Is Marketing Evil?

Marketing is Evil and manipulative. Are we all sheep, easily herded into buying things we don't really need. Or is marketing a tool for research and development - bringing innovative products that make life easier, or more fun? We all use marketing techniques in our own lives - at interviews for example.

See how the 4 Principles of marketing have changed over the years.

It was author Douglas Adams in his Hitchhiker books who put all the marketing executives on a space ship:
“Apparently the Earth was going to crash into the sun. So what everyone thought was, - let's pack the whole population into three giant spaceships and go and settle on another planet.

The idea was that into the first ship, the 'A' ship, would go all the brilliant leaders, the scientists, the great artists, you know, all the achievers; and into the third, or 'C' ship, would go all the people who did the actual work, who made things and did things, and then into the `B' ship - that's us - would go everyone else, the middlemen you see."
"And they made sure they sent you lot off first did they?" inquired Arthur.

“And the other ships, er ... they followed on after you did they?"

"Ah. Well it's funny you should say that," he said and allowed himself a slight frown at Ford Prefect, "because curiously enough we haven't heard a peep out of them since we left five years ago ...

But in reality - a business enterprise has two -- and only two -- basic functions: marketing and innovation. See how Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs