Demystifying the term ‘marketing’
Posted by Prof David Corkindale on March 2nd, 2007 at 5:33pm
Increasingly over the past few years I have been very uncomfortable following the textbook and conventional line as to what ‘marketing’ is about. Students and others assume that we are telling them what marketing management is responsible for and what such managers do. They get told things like “marketing is the process meeting customer needs” and that it encompasses the 4Ps. We all know that marketing people in most companies are not responsible for these.
So are we being deceiptful and naive? Should we be using another word?
Most of us know that the term ‘marketing’ does not have one clear and simple meaning that is understood by all. This must cause confusion to managers and business owners who are told that they need ‘marketing’ or that their ‘marketing is not good enough’. Textbooks and lectures intertwine the various meanings together as they go along.
No one owns up to this lack of clarity, though. Let’s have a go here to unravel the different senses in which the term is used. At least, then, those new to the area can have the full picture and see how the various meanings, and purposes, relate to each other.
I propose that there are at least four senses in which the term ‘marketing’ is used:
- A way of understanding how markets ‘work’, that is, what is necessary to stimulate and manage a response from a market  – both now and in future.
- A mind-set, orientation and outlook towards managing an enterprise that focuses on the client’s interests and external opportunities while also making sure that the organisation’s interests can be met.
- A functional role in an organisation.
- A promotional activity, usually advertising, that is aimed at helping to sell a product or service.
Those who fulfil the functional role and may have the title of ‘marketing manager’ should possess 2 above, and know 1, but mostly they are not responsible for all the things that are involved in fully managing 1; other functions are necessarily involved, too. Knowing 1 and possessing 2 are not restricted to those in an organisation with a marketing title and, indeed, some organisations say they want all employees to possess 2.
In practice today, 1 and 2, above, are the responsibility of a general management or the business-owner.
Courses in ‘marketing’ are mostly about 1, above, and include quite a lot of descriptive stuff on the practicalities of each of the 4Ps. They do a bad job, usually, of explaining where things like Branding fit, usually putting this under the ‘Promotion’ area, which of course is quite inadequate and demonstrates only a partial understanding of how markets, and consumers, work.
I’d propose that we should call sense 1, above, ‘Marketology’ – the study of markets and how they work. Then, at least, we’d remove one source of confusion with the term ‘marketing’.
Posted in Marketing Strategy
