In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product

he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, delivery and related risks.

The modern marketing concept encompasses all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles. It subscribes to the notion that production can be economically justified only by consumption. In other words, goods should be produced only if they can be sold. Therefore, the producer should consider who is going to buy the product-or what the market for the product is-before production begins. This is very different from making a product and then thinking about how to sell it.