Welcome to the exciting, dynamic and challenging field of marketing! If you’ve been on the Web, in a store, part of a company, or a consumer of any of the thousands of products and services available in our marketplace, you’ve probably already noticed many of the extraordinary changes taking place. Personalised advertising, multichannel retailing, cashless vending, customised products, online coupons, web-based surveys and interactive media are just a few of the many indications that marketing is racing into a new era. At the same time, many traditional elements of the discipline such as segmentation, newproduct development and pricing are growing in importance and use. The combination of the contemporary and the traditional elements of marketing create a truly exceptional topic to study and understand.

This regional adaptation of Marketing: The Core draws upon the content and highly successful approach used in the US Kerin Marketing text suite. Our goal with this adaptation is to present the basic concepts essential to an introductory marketing course and is the result of a detailed and rigorous development process aimed to fully meet local market needs.

What is our pedagogical framework? First, we use an active-learning approach that involves students in the text by combining facts, figures, information, cases, exercises and photos in an engaging, experiential fashion. Second, we incorporate many current examples using firms, products and services that students recognise and may have purchased as consumers. Third, our in-chapter study aids and design elements—such as concept checks and easy-to- read figures—are developed to match the learning styles of today’s students. Finally, we have invested in the most effective educational technologies.

Marketing: The Core, with its translations and adaptations, is now used extensively throughout the English speaking world, including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is also widely used in Poland, Russia, China and many Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. We hope that you will find this edition of Marketing: The Core a useful companion in your exploration of the knowledge, skills and tools of the marketing discipline.