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I want to understand what is marketing I need a website which gives a real free courses online

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This should give you a start:-

Marketing is the process by which sellers find buyers and by which goods and services move from producers to consumers. Everyday life involves many marketing activities, such as advertising and selling. Other marketing activities include financing by banks and deliveries to stores and homes. Marketing is so important to industry that about half the cost of goods and services results from the marketing process. More people work in marketing than in production.

Consumers in the United States, Canada, and most other non-Communist countries can choose from a huge variety of products and services. Therefore, a company must have an effective marketing program to make its products and services attractive to customers. In a large firm, executives called marketing managers direct marketing. But every business, regardless of size, engages in five major marketing activities: (1) market research, (2) product development, (3) distribution, (4) pricing, and (5) promotion.

Market research is the study of the probable users of a product or service. Such potential customers are called a market. There are many sources of market information. For example, government statistics about population and income indicate the size of a market and its purchasing power.

Product development includes determining the various goods to be offered, as well as developing the products themselves. Manufacturers continually meet the demands of the public by adding new products, changing existing ones, and dropping others.

Distribution is the movement of goods and services from producer to consumer. A manufacturer must establish a system that keeps products moving steadily from the factory to the customer. Such a system is called a marketing channel or a channel of distribution.

Many types of companies take part in distribution. They include wholesalers, who sell large quantities of goods to retailers. The retailers, in turn, sell small numbers of products to consumers. Independent dealers called jobbers buy goods from manufacturers in large quantities and sell them to retail dealers in small quantities. Other firms provide such services as financing, transportation, and storage.

Pricing. When setting the price of a product, most manufacturers start with their unit production cost, the expense of making one unit of the item. They add a percentage of this cost to provide a profit for themselves. Every company in the marketing channel then sells the product for more than it cost. Each firm adds an amount that covers its expenses and enables it to make a profit. The amount added at each stage is called a markup. The final selling price of an item equals its production cost plus the total of the markups. See PRICE; PROFIT.

Some people believe a large part of the money spent on marketing is wasted. But most economists believe the marketing process actually benefits consumers. For example, market research helps industry offer what customers need and want. Marketing also provides consumers with shopping information and makes products available in convenient quantities at nearby locations.

Promotion includes advertising, catalogs, coupons, direct-mail, in-store displays, and personal selling. Companies engage in a variety of promotional activities to inform customers about products and services and to persuade them to buy. See the articles on ADVERTISING and SALESMANSHIP for more information about this phase of marketing.

Contributor: Frederick E. Webster, Jr. Ph.D. Charles Henry Jones Third Century Prof. of Management, The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Dartmouth College.

Additional resources

Kotler, Philip, and Armstrong, Gary. Principles of Marketing. 6th ed. Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Steinberg, Margery. Opportunities in Marketing Careers. Rev. ed. VGM Career, 1994.