The cool part of marketing

I came across this in my readings online. I hate it when I tell someone that I'm in marketing, or am looking for a marketing job, and the first thing they think of is sales or "pushy" salesperson.. there's a lot more to marketing than that and this excerpt summarises my thoughts.

"Marketing is not a department. Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). Promotion and sales are just sub-sets of marketing." Full article

Strangely enough, the above excerpt is part of an article that's entitled "Geek Marketing 101". I don't consider myself a geek by any means, but over the years, I have developed an affinity for knowledge of things that are geeky-ish.. I want to get into product development in my career, but with lack of a technical background, it seems to be hard to get into.