As a marketer, I don’t think you have any idea what marketing is. If you don’t reach people to tell them what you have to offer, no one will ever find you. Marketing is just communication.
But if you removed ALL the marketers from the surface of the planet, people would still have needs and they would find product for those needs without the help of marketers. The end product would not change for a thing.
Let's take one of the most advertised product on the market: cars. Cars are highly utilitarian and are needed by people. Today every brand maker has to advertise in order to remind people that their model exist. If you remove all the ads for cars, people would still need cars and they would buy based on what they think is best suited for them, not based on the most flashy ads.
Not very well. All you achieve by getting rid of marketers is ceding control of marketing to random natural factors like geography or chance.
I’m not against companies having their own web sites to “sell” their product, just don’t put your ads in front of me to convince me I need something. If I need it, I’ll go look for it.
Not actually best as in most useful.
If I didn't intrusively steal people's limited time and attention to force my manipulative product spam right into their faces, I might not get what I want, therefore it's ok for me to do that - the ends justify the means.
advertising: n. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
marketing: n. The activities required by a producer to sell his products, including advertising,
then my complaint applies. Pushing information about your product into my face is both advertising and marketing.
If you mean "marketing: n. The act or process of buying and selling in a market." then your comment is unrelated, because neither I nor the person I replied to were talking about other people trading between themselves.
For example, Hacker News is absolutely a marketing vehicle for Y Combinator. Would you say that they "intrusively steal people's limited time and attention to force my manipulative product spam right into their faces"? You choose to come here, and in doing so, it elevates the brand of Y Combinator in your mind and in the world.