You already know a lot about marketing—it’s all around you. Marketing comes to you in the good old traditional forms: You see it in the abundance of products at your nearby shopping mall and the ads that fill your TV screen, spice up your magazines, or stuff your mailbox. But in recent years, marketers have assembled a host of new marketing approaches, everything from imaginative Web sites and online social networks to your cell phone. These new approaches do more than just blast out messages to the masses. They reach you directly and personally. Today’s marketers want to become a part of your life andenrich your experiences with their brands—to help you live their brands.At home, at school, where you work, and where you play, you see marketing in almost everything you do. Yet, there is much more to marketing than meets the consumer’s casual eye. Behind it all is a massive network of people and activities competing for your attentionand purchases. This book will give you a complete introduction to the basic concepts and practices of today’s marketing. In this chapter, we begin by defining marketing and the marketing process.