There have been numerous definitions and various explanations that have been

given by different marketing gurus in their books and other literature but from the
point of view of F.M.C.G companies, the term marketing means quite a lot. This
term has created the future and helped in the evolution of numerous brands in
the world for the consumer. F.M.C.G companies rely solely on marketing for
attracting and retaining their customer base. Marketing is a broad term and
encompasses elements like promotion and advertising.

All the companies have their marketing departments which handle all the
advertising and promotional strategies. Marketing is essential and with every
company having a large number of product lines and a facing stiff competition
from its rivals it becomes all the more essential to study the markets in detail and
devise selling strategies.

According to marketing guru Philip Kotler, companies are today engaging in what
is called as lateral marketing which refers to breaking away from the mould of the
product and taking the product in to new forms like introduction of walkmans.
According to him with increase in costs and media expenditure it is essential that
managers look for customer managed relationships rather than customer relation
ship marketing. With the increase in competition, companies are now devising
new and holistic strategies for marketing. The topic is vast and of significant
importance but since advertising is what we are looking at particular therefore it
is more relevant to study advertising in detail.