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Earlier this year I was invited to guest lecture at the EMBA course at the Sydney Business Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong. The topic title was marketing today and I was interested to know how this group of business executives and tomorrow’s leaders defined marketing.
As Chair of the Australian Marketing Institute, I was surprised at the range of definitions often raised in discussions with members of the institute and the diversity of opinions even on the board.
A Google search of definitions of marketing lead me to this collection of definitions by Heidi Cohen, http://heidicohen.com/marketing-definition/ that are quite comprehensive and I picked through these to identify particular themes on marketing definitions that I used as stimulus for the participants in the EMBA course.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting any of these are wrong, I am more interested in the diversity of views on what is the definition of marketing and one that as a profession we are able to rally around if there is any chance to have marketing recognised as a profession in the same way that we recognise lawyers, architects, doctors, accountants and the like.
Perhaps agreement on defining the profession of marketing will be a step in the right direction to answer Mark Ritson’s recent question “Shouldn't an expert in marketing be trained in marketing?”
Here are some of the definitions collated by Heidi Cohen for your consideration. But more importantly I would like to hear your definition by leaving a comment at the bottom. Mine is here too. Right at the end.