Exchange and Transactions
A person can obtain a product in one of four ways. One can self-produce the product or service, as when one hunts, fishes, or gathers fruit. One can use force to get a product, as in a holdup or burglary. One can beg, as happens when a homeless person asks for food; or one can offer a product, a service, or money in exchange for something he or she desires.

Exchange, which is the core concept of marketing, is the process of obtaining a desired product from someone by offering something in return. For exchange potential to exist, five conditions must be satisfied:

1. There are at least two parties.
2. Each party has something that might be of value to the other party.
3. Each party is capable of communication and delivery.
4. Each party is free to accept or reject the exchange offer.
5. Each party believes it is appropriate or desirable to deal with the other party.
Whether exchange actually takes place depends on whether the two parties can agree on terms that will leave them both better off (or at least not worse off) than before. Exchange is a value-creating process because it normally leaves both parties better off.

Two parties are engaged in exchange if they are negotiating-trying to arrive at mutually
Agreeablt e terms. When an agreement is reached, we say that a transaction takes place. A transaction is a trade of values between two or more parties: A gives X to B and receives Y in return. Smith sells Jones a television set and Jones pays $400 to Smith. This is a classic monetary transaction but transactions do not require money as one of the traded values. A barter transaction involves trading goods or services for other goods or services, as when lawyer Jones writes a will for physician Smith in return for a medical examination.

A transaction involves several dimensions: at least two things of value, agreed-upon conditions, a time of agreement, and a place of agreement. A legal system supports and enforces compliance on the part of the transactions without a law of contracts, people would approach transactions with some distrust, and everyone would lose.

A transaction differs from a transfer. In a transfer, a gives X to B but does not receive anything tangible in return. Gifts.. subsidies, and charitable contributions are all transfers.
Transfer behavior can also be understood through the concept of exchange. Typically, the
Transfer expects to receive something in exchange for his or her gift-for example, gratitude or seeing changed behavior in the recipient. Professional fund-raisers provide benefits to donors, such as thank-you notes, donor magazines, and invitations to events. Marketers have broadened the concept of marketing to include the study of transfer behavior as well as transaction behavior.

In the most generic sense, marketers seek to elicit a behavioral response from another party. A business firm wants a purchase a political candidate wants a vote, a church wants an active member and a social-action group wants the passionate adoption of some cause.

Marketing consists of actions undertaken to elicit desired responses from a target audience.
To make successful exchanges, marketers analyze what each party expects from the transaction Simple exchange situations can be mapped by showing the two actors and the wants and offerings flowing between them suppose John Deere, a worldwide leader in agricultural equipment, researches the benefits that a typical large-scale farm enterprise wants when it buy tractors, combines, planters, and sprayers. These benefits include high quality equipment, a fair price, on-time delivery, good financing terms, and good parts and service. The items on this want list are not equally important and may vary from buyer to buyer. One of John Deere's tasks is to discover the relative importance of these different wants to the buyer.

John Deere also has a want list. It wants a good price for the equipment, on-time payment, and good word of mouth. If there is a sufficient match or overlap in the want lists, a basis for a transaction exists. John Deere's task is to formulate an offer that motivates the farm enterprise to buy John Deere equipment. The farm enterprise might in turn make a counteroffer.
This process of negotiation leads to mutually acceptable terms or a decision not to transact.

What Is Marketed?
Marketing people are involved in marketing 10 types of entities: goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas.

Goods
Physical goods constitute the bulk of most countries' production and marketing effort. Each year, U.S. companies alone market billions of fresh, canned, bagged, and frozen food products and millions of cars, refrigerators, television sets, machines, and various other mainstays of a modern economy. Not only do companies market their goods, but thanks in part to the Internet, even individuals can effectively market goods.

SERVICES
As economies advance; a growing proportion of their activities are focused on the production of services. The U.S. economy today consists of a 70-30 services to goods mix. Services include the work of airlines, hotels, car rental firms, barbers and beauticians, maintenance and repair people, as well as professionals working within or for companies, such as accountants, bankers, lawyers, engineers, doctors, software programmers, and management consultants. Many market offerings consist of a variable mix of goods and services at fast-food restaurant, for example, the customer consumes both a product and a service.

EVENTS
Marketers promote time-based events, such as major trade shows, artistic performances, and company anniversaries. Global sporting events such as the Olympics or World Cup are promoted aggressively to both companies and fans. There is a whole profession of meeting planners who work out the details of an event and make sure it comes off perfectly.

EXPERIENCES
By orchestrating several services and goods, a firm can create, stage, and market experiences Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom represents experiential marketing:
Customers visit a fairy kingdom, a pirate ship, or a haunted house. So does the Hard Rock Cafe, where customers can enjoy a meal or see a band in a live concert. There is also a market for customized experiences, such as spending a week at a baseball camp playing with some retired baseball greats, paying to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for five minutes, or climbing Mount Everest.

PERSONS
Celebrity marketing is a major business. Today, every major film star has an agent, a personal manager, and ties to a public relations agency. Artists, musicians, CEOs, physicians, high-profile lawyers and financiers, and other professionals are also getting help from celebrity marketers. Some people have done a masterful job of marketing themselves think of Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, the Rolling Stones, Aero smith, and Michael Jordan. Management consultant Tom Peters, himself a master at self-branding, has advised each person to become a "brand."

PLACES
Cities, states, regions, and whole nations compete actively to attract tourists, factories, company headquarters, and new residents.

Place marketers
Include economic development specialists, real estate agents, commercial banks, local business associations, and advertising and public relations agencies to fuel their high-tech industries and spawn entrepreneurship, cities such as Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham are actively wooing 20- to 29-year-olds through ads, PR, and other communications. Louisville, Kentucky, spends $1 million annually on e-mails, events, and networking approaches to convince 20-somethings of the city's quality of life and other advantages.

Properties
Properties are intangible rights of ownership of either real property (real estate) or financial property (stocks and bonds). Properties are bought and sold, and this requires marketing. Real estate agents work for property owners or sellers or buy residential or commercial real estate. Investment companies and banks are involved in marketing securities to both institutional and individual investors.