Well, I mean, if someone buys anything they don't need, then they overpay. Why do people buy hats at all? Why own more than 3 pairs of shoes? Why buy more than 3 pairs of pants? Why to out to a restaurant or bar, when one can make do it at home?

With or without marketing, people are going to buy what they don't need. That is 100% above what they should be paying, once you are past the bare necessities. We should all have only the bare necessities in life. That's all. But in first world countries, and even in 3rd world, all except for the very, very most poverty stricken company, people look for more than their needs, and to their wants. This has nothing to do with marketing. If you completely took marketing out of the equation, this is still what people would do.

I'm sure even in the caveman times, there were some people that wanted a better bearskin coat than all the others in the tribe, and would go out and kill the best bear, even though he had a perfectly fine bearskin coat. Or more likely, he would get the best bearskin coat in order to give it to the hot little cavewoman he has his eye on.

>If I want to market something, I’m doing it because I want to sell it at maximal cost,

I don't know, the way you phrase this sounds like you don't have much business knowledge. You don't want to sell it at the maximum cost, you want to sell it at the maximum price. Cost is what one says from the consumer side - "It cost me $500." But from the seller's side, you want to maximize revenue. You don't want to maximize cost, you want to minimize cost and maximize the sales price.

Sure, I understood what you are trying to say but it took me a re-read, because that is not what someone who owned a business would say.

But what you said is silly. There are companies that sell pens for $2 million, those that sell the for $500, those that sell them for $80, and those that sell them for 1 cent. And there are many brands to choose from. My dad is a Parker pen guy, I'm a Cross pen person. The consumer has the choice between all kinds of brands and pricing.

The business as a whole should not want to maximize the pricing, or the cost, but instead, they should want to maximize profits.

But what it really comes down to is you are being too simplistic. I'm not going to "rebut" you because your assertion is just too uneducated.

An important purpose of marketing is to get people to buy from their company, rather than their competitor. That's the biggest challenge, not to get people to overpay for things that they don't need. And why? Because the people working there, people like you and me, need money to pay for rent, to pay for food, to pay for healthcare, to pay for tuition.

That is my company's biggest challenge. To get people to buy from me and not someone else. There are hundreds of companies that charge as much as me. There are thousands that charge less than me. There are those that charge way more. And everyone we talk to, they know it. We have turned people down because they can't afford what I have, or are not a good fit for my company. There's no pulling the wool over their eyes. We literally have people telling us that they get 4 or 5 people calling them every day for the exact same thing.

We all need to buy or acquire things in life that we need in order to live. Companies need profits. The average profit of the S&P 100 is about 10%. How can my company be heard? One has to let people know somehow.

And again, I am not here to "rebut" you, I am here to educate you. What you say is like me saying that the purpose of a mobile phone is to use it as a flashlight, because that's all that I use it for. And you try to tell me that the mobile phones are used for all kinds of other purposes, and I say you're not rebutting me that the main purpose of phones is that they are used for flashlights when you are looking for something in your car, or trying to put your key in the keyhole in your car door. It's ridiculous.

But answer me this - do you, or have you, ever owned your own business?