The latest definition of the term Marketing by the American Marketing Association (AMA) dates back to 2007. Marketing is defined as " 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".
In a post of this blog in 2008 I commented on the fact that this definition replaced another one, just 3 years after its introduction in 2004 but I come back to this today because this definition seems to be outdated also.
While many traditional marketers would settle with the textbook 2007 AMA definition of Marketing, someone entering the marketing field today as academic but mainly as professional has some problems with it. The marketing environment has namely dramatically changed since 2007 with several new actors entering the equation. The most important change is the emerging customer empowerment as a result of the staggering growth of the social media domain. While the AMA definition is underlining the role of marketing for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings it completely ignores this factor.
There are two main drawbacks in the 2007 definition: The first is that it is still based on the one-way thinking, the dominant way of marketers' thinking when they were in control of the domain. The marketer is not any more the powerful party in control of the medium and the message, the market power has migrated to the customer. The second issue (as a result of the first) is that two basic elements of the 2007 have a complete different nature today: I am talking about the "creation" and "communication".
In a post of this blog in 2008 I commented on the fact that this definition replaced another one, just 3 years after its introduction in 2004 but I come back to this today because this definition seems to be outdated also.
While many traditional marketers would settle with the textbook 2007 AMA definition of Marketing, someone entering the marketing field today as academic but mainly as professional has some problems with it. The marketing environment has namely dramatically changed since 2007 with several new actors entering the equation. The most important change is the emerging customer empowerment as a result of the staggering growth of the social media domain. While the AMA definition is underlining the role of marketing for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings it completely ignores this factor.
There are two main drawbacks in the 2007 definition: The first is that it is still based on the one-way thinking, the dominant way of marketers' thinking when they were in control of the domain. The marketer is not any more the powerful party in control of the medium and the message, the market power has migrated to the customer. The second issue (as a result of the first) is that two basic elements of the 2007 have a complete different nature today: I am talking about the "creation" and "communication".
- "creation" is rapidly changing to "co-creation". Businesses failing to tap the customer creativity in developing new products, services and communication concepts will be the laggards of the future.
- Old fashion "Communication" by means of mass and one-way media is rapidly losing ground and respect. Looking to a billboard this morning I suddenly realised that the only function of the ad displayed there was to inform me about a product and nothing else! My customer journey will actually start behind my laptop, iPad or smartphone where I would go searching about the product I saw by reading reviews and opinions of those who already bought it. The message is not anymore the text or even the medium: The Message is the Customer.
