Introduction to Marketing: Concepts and Contexts

Marketing makes more sense when its concepts are connected to the conditions in which organizations actually operate. In Introduction to Marketing: Concepts and Contexts, Andrew Corcoran builds that connection into the structure of the subject, guiding readers from the nature of markets and consumer decisions to the choices involved in delivering value.

Technology, responsibility and employability provide contemporary lenses throughout this undergraduate introduction. The result is a way to study marketing not as a collection of isolated terms, but as a discipline shaped by customers, organizations and the wider world.

Marketing, from the market outward

The book begins with markets and their dynamics, the competitive environment, consumer behaviour, and market research and insight. Those foundations lead into segmentation and strategy, before the later chapters examine the marketing mix and customer experience. This sequence helps readers see how decisions about audiences and strategy relate to practical choices about products, pricing, place and promotion.

Three questions shape the journey

• What should we do? Explore markets, competition, consumer behaviour and research.
• What will we do? Consider segmentation and strategy.
• How will we do it? Examine product, pricing, place, promotion and customer experience.

Connect concepts with context

Marketing models are most useful when readers can test them against real situations. Corcoran’s approach brings concepts into contact with recognizable examples and cases, and asks readers to consider the gap between best practice and everyday reality. Technology and sustainability are treated as part of the contemporary marketing landscape, alongside the discipline’s commercial and societal responsibilities.

Designed for active learning

A fictional running case links ideas across the book, while real-life cases, quizzes, and discussion and reflection prompts give students different ways to revisit and apply the material. The organization supports steady progress from foundational questions to the decisions involved in putting marketing into practice.

A clear starting point for marketing students

Written primarily for undergraduates studying marketing, this book is also relevant to readers who want a structured overview of the discipline’s central concepts. Its blend of theory, cases and reflective learning makes it a thoughtful companion for understanding how organizations create and communicate value—and the contexts that influence those choices.