Marketing's role is to deliver a higher standard of living by understanding consumer desires. When eBay recognized people's desire for hard-to-find items, it created an online auction platform to connect buyers and sellers. Manufacturers like Sony, Apple, and Toyota were able to design highly successful products by doing careful marketing homework to understand what the "right" product was for consumers. Marketing entities can include goods, places, services, properties, events, ideas, experiences, information, persons, and organizations.