Since Web 2.0 has gained massive momentum, it was only a matter of time that the American Marketing Association adopted a new definition for marketing. See what you think of the new definition:
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.
Here is the old 2004 definition by comparison:
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.
I won’t rehash about what I wrote about the new definition on Small Business Branding, but I will say that the major focus of this definition over the old one is that it’s intention was to broaden the scope of marketing to more groups. This telegraphs the opportunities currently available to marketers and for that reason, I think it’s important to understand the new definition. Despite being a bit late, I think it’s worth mentioning that one of the major themes for this definition was highlighted all the way back at Mplanet 2006, when this was cutting edge.
According to another article their last definition didn’t really catch on, but here’s to hoping this version will.
For more information on the new definition as well as others which pop up, visit the Marketing Power blog here.
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Posted by Robert Kingston on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pm. Category: Marketing, News. Comment Feed: RSS 2.0. Leave a Comment below, or a trackback from your site.
I am not totaly agree. I read a lot of books about that.
Bingo
February 13th, 2008
Hi Bingo,
What about the definition don’t you agree on?
Robert Kingston
February 13th, 2008
I much prefer the older definition, particularly “creating, communicating and delivering value”. It is clear and concise. When we are marketing our Bed and Breakfast in Fort William, we keep in mind the cardinal rule of communicating value. Of course before the message we have to create some value to deliver
B and B Fort William
March 7th, 2008
I’ll have to admit, I still like Jay Conrad Levinson’s definition the best: “Marketing is everything you do to promote your business, from the moment you conceive of it to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis.” Thanks for the post, though… it is always a good thing to visit the topic of what our definition of marketing really is on a regular basis.
Bryan Eye
September 10th, 2008
Yeah, marketing is a very broad term. I think as long as people don’t just recognise marketing as the process of promotion, but also the creation and delivery of value, they’re on the right track.
Robert Kingston
September 11th, 2008