotler cited in: Michael R. Czinkota (1999), Marketing: Best Practices. p. 11

• The art of marketing is largely the art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will be probably be viewed as a commodity.
  • Philip Kotler (1999), as cited in: Dennis Adcock, ‎Al Halborg, ‎Caroline Ross (2001), Marketing: Principles and Practice. p. 208

• Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets.
  • Philip Kotler, cited in: Stuart Crainer (2002), The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made, p. 37

• The organization's marketing task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and to achieve the desired results more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer's or society's well-being.
  • Philip Kotler cited in: Morgen Witzel, "First Among Marketers". Financial Times. August 6, 2003.

• Is marketing management an art or a science? Some marketing observers maintain that good marketing is more of an art and does not lend itself to rigorous analysis and deliberation. Others strongly disagree and contend that marketing management is a highly disciplined enterprise that has much in common with other business disciplines.
  • Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Mairead Brady, Malcolm Goodman & Torben Hansen. (2009). Marketing Management. p. 819

• No company in its right mind tries to sell to everyone. Gillette does not try to sell razor blades to preteens, and Kimberly-Clark doesn't try to sell its Huggies to childless families. A savvy steel company doesn't try to sell steel to every steel-using company.
  • Philip Kotler (2012). Kotler On Marketing, p. 125: About defining the Target Market

Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, 1967

Philip Kotler. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, first edition 1967.

• Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make! It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers, and benefits for the stakeholders. Market innovation is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality, and customer service. It these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion, or salesmanship can compensate.
  • As cited in: Jay Conrad Levinson (1999), Mastering Guerrilla Marketing. p. 218

• Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value. It is the art of helping your customers become better of.
  • Cited in: Robert W. Price (2001), Internet and Business, 2001-2002. p. 117

Marketing Management, Millenium Edition, 2001

Philip Kotler (2001). Marketing Management, Millenium Edition, Tenth Edition, by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

• Good mission statements focus on a limited number of goals, stress the company’s major policies and values, and define the company’s major competitive scopes. These include:

• Industry scope: The industry or range of industries in which a company will operate. For example, DuPont operates in the industrial market... and 3M will go into almost any industry where it can make money.
• Products and applications scope: The range of products and applications that a company will supply. St. Jude Medical aims to “serve physicians worldwide with high-quality products for cardiovascular care.”
• Competence scope: The range of technological and other core competencies that a company will master and leverage. Japan’s NEC has built its core competencies in computing, communications, and components to support production of laptop computers, televisions, and other electronics items.
• Market-segment scope: The type of market or customers a company will serve. For example, Porsche makes only expensive cars for the upscale market and licenses its name for high-quality accessories.
• Vertical scope : The number of channel levels from raw material to final product and distribution in which a company will participate... [or] may outsource design, manufacture, marketing, and physical distribution.
• Geographical scope: The range of regions or countries in which a company will operate. At one extreme are companies that operate in a specific city or state...

A company must redefine its mission if that mission has lost credibility or no longer defines an optimal course for the company

• p. 41 ; Chapter 3. Corporate and Division Strategic Planning

Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know, 2011

Philip Kotler (2011), Marketing insights from A to Z: 80 concepts every manager needs to know.

• The good news is that marketing takes a day to learn. The bad news is that it takes a lifetime to master!
  • p. xiv

• Companies pay too much attention to the cost of doing something. They should worry more about the cost of not doing it.
  • p. 127; Quote in the context of new product development.

Quotes about Philip Kotler

• First, he has done more than any other writer or scholar to promote the importance of marketing, transforming it from a peripheral activity, bolted on to the more "important" work of production. Second, he continued a trend started by Peter Drucker, shifting emphasis away from price and distribution to a greater focus on meeting customers' needs and on the benefits received from a product or service. Third, he has broadened the concept of marketing from mere selling to a more general process of communication and exchange, and has shown how marketing can be extended and applied to charities, political parties and many other non-commercial situations.
  • Morgen Witzel, "First Among Marketers". Financial Times. August 6, 2003.