I've found that there are generally two definitions of what "marketing" really entails:
1. Generate brand awareness, get people interested in your product and bring in leads/customers (depending whether you're B2B of B2C)
2. One that includes all that, plus the market research necessary to figure out how to do all that stuff
For lots of startups, the second part is really part of the entire product/customer development cycle, where product managers figure out what the customers need and how to talk about it in their language. This leaves the "marketing" people to really just focus on the more narrow definition. But in more traditional businesses, lots of that market research falls under the label of "marketing."
As a guide for hackers, the most important two marketing activites are "getting the word out" and optimizing your funnel from visitor to lead to customer.
There is so much more what falls under the label marketing. From Pricing, Distribution all the way to Data Analysis. I really like the definition posted by mindcrime/AMA's.
1. Generate brand awareness, get people interested in your product and bring in leads/customers (depending whether you're B2B of B2C)
2. One that includes all that, plus the market research necessary to figure out how to do all that stuff
For lots of startups, the second part is really part of the entire product/customer development cycle, where product managers figure out what the customers need and how to talk about it in their language. This leaves the "marketing" people to really just focus on the more narrow definition. But in more traditional businesses, lots of that market research falls under the label of "marketing."
As a guide for hackers, the most important two marketing activites are "getting the word out" and optimizing your funnel from visitor to lead to customer.