Marketing is perhaps the most important management concept in that it can bring enormous wealth to any professional. At the same time, it is also one of the least understood concepts.

By skillfully understanding what marketing is all about, you can add a few zeros to your bank account. Seriously.

But before we talk about marketing itself, let's take a look at what's going on in today's economy.

Companies in all industries and from all over the world are experiencing intense competition from cheaper labor, newer technologies, faster innovators and the ever-increasing demands of sophisticated consumers.

As a result, companies focus more than ever on customers and how to serve them better and cheaper. There are also trends about creating “unique customer experiences.”

Peter Drucker was indeed correct (again) when he wrote that business is basically marketing and innovation.

What does all this have to do with you? After all, you have a job to do every day and you try to do it as well as possible.

Do you really have to care about the customer? Isn't that the job of the Marketing Department?

Yes, traditionally. Not anymore.

Today, every working person has a customer to serve. It may be your boss or other coworkers.

No matter who your customer is (a customer being defined as “the person who benefits from your work”), knowing more about marketing will help you to maximize his/her satisfaction so as to position yourself advantageously for career advancement.

But what is “marketing” exactly?

You might have heard of the joke, “Marketing is what you have to do when the product is crap.”

There is some truth to that joke.

A more common misperception is that marketing is like selling, and that it's all about promotion.

In fact, marketing is neither about selling nor about trying to compensate for inferior products.

Marketing, essentially, is the process of “anticipating, identifying and profitably satisfying customer needs.”

Those 7 words are fully worth committing to memory.

Basically, it means that marketing attempts to know about customers' emerging needs (through market research, for instance), define current customer needs, and then create products and services that will satisfy those needs while turning a profit for the company.

It's got to be win-win: customer needs must be fulfilled, and the company must turn a profit.

You might have heard of other marketing-related concepts such as the 4 P's (product, promotion, price, place) or Web marketing or selling. They are important tactical considerations, but not nearly as important as the relentless and sustained focus on customer needs.

Whether you're a professional or a manager or an entrepreneur, there is no doubt that you do have a customer. Ultimately, the customer is the one who makes sure that you earn a living.

The customer is also the person who can make you rich. Here's a simple metaphor to illustrate the critical connection between marketing and wealth: Imagine that your customer has a hole in his life. This hole represents a need or the lack of something.

The more you fill that need, the more the customer will fill your bank account. It's really that simple.