Definition of Marketing What is Modern Marketing?

If you wonder what marketing is and what is the best definition of marketing, you have probably gotten into a mess. If you pull the most classic books or manuals, you will have a good definition, but if you think about the current world, the same thing falls short. If you want to find a current definition of what marketing is, stay with me and find out in this post.

The traditional definition of marketing

Marketing is an Anglo-Saxon word that means marketing in Spanish and English. Both meanings are correct and in some Latin American countries marketing is also used.

I always liked the first definition that they taught me when I was studying race because of its simplicity. It went like this:

The marketing is to seek to promote and serve markets

A simple but forceful definition that goes fully into the explanation of ” what is marketing ” and that is undoubtedly timeless, which is why I like it so much.

And then I expanded the definition like this:

• Search: with statistics and market research
• Promote: with advertising, communication, and sales promotion
• Serve: with customer service and loyalty.

Still, needs a makeover right? I think so too that is why I have immersed myself in this academic article on: 

What is modern marketing and how to define it?

Many definitions of Marketing circulate on the Internet, most of them are copied from old books or talk about digital marketing that forgets about marketing as a 360th concept. And none of them carry out an in-depth analysis of what the marketing profession and its fields of action represent today.

In this post, we will try to shed light on the current concept of Marketing and we will formulate a definition that tries to bring together all the trends and the current reflection of the marketing director in a company.

Definition of Marketing from the Classic Gurus

• For Philip Kotler  “it is a social and administrative process through which groups and individuals obtain what they need and want through generating, offering and exchanging valuable products with their peers”
• According to Jerome McCarthy,  it is the realization of those activities that are intended to fulfill the goals of an organization, by anticipating the requirements of the consumer or client and by channeling a flow of goods suitable to the needs and services that the producer provides to the consumer or customer ”.
• Stanton, Etzel, and Walker, “is a total system of business activities devised to plan products that meet needs, assign prices to them, promote and distribute them to the target markets, in order to achieve the objectives of the organization”
• For John A. Howard of Columbia University,  “it is the process of:

1. Identify customer needs.
2. Conceptualize those needs based on the company’s ability to manufacture.
3. Communicate this conceptualization to those who have decision-making capacity within the company.
4. Conceptualize the production obtained based on the previously identified needs of the consumer.
5. Communicate this conceptualization to the consumer.

• For the American Marketing Association, “It is a function of the organization and a set of processes to create, communicate and deliver value to customers, and to manage relationships with them, in a way that benefits the entire organization.

SOME BOOKS THAT ARE PART OF MY MARKETING LIBRARY:

Without a doubt “the power of simplicity” in marketing and any project, strategy, website, or application has perhaps been a concept that has influenced me the most. And I always try to instill in my teams this vision: if it’s not simple, it won’t work.

In addition, guerrilla marketing strategies and knowing how to position a product in the market have been complimentary readings that helped me better understand the marketing strategy.

• Jack Trout: The Power of Simple
• Al Ries and Jack Trout: Marketing of War, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and Positioning
• Bob Stone: Direct Marketing Guide
• Eric Ries: Lean Startup (Lean Marketing)
• Santiago Rodríguez: Creativity in Direct Marketing
• Philip Kotler: Marketing Administration
• David Meerman: New Rules of Marketing & PR 

Marketing Policies and Strategies: the Marketing Mix

Strategic planning is developed in the marketing plan.

Normally it is very important to have studied before what our value proposition is, that is to say why they are going to buy from us and who ( buyer person and buyer journey ) and to fix our position in the market, which is neither more nor less than the place that occupies your brand in the mind of the consumer concerning your competitors.

Depending on your position in the market by price, quality, differentiation, or added value and the customer segmentation that you have carried out, you can choose an Offensive, Defensive, Survival, or redirection strategy.

Generally the leading brands in a sector and very established tend to adopt defensive strategies, while the new ones seek to position themselves in a niche or create new market categories.

The basic stages of any strategic plan and therefore of a marketing plan usually follow these steps:

• Internal and External Analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Portfolio Analysis: BCG, ABC,
• Customer Analysis: Value Spectrum and Buyer Persona
• Definition of Smart Goals
• Strategy Planning based on the actions described in the Marketing MIX

In addition to the classic 4Ps: Product, Price, Advertising, and Place (distribution channels) I always like to add loyalty and service strategies that are the new 5Ps of the Marketing Mix.

For direct marketing and therefore on the Internet, it seems to me that the PVPC of Joost Van Niespen’s Marketing Mix continues to be a good reference for strategic planning on the Internet.

• Parity (products are becoming more similar and commoditized.
• Added value: add added value to your product to unzip it.
• Personalization: Personalize the offer and the mix for each type of customer with differentiated products, offers, messages
• Community: undoubtedly one of the most important today, build a community around your brand.

Let’s not forget either the 4 C’s (Customer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication) that go around the 4 P’s with a ” customer-centric ” approach and the 4 F’s of the digital marketing mix that speaks of flow (traffic to the site or app), functionality (ease of use and navigation), Feedback (or fluid conversations with the customer and relational marketing) and Loyalty (the great forgotten when it costs less to retain a customer than to get a new one).

Conclusions: Modern and personal definition of Marketing

From my point of view today’s marketing, with dataification or what we call “Marketing Data Driven” and the speed at which the world moves makes the speed of execution a priority.

It is no longer so important to launch a product with a well-positioned brand, but it is easier to carry out A / B tests and discover the attributes of your brand or product on the real experience with your customers and to pivot especially by testing it. digital world.

I also believe that market research, one of the key marketing activities, has died because it is easier, faster, and cheaper to launch a product and create the definition of the audience through the data you generate in real-time and create similar audiences. from this information that we are collecting. 

Even many times when you work with one or more buyers person when you realize the reality you get many surprises.

That’s why I always like to have this phrase in my head:

Get wrong fast, get wrong cheap, and correct fast

We live in an era where technology and marketing merge and data not only shows you the direction and the way, it allows you to create the future you want.

But there is something that has not changed and that is that the client is, and should be, the center of everything. For this reason, the future is one of customizing all the variables of the marketing mix in a massive way and continuing to seek to solve real problems of our clients and communicate them in a personalized and increasingly close and humane way.