What is Marketing?

My last boss was not a "marketing guy." He started our first meeting by posing this question. After spending ten years in consumer marketing, all I could do was stare at him. Well? What is it? There is an entire industry of authors and consultants who attempt to answer this. When you type What is Marketing? into Amazon, you get 8,749 titles. So if it takes several thousand authors 300 pages each to answer it, perhaps the answer actually is complicated.