[malshe]

> Bringing it back to marketing, the transaction can't even begin until the customers are aware of the product and understand that it meets a need they have, so the marketer is adding value by enabling that to happen.

This is reducing marketing to advertising. Advertising is a subset of marketing. Marketing research may begin even before a product exists.

[ben509]

That's fair, I was trying to keep it simple to explain my train of thought better.