Categories: Articles

A Good Day For Marketing

I came across two news items that struck me today.

First up was a news item from BtoB Magazine titled, American Marketing Association Releases New Definition of Marketing.

You ready?

Here it is:

"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."

“’One of the most important changes to American Marketing Association’s new definition for marketing is that marketing is presented as a broader activity,’ said Nancy Costopulos, CMO of the American Marketing Association. ‘Marketing is no longer a function — it is an educational process.’"

What was the old version?

"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."

Semantics? Real value? Did anyone know/care that there was a definition for Marketing?

Next up, a news item from Marketing Charts titled, Positive Outlook For Marketing Spend, Better Accountability And Analytics.

Based on the annual Marketing Outlook survey conducted by the CMO Council, over 825 senior Marketing professionals across the world were surveyed and the results uncovered some interesting findings.

“’It’s not just what they’re spending, it’s where dollars are going and how effectively they are being used,’ noted Donovan Neale-May, the CMO Council’s executive director. ‘There’s definitely more attention to the analytics side of the business and the use of more tangible and targeted forms of personal interaction, contextual communication and online demand generation.’"

In looking at the list of where the Marketing dollars are being allocated, here’s the leaderboard:

1. Strategy and branding.

2. Events and trade shows.

3. Operations.

4. Direct marketing (including telemarketing, mailings, email).

5. Sales support.

6. Online marketing (website, SEO, SEM, viral, podcasts/blogs, communities).

7. Advertising.

8. Market research.

9. Systems.

10. Merchandising and promotions.

11. Public and analyst relations.

12. Customer data integration and analytics.

So, we know how to define it and where the growth is going to come from.

Good news for Marketing?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.