Nonfiction · Business & Economics · Business and economics

Principles of Marketing

Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong

First published 1980

Reading facts

✓ Checked

Reading effort: 47 / 100Moderate
Length: 736 pagesPearson · 2020
Reading time: 14 h 45 minat 50 pages an hour ·
Pace: Measured
Emotional intensity: 1 / 5

Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.

About the book

Understanding customers and what they value is the organizing principle of this introduction to marketing. Kotler and his coauthors connect research into consumer and business buyers with decisions about which markets to serve, what products to develop, how to price them, and where to sell them. Advertising sits within that broader process, alongside distribution, financial analysis, digital marketing, international markets, and social responsibility.

Reader notes

The college textbook format breaks the subject into concepts, company cases, and chapter exercises, with definitions and review questions guiding the reading. Its broad coverage means sustained study across many business functions, with regular opportunities to apply the ideas through practical problems.

How it reads

Writing style: Academic · Direct · Technical
Tone: Detached · Earnest
Structure: Reference
Driven by: Ideas · Information
Evidence style: Case studies · Research synthesis
Practical orientation: Balanced
Nonfiction form: Academic scholarly · Explanation synthesis

Reading complexity

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Content notes

Violence: None
Sexual content: None
Swearing: None
Substance use: None
Abuse: None
Self-harm or suicide: None

Questions readers ask

Do I need any marketing knowledge before starting?

No, it introduces marketing through concepts, definitions, company cases, and review questions. The college textbook format supports beginners, though the academic and technical prose calls for sustained study.

Is it useful for applying marketing ideas?

Yes, chapter exercises and practical problems provide regular opportunities to apply the concepts. Company cases connect the ideas to business decisions, while research synthesis supplies the broader explanation.

Does it cover more than advertising?

Yes, understanding customers and what they value organizes the coverage. Advertising sits alongside decisions about markets, product development, pricing, and distribution, with attention to financial analysis, digital marketing, international markets, and social responsibility.

How should I approach reading it?

Use the definitions and review questions to check your understanding, then work through the chapter exercises and practical problems. The measured textbook structure supports sustained study across several business functions.

How long is it?

About 736 pages in the Pearson 2020 edition. Concepts, company cases, and chapter exercises divide the broad coverage into material for sustained study.

Which edition is shown here?

Pearson · 2020 · hardcover. ISBN 9780135766590.

How long does it take to read Principles of Marketing?

About 14 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 736-page Pearson edition. Dense books can take longer.

About the authors

Philip Kotler

Philip Kotler is an American marketing professor, author, and consultant whose work helped establish marketing as a broad management discipline rather than a synonym for advertising or sales. His textbooks proceed through linked decisions: researching customers, segmenting markets, selecting targets, positioning offerings, and coordinating products, prices, distribution, and promotion. Marketing Management gave business education a durable vocabulary of the marketing mix, segmentation, and value delivery, pairing systematic frameworks with cases and practical applications. Principles of Marketing uses a similarly staged structure, moving from consumer research to brand building, launch choices, and long-term customer relationships. His scope extends well beyond commercial products into health care, public institutions, tourism, the arts, poverty alleviation, and social marketing designed to encourage healthier and safer behavior. In collaborative work such as Marketing 5.0, he applies the same framework-driven method to artificial intelligence, automation, and personalization, while keeping attention on human needs and unequal access.

Gary Armstrong

Gary Armstrong is a marketing educator whose textbooks turn a broad business discipline into a sequence of practical decisions. A professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, he writes in a direct academic style, using structured frameworks, research synthesis, and company cases. Principles of Marketing and Marketing move from consumer behavior and market research through segmentation, positioning, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion. Their organization keeps individual tools connected to the larger work of creating customer value and sustaining relationships, while later material extends that framework to digital channels, ethics, and social responsibility.