Marketing is all around us. We are surrounded by businesses, like Apple Computer Inc., that carry good products grown or manufactured and prepared for sale. We also see many businesses that offer services, benefits or satisfactions that improve the personal appearance, health, comfort, or peace of mind of their users. Some products are used to make services available, such as the tools an auto-mechanic uses in servicing a car. Marketing starts with people. Marketing businesses find out what customers want and work to supply those goods and services. Getting products from farms and factories to the people who will use them involves marketing at each step. Suppose a farmer recognizes the need for popcorn and decides to grow some. When the popcorn is harvested and ready for marketing, it may go to one of many places, depending on whether it is to be stored or used right away. Marketing occurs at each step: when the farmer sells it, for example, to a storage warehouse and when the warehouse in turn sells it to a supermarket or amusement park. Marketing occurs most obviously, perhaps, at the movie theater where patrons are greeted with the sight, sound, and aroma of freshly popped corn as they pass into the theater. The popcorn is a product. The movie theater where the popcorn was sold provides a service― the opportunity to see a movie. Other business marketing services include beauty salons, insurance agencies, driving schools, emergency care centers, and the telephone companies. Services are marketed as products. Services vary from other products in several ways. They are intangible and perishable. You cannot keep a plane flight, for example, nor can the airline gain income from an unsold seat. Services also vary in quality. One business-class flight may serve a hot meal while another offer only sandwiches. Finally services cannot be separated from the organization or person giving the service. You cannot buy a plane ride from a railroad. For these reasons, it is important that service businesses use marketing skills to find out what customers want and then supply it. Marketing involves many special activities. Among them are marketing research, product planning, advertising, and selling. These activities and others make up the world of marketing―a world of people, product, action and ideas. Thus, marketers respond to the needs of people. To prove the statement "Marketing is all around us", we need only take a quick imaginary tour of your community. Your first glimpse of marketing on our imaginary tour may be a store that sells food. It could be a small grocery store on the corner of your block, or it could be a large supermarket. Of course, these are not the only places that sell food. There are also meat markets, bakeries and if you live in the country, roadside fruit stands. Some stores feature one special kind of food such as health foods, cheeses, or barbecued chicken. As we continue our tour, you may see at least one department store and stores specializing in things such as shoes, jewelry, sporting goods, furniture, stationery, and flowers. You may also see businesses that sell both goods and services. Many service stations, for example, sell not only gasoline, oil, and other goods but also lubrication and repair services. And you will surely come across restaurants and snack bars that provide food and food service such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King. The businesses where you and your family buy goods and services are known as retail stores or retailers. A retailer is a business that sells goods and services to the people who use them. But marketing consists of more than the retail businesses found in all communities. Marketing is also activities you cannot buy and the people who engage in them. Some of these activities are promoting, pricing and distributing all the activities that help put the goods and services you want and need into your hands. As you continue touring your community, the billboards on highways or streets may encourage you to "Try 7 Up" or "Disneyland". Large signs above retail stores and attractive displays in store windows invite you to stop. If you turn on your car radio, you are sure to hear the announcer tell you why you should buy a certain product. Drive back to town and you may see a new car-wash business, with a huge sign, "Grand Opening Today―Half Price", and many cars lined up to take advantage of the bargain. Pass a newsstand and you can buy many kinds of newspapers and magazines which contain a wide variety of advertising. Visit a computer store and a well-informed salesperson shows you how various computers work and answers your questions about them. Many forms of promotion are an essential part of marketing. On our trip through town you may see friends buying gasoline for their cars, or a student purchasing a book. These activities are business transactions. All business transactions involve the exchange of one thing for another. In modern societies a transaction involves the exchange of goods or services for money. The amount to be paid is its price. Many things influence prices including the number of suppliers, the number of customers, and the amount of the product available. People are involved in marketing in many ways. They may be salespeople in department stores, cashiers in supermarkets, ticket sellers in movie theaters, service-station attendants, real estate agents, florists, or automobile dealers. These people are directly involved in marketing. Many others who you may not see are also a part of marketing. This group includes receiving clerks in a large store, designers of window displays, artists preparing posters, copywriters preparing newspaper ads, and so on. Now let us try to define marketing. Although marketing is sometimes called "distribution", the terms actually have different meanings. Distribution is the total process of moving, handling and storing goods on the way from producers to consumers. Marketing, in contrast, is much broader. The American Marketing Association issued this definition after a year’s study: marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. Note the wide range of this definition which includes the following major points. Marketing exists to create exchanges that satisfy the goals of individuals and organizations. To reach these goals, marketing begins with planning and follows through with pricing, promotion, and distribution. Ideas as well as goods and services are marketed. Non-profit organizations as well as profit-making ones employ the marketing process.Which of the following offers only service A．Bakeries.B．Department stores.C．Theaters.D．Kentucky Fried Chicken.