Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach

Built on a strong foundation, Basic Marketing 18e with ConnectPlus and LearnSmart provides an integrated teaching and learning solution for presenting the four Ps framework and managerial orientation with a strategy planning focus. The Perreault franchise was the pioneer of the “four Ps” in the introductory marketing course. The unifying focus of Basic Marketing has always been on how to make marketing decisions in deciding what customers to focus on and how best to meet their needs. Consistent with our belief in continuous quality improvement, this edition has been critically revised, updated, and rewritten to reflect new concepts, new examples, recent “best practices,” and to tightly integrate the best digital tools in the industry for ensuring that students are prepared to engage in classroom lectures and pursue future business and marketing careers.

William D. Perreault Jr. is Kenan Professor of Business Emeritus at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Perreault is the recipient of the two most prestigious awards in his field: the American Marketing Association Distinguished Educator Award and the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Educator Award. He was also selected for the Churchill Award, which honors career impact on marketing research. He was editor of the Journal of Marketing Research and has been on the review board of the Journal of Marketing and other journals. 

The Decision Sciences Institute has recognized Dr. Perreault for innovations in marketing education, and at UNC he has received several awards for teaching excellence. He is also the author of Basic Marketing and The Marketing Game! 

Dr. Perreault is a past president of the American Marketing Association Academic Council, served as chair of an advisory committee to the U.S. Census Bureau, and served as a trustee of the Marketing Science Institute. He has also worked as a consultant to organizations that range from GE and IBM to the Federal Trade Commission.


Joseph P. Cannon is Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow and professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has also taught at the University of North Carolina, Emory University, Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain), INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), Thammasat University (Bangkok, Thailand), and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). He has received many teaching awards and the N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation. 

Dr. Cannon’s research has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Antitrust Bulletin, and the Academy of Management Review, among others. He is a two-time recipient of the Louis W. and Rhona L. Stern Award for high-impact research on interorganizational topics. He has also written numerous teaching cases. Dr. Cannon serves (or served) on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Journal of Marketing Education. The Journal of Marketing has honored Dr. Cannon with several distinguished reviewer awards. He served as chair of the American Marketing Association’s Interorganizational Special Interest Group (IOSIG). Before entering academics, Dr. Cannon worked in sales and marketing for Eastman Kodak Company.



Marketing lost one of its pioneers when E. Jerome “Jerry” McCarthy passed away at his home in East Lansing, Michigan, in 2015. 

All marketing instructors owe Jerry McCarthy a great debt of gratitude. Jerry was a pioneer in marketing and wrote the predecessor to this title, Basic Marketing, and the first few editions of Essentials of Marketing. He popularized the 4 Ps approach to managerial marketing management. Because of the impact he had in marketing and this title specifically, we dedicate this 18th edition to him in honor of his memory. 

After earning a PhD at the University of Minnesota, Dr. McCarthy joined the faculty at Notre Dame and became a Fellow in the prestigious Ford Foundation Program at Harvard, an experience that focused on how to make marketing management practice more rigorous and shaped his thoughts on the needs of students and educators. Dr. McCarthy spent most of his career at Michigan State University, gaining a reputation for working with passion and purpose. He received the AMA’s Trailblazer Award in 1987 and was voted one of the “top five” leaders in marketing thought by marketing educators. 

Dr. McCarthy was well known for his innovative teaching materials and texts, including Basic Marketing and Essentials of Marketing. These books changed the way marketing was taught by taking a managerial point of view. He also introduced a marketing strategy planning framework, organizing marketing decisions around the Four Ps―Product, Place, Promotion and Price. As these approaches became the standard in other texts, Dr. McCarthy continued to innovate, including new materials in the digital realm. Today’s marketing instructors owe a great debt to this innovative pioneer.