Definition of Marketing

Marketing

Defining Marketing

The traditional 4Ps of marketing that include product, price, promotion and place or distribution are quickly becoming obsolete given the rapid advances in social networking and the use of many more channels of communication with customers and prospects (Bernoff, Li, 2008). Marketing's role in organizations is going through a fundamental shift away from the static and highly structured to the more relationship-driven and focused on lifetime customer value over transactions. In defining one's own definition of marketing, it is useful to first evaluate others' first. A comparison of marketing definitions is first completed, comparing how social networking is fundamentally changing its role on the one hand, and how more process-driven strategies are augmenting it on the other. Based on the shortcomings of each an entirely new definition is proposed with three examples to support it.

Assessing Varying Definitions of Marketing

Marketing has often been defined more by their execution than their theoretical constructs, due to the fact that marketing strategies' value in many organizations is evaluated by results, not just frameworks. The focus on pragmatism leads to a definition of marketing as a collection of strategies and processes that transform prospects and suspects to leads, which are in turned converted from leads into clients, who over time are turned into raving fans (King, 2009). This pragmatic, cause -- and effect focus of marketing is idealized as the influence on prospects must be the catalyst that moves them from one step to the next of this model. Pragmatism assumes relevance and high interest on the part of prospects. The pragmatism of this definition also includes the 4Ps of product, price, promotion and place, yet also neglects to mention the intricacies and nuances marketing strategies require in attaining their objectives. Lastly this pragmatic approach to defining marketing leads to a mindset of putting transactions above relationships, because transactions can be more easily quantified when the 4Ps are taken into account as part of a strategy. As a result there is no mention of creating trust and long-term relationships with customers. This definition from King (2009) does not take into account listening to customers and building relationships with them through conversations as well (Raab, 2009). Due to all of these factors, the King definition needs to be considered anachronistic and out of date given the advances in social networking.

The American Marketing Association's definition of marketing is used to complete the analysis. The definition states that "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" (Zinkhan, Williams, 2007). This is significantly more strategic and process-centric, and also includes the focus on customer relationships over and above transactions, which is critical to growing lifetime customer value. This definition also takes into account the process by which prospects are turned into customers over time and customer loyalty achieved. What this definition also lacks is the essential element of how to create greater trust with customers over time and earn the role of being a trusted advisor. This is critically important in the areas of business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales. The limitations of the two definitions are incorporated into the proposed one. First and foremost, transparency and trust are critically important for any definition of marketing to be effective. Research has shown that to the extent there is transparency and trust, the velocity, volume and value of transactions significantly increase, and this holds true for monetary and information-based as well (Baker, 2009).

Proposed Marketing Definition

In conjunction with a focus on trust and loyalty, a new proposed marketing definition is proposed as follows: "The many initiatives, programs, practices, process and strategies that are combined to transform prospects to customers form the foundation of marketing. In fulfilling these initiatives the delivering of exceptional value and knowledge to prospects and customers to attain the role of trusted advisor and earn lifetime customer loyalty is the ultimate measure of effective marketing." There is a strong emphasis on setting and exceeding the expectations of customers and also striving to deliver exceptional value both in terms of insights and intelligence as well. Above all this definition focuses on how to create trust and attain the role of trusted advisor with customers, regardless of the market orientation being B2B or B2C. The intent of this definition is to make sure all components or areas of a marketing strategy are working in conjunction with each other, synchronized to deliver exceptional results over time. In that way the focus of the marketing strategies is on internal process clarity and outward, to meeting and exceeding customers' expectations so trust can be created and sustained over time.

Examples to Support the Proposed Definition

Three examples that support the proposed marketing definition are included in this section. All of these companies concentrate on creating exceptional experiences for their customers with each of them attaining trusted advisor status with their customers regardless of the market served.

The first example is from the Walt Disney Company, which hosts over 10 million visitors each year and has transformed the experience of a park visit into an essential part of the marketing strategy as well. The focus on the experience being the product, in addition to creating a continually new set of attractions, also shows how this marketer is striving to set and exceed expectations on a frequent basis. A key aspect of Disney's strategy from a marketing standpoint is Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) to enable greater levels of customer retention and renewal. Disney has turned this into a science given the success with renewal rates achieved.