According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing is a social process by which individual groups obtain what the} need and want through creating offerings and freely exchanging products and sen ices of value with others”.

The various functions of marketing are given below : 

Marketing Planning and Product Development: It involves making plans for increasing production and sales, .promotion of product etc. and also laying down a course of action for achieving these objectives. It relates to the decision of quality standards to be used for shape or design of the product, packing etc. in order to make product attractive. Product planning and development involves introduction and development of new products, improvement of the existing product and dropping out unprofitable items from the product line.

Standardization and Grading: Standardization is the general term which includes the establishment of standards for products, the inspection of products in order to determine the standard to which they conform and where necessary the sorting of products into lots conforming to established standards. Grading refers to a process of classifying products into different groups on the basis of their features like size, shape, quality etc. This assures the quality, price and packaging of product to the customers.

Storage or Warehousing: Storage refers to the holding and preservation of goods from . the time of production until the time of consumption. There is a need for storage of adequate stock of goods to meet the demand in case of contingencies and to avoid unnecessary delays in delivery. Warehousing is essential for commodities like wheat, sugar, rice etc. which are produced during the particular seasons but demanded throughout the year.

Transportation : It means physical movement of goods from the place of production to the place of consumption. It serves as a link between the producers and consumers who are located at different places. A business firm analyses its transportation needs on the basis of factors like nature of the product, cost, location of the target market etc. It also removes the barrier of distance and help to stabilize prices by matching supply with demand.

Pricing: The amount of money which a customer is required to pay for purchasing the product is known as product price. It is important function in marketing because it determines the sales volumes and the amount of profits. Thus, while determining the price for a product, various factors like type of customers, their income, product demand etc. should be considered.