Download MARKETING DEFINED

marketingnews 01.15.08
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By Lisa M. Keefe//Editor
MARKETING DEFINED
Marketing is the activity, set
of institutions, and processes
for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners,
and society at large.
feature
Like language itself, marketing and its various
elements shape-shift with the times. New concepts
arise and others sunset. Even constant terms such
as “product,” “customer” or “target” take on new
meanings as technology, demographics, industry and the economy bring change to bear on the
practice of marketing.
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Marketing, as defined in:
was to assign each member to certain tasks.
Several members attended marketing events
to listen to presentations and network with
marketers of all stripes, and report on all the
activities that the term “marketing” seems to
encompass today.
In addition, Dr. Jimmy Peltier, Irvin L.
Young Professor of Entrepreneurship and
Marketing in the College of Business and
Economics at the University of WisconsinWhitewater, created a survey instrument that
was sent to 20,116 AMA members on March
7. It asked members to review the definition
of marketing that was finalized in 2004, and
indicate what they liked best about it and
what, if anything, they would change.
The survey generated 2,500 responses
from across the membership. Based on the
responses, members liked the way the thencurrent definition (as was approved in 2004)
incorporated terms like “value,” “processes,”
“relationships,” “set” and “organizational
function.” On the other hand, in terms of
changes they would make (either additions or deletions) the top vote-getters were
“transaction,” “user,” “organizational function,” “organization,” “definition,” “processes”
and “stakeholder.” Interestingly, at least as
many people seemed to dislike the word
“organizational” as liked it.
A subsequent mailing on May 16, to
20,006 members, offered up a draft of a
revised definition of marketing and asked for
feedback regarding the wording of the revision. The mailing received 1,024 responses.
“The committee practiced good marketing through the inclusion of our customers in the revision process,” Dr. Peltier points
out. “We utilized qualitative insight generated through an evaluation of the 1985 and
2004 definitions of marketing to craft what
we felt was a definition that better served our
constituents. This listening process was validated when we brought our revised definition back to members.” More than 70%
indicated, in the second survey, that the
revised definition was an improvement,
building on the success of the process done
five years ago.
“That turned out to have been a really
good thing to have done,” Lehmann says. “A
lot of people were able to express their opinions and we learned a little bit that changed
what we wrote down.”
With their research and the survey
results in-hand, the members of the committee drafted an updated definition that was
brought to the Board of Directors at its
June meeting. The Board—which has input
into the definition but does not have the
authority to edit what the committee has
written—sent the definition back with its
observations.
“They didn’t vote on it either way, but
they asked that the committee think about
these issues,” Lotti says. “The committee looked at the issues, agreed on two and
disagreed on others.”
The Board’s feedback resulted in some
minor changes to the definition, and the final
version was approved at the October meeting.
“The biggest thing I personally like about
it [is] that it’s broader than the company,”
Lehmann says. “I also feel good about the
fact that it allows that one can market something either to do good or to take into
account to some extent society at large; it’s
not the exchange of money for only the
shareholder welfare. We certainly didn’t try
to make it a do-good definition, but if somebody chooses to do good it falls within the
definition of marketing.”
“Clearly, the process won out and we
have widespread support for the revised definition,” Dr. Peltier says.
When Dr. Robert Lusch—a former AMA
board chairperson and head of the department of marketing at the Eller College of
Management at the University of Arizona—
led the review and rewrite five years ago, it
was the first such review in 17 years. At that
time, the board decided to set a schedule
that would require a review of the definition
every five years and create a formal process
for doing so.
“That makes it an open and a transparent
process rather than something that happens
irregularly,” Lotti says.
The next review of the definition, then,
is due in 2012. Meanwhile, the process of
reviewing the official definition of marketing
research is just beginning. m
— COMMITTEE MEMBERS —
Shelby Hunt, Texas Tech University, At-large member
Don Lehmann, Columbia University, Committee chair
Joan Treistman, M/A/R/C Research,
Marketing Research Council
William Wilkie, University of Notre Dame,
At-large member
James Peltier, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
Collegiate Chapters Council
Becky Youngberg, American Marketing Association
Ric Sweeney, University of Cincinnati,
Professional Chapters Council George Zinkhan, University of Georgia,
Academic Council
2004
“(Marketing is) the
process of planning
and executing the
conception, pricing,
promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods
and services to create
exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives.”
1985
“Marketing is an organizational function
and a set of processes
for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers
and for managing
customer relationships
in ways that benefit
the organization and
its stakeholders.”
1935
(As adopted by the
National Association of
Marketing Teachers, an
AMA predecessor organization): “(Marketing is)
the performance of business activities that direct
the flow of goods and
services from producers
to consumers.”
feature
Wayne McCullough, Daimler-Chrysler, At-large member
01.15.08
And so the American Marketing Association revisits the definition of marketing—the
official definition used in books, by marketing
professionals and taught in university lecture
halls nationwide—every five years. The
most recent review process kicked off in late
2006, and a new definition of marketing was
approved by the Association’s Board of Directors at its October 2007 meeting.
The new definition reads:
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
“I think this is a very inclusive definition,” says Michael A. Lotti, Chairperson of
the AMA Board and a founding member
of In4mation Insights, a research and strategy consulting firm in Boston. “It doesn’t
focus on one part of marketing. It also recognizes explicitly the roles of non-marketers to
the marketing process, whether they are the
customer, channel partners or government
agencies who regulate marketing.
“Marketing is also a science, an educational process [and] a philosophy, not just a
management system,” Lotti goes on. The new
definition “is not a definition of marketing
management, it’s a definition of marketing.”
The new definition’s inclusivity is by
design. The process, as laid out in the Association’s bylaws, is guided by a committee whose
members represent a cross-section of the
marketing industry, and solicits input from
every corner of the Association’s membership.
The committee came together in late 2006,
beginning with Donald R. Lehmann, George
E. Warren Professor of Business at Columbia Business School in New York, who agreed
to serve as chairman. He helped recruit other
members who “by logic should have been
involved,” Lehmann says, because of the
constituencies they represent. Most committee members also are, or had been in the past,
a volunteer leader with the Association.
Another key qualification, Lehmann
says, was that, “In general, we wanted to get
reasonable people together—[even if] none of
us are reasonable all the time.”
With the committee in place, the next step
Marketing is the
activity, set of
institutions, and
processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings
that have value for
customers, clients,
partners, and society
at large.
marketingnews 2007