John Dodds wrote down a good ‘description’ of what marketing really is as a response on the ‘marketing is the price you pay for creating mediocre products’ statement that was repeated heavily at SxSW.
“Marketing is not an expense, it’s an investment cost that is inherent in the creation of your product/service from development through promotion and distribution and on to the sales experience and post-sales service. That’s a subtle accounting distinction but a crucial one. The price you pay for not understanding marketing is much worse than mediocre products – it’s commercial extinction.”
Make sure you read the whole post, as I think it’s spot on!
'Cross The Breeze 
Indeed … sure it is important to have a good product to start with. But we all know that just because it is good, doesn’t mean it will sell. History proves otherwise.
Marketing, like anything, is a complex process in this day and age. Reducing it to a function of your product is foolish, if not irresponsible.