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1. Marketing comes in a wide variety of flavors based on audience, media platform and
business in today‘s evolving and dynamic marketplace. Therefore, it‘s no surprise that
marketers define what they do differently. Inspired by the31 PR Definitions article,
here‘s a roundup of seventy-two marketing definitions by experienced practitioners
across different specialties.
Marketing Definitions
To start, here are explanations from the American Marketing Association (AMA),
marketing‘s professional organization, and Dr. Philip Kotler, the author of business
school marketing classics. They‘re followed by the other definitions in alphabetical order
by author‘s last name.
1. According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) Board of
Directors, 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.
2. Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as ―the science and art of exploring,
creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.
Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and
quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints
which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes
the appropriate products and services.‖
3. Marketing is the messages and/or actions that cause messages and/or
actions. Jay Baer – President, Convince & Convert. Author with Amber
Naslund of The Now Revolution
4. Marketing is traditionally the means by which an organization communicates to,
connects with, and engages its target audience to convey the value of and ultimately
sell its products and services. However, since the emergence of digital media, in
particular social media and technology innovations, it has increasingly become
more about companies building deeper, more meaningful and lasting relationships
with the people that they want to buy their products and services. The ever-
increasingly fragmented world of media complicates marketers‘ ability connect
and, at the same, time presents incredible opportunity to forge new territory. Julie
Barile – Vice President of eCommerce, Fairway Market
5. Marketing includes research, targeting, communications (advertising and direct
mail) and often public relations. Marketing is to sales as plowing is to planting for
a farmer—it prepares an audience to receive a direct sales pitch. Mary Ellen
Bianco – Director Marketing & Communications,Getzler Henrich & Associates
LLC

2. 6. Marketing is an ongoing communications exchange with customers in a way that
educates, informs and builds a relationship over time. The over time part is
important because only over time can trust be created. With trust, a community
builds organically around products and services and those customers become as
excited about the products as you are — they become advocates, loyal evangelists,
repeat customers and often, friends. Marketing is a really great way to identify what
grabs people and gets them excited about your brand and give it to them, involve
them in the process, and yeah, the best part, build great friendships in the
process.Renee Blodgett – Chief Executive Officer/Founder, Magic Sauce Media
7. Professor Philip Kotler explained that marketing was ―meeting the needs of your
customer at a profit.‖ For me that definition extends beyond just communicating
product features. Marketers are responsible for a 360-degree experience. For
example, in the social media world, a customer‘s Twitter needs may differ from her
needs to ―play with the brand‖ in terms of a social game promotion. Every customer
touchpoint from customer service to sales to accounting and more are part of the
―new marketing.‖ Toby Bloomberg – Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing
8. Marketing when done well is (a) the strategy of the business – its value
proposition, go to market strategy, and brand positioning and image to the
world. Marketing when not done well is (b) an endless checklist of advertising and
promotional to-dos that can never be completed. Marketing in the twenty-first
century must be (c) largely, but not entirely, measurable and accountable around
driving business goals. Marketing when done brilliantly is driven by (a) includes a
small, disciplined subset of (b), and is steeped in a culture of (c). Matt Blumberg
– Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Return Path
9. Marketing is the process by which a firm profitably translates customer needs
into revenue. Mark Burgess – Managing Partner, Blue Focus Marketing
10. Intuitive by design, marketing matches the right message/cause to the right
person. Finding someone who has a personal connection with your product, service
or cause in a way that is unobtrusive and inviting. Marketing can be as simple as
networking at an event or as complex as a multi-million dollar global campaign that
integrates print, digital, PR, social media and broadcast delivering a specific
message with one unified goal. Some of the best marketing outcomes come from
the simplest initiatives. Keeping it simple is sometimes the best strategy. Lisa
Buyer – President and Chief Executive Officer, The Buyer Group
11. Marketing is building your brand, convincing people that your brand (meaning
your product/service/company) is the best and protecting the relationships you
build with your customers. Marjorie Clayman –Director of Client Development,
Clayman Advertising, Inc.

3. 12. Marketing is meeting the needs and wants of a consumer. Andrew Cohen –
President, The A Team (Disclaimer: I‘m not related to Andrew.)
13. In line with the firm‘s business goals, marketing attracts consumers‘ scarce
resources, attention and disposable income, to drive profitable revenues. Marketing
is the process of getting a product or service from a company to its end customers
from product development through to the final sale and post purchase support. To
this end, marketing strategyconsists of business goals, target customers, marketing
strategies, marketing tactics and related metrics. As a function, marketing extends
across the customer‘s entire purchase process including research, engagement,
purchase, post-purchase (including supplemental support and returns) and
advocacy. Heidi Cohen – President, Riverside Marketing Strategies
14. Marketing is creating irresistible experiences that connect with people personally
and create the desire to share with others. Saul Colt – Head of Magic, Fresh
Books
15. Marketing is how you tell your story to attract customers, partners, investors,
employees and anyone else your company interacts with. It‘s the script that helps
users decide if they‘ll welcome you into their lives as a staple, nice-to-have or
necessary annoyance. It‘s the way that everyone interacts with your brand. It‘s
impression, first, last and everything in between. Jeff Cutler – Executive Vice
President and General Manager,Vitals.com
16. Marketing is products that don‘t come back and consumers that do. Steve
Dawson – President, Walkers Shortbread Inc.
17. Marketing is making connections between customers with your products,
brand(s) and business, such that they are likely to buy from you. Or as Regis
McKenna said, ―Marketing is everything.‖ Sam Decker – Co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer, Mass Relevance
18. Marketing has little to do with the service provider and everything to do with the
customer. Marketing educates and engages the customer, satisfying their needs
while simultaneously positioning the service provider as a trusted advisor and
source. Good marketing is a two way street. Great marketing understands what the
customer wants and gives it to them. Shennandoah Diaz – President and Master
of Mayhem, Brass Knuckles Media
19. Marketing is delighting a consumer, customer and/or user to achieve a profit or
other pre-established goal. Steve Dickstein – Chief Executive Officer, Hugo
Naturals
20. Marketing is essentially involved in outward communication, in promoting the
corporate goals of the company it is serving. It is the process through which
companies accelerate returns by aligning all communication objectives

4. (advertising, marketing, sales, etc), into one department to more efficiently achieve
the overall corporate goals. Antoine Didienne
21. Marketing is branding, naming, pricing, and the bridge between paid and earned
media. It is NOT sales. Gini Dietrich – Chief Executive Officer,Arment Dietrich,
Inc.
22. Marketing today is finally customer-focused. Social media made that happen.
Markets are once again conversations. Marketing is about knowing the market,
creating the right product, creating desire for that product and letting the right
people know you have it. The old adage that says, ―If you build a better mousetrap
people will beat a path to your door‖ doesn‘t hold true without marketing. You
might indeed have a better mousetrap, but if people don‘t know you have it, and
they don‘t know where your door is, there will be no path beating and no
conversation going on. Sally Falkow – APR, PRESSfeed
23. Marketing is helping people buy your product or service. Jason Falls – Social
Media Explorer
24. Marketing is the business‘ play-maker. As with successful hockey franchises, the
most valuable player is not always the player who scores the most goals but the
player who creates the play that allows others to score (think Gretzky, Crosby or
Orr). A great marketing team assesses the brand‘s playing field, quickly captures
their competitor‘s position, strengths and weaknesses, maps it against their team‘s
position, strengths and weaknesses and puts the puck on the stick of the
salesperson with the greatest opportunity to score.‖ Sam Fiorella – Web/Social
Media Strategist, The Social Roadmap
25. Marketing is the act of developing an engaging relationship with every single
human being that shows an interest in you. Paul Flanigan –
Consultant, Experiate.net
26. Marketing is the process of exposing target customers to a product through
appropriate tactics and channels, gauging their reaction and feedback, and
ultimately facilitating their path to purchase. Dr. Augustine Fou,
Founder, Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc.
27. Marketing is the process of building relationships with prospects and customers
so that you can profitably develop and promote products and services. Chris
Garrett – Chrisg.com
28. Marketing is the word we use to explain how we encourage people to buy our
products. If it‘s going to work in a big way, there needs to be a strategy or big idea
to whet peoples‘ appetites for what we‘re selling. When we‘re marketing, we begin
with a plan: objectives, strategy and tactics (how we implement the strategy). It‘s a
process that helps companies build relationships with prospects and customers and
creates unique value for them…when it‘s done right. Lois Geller – President, Lois

5. Geller Marketing Group, Author of Response! The Complete Guide To Profitable
Direct Marketing
29. Marketing should be channel agnostic, data driven and customer-centric. This
provides measurable results leveraging the marketplace at large; responding to
consumer/business interests and needs. Sue R.E. Germanian – Senior Vice
President and Chief Communications Officer,DMA
30. Marketing is the conversation between a company or brand and a consumer that
ultimately leads to brand recall, preference or a transaction. In today‘s socially
networked world, that conversation is being disintermediated by word of mouth
referrals. Traditional marketers will have to work harder to get ahead of and to
influence this trend. Josh Glantz – Vice President and General Manager, PCH
Online-Publishers Clearing House
31. Marketing is a way to connect what products and services you have to offer with
customers who want and need such products and services. It is multi-faceted,
starting with researching your target market and how best to deliver the message to
coming up with a plan to execute your promotion via various marketing media.
The goal is to develop a strategy to create, price and distribute your products and
services for an exchange that will satisfy both your and your customers‘ objectives.
It is an ever evolving process – always evaluating that your message still meets the
needs and wants of your market. Trish Green – Executive Vice President, Head of
Marketing, Student Funding Group, LLC
32. Marketing is ultimately responsible to create enterprise value via the brand, the
face of the business strategy. To do so, marketing identifies the target, attractive
high growth segments. Marketing drives the organization to define the single
minded, differentiated brand value proposition and deliver on it every single day
across every touch point. Marketing ensures the delivery of a compelling,
differentiated offer to that target and proposition. And, marketing measures and
improves the consumers/businesses/partner satisfaction, and the brand health and
strength. Marketing is the single point of accountability for growth, identifying
and delivering on new customers, new offerings & new market profitable
growth. Cathy Halligan – Senior Vice President Sales &
Marketing, PowerReviews
33. Marketing is anything you create or share that tells your story. Ann Handley –
Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs, Author with C.C. Chapman of Content
Rules
34. With a good product, marketing can all be boiled down to education. Effectively
educating people about any good product will create the desire needed to produce
action. Jeffrey Harmon – Chief Marketing Officer,Orabrush

6. 35. Marketing has to examine why you‘re in the game and ask the tough questions.
Next, there has to be a plan—and it must be tied to specific sales expectations –
clear conditions of satisfaction. Passion is not a substitute for planning. Remember,
buzz is NOT sales. Tension is good. Good healthy debate causes tension and moves
your group forward. Take risks and don‘t be afraid to make mistakes. No one ever
died because of a marketing campaign. If you want to grow you‘ve got to get out
there. Get your business into a new stratosphere. Jeffrey Hayzlett – The Hayzlett
Group, Author of The Mirror Test
36. Marketing is about knowing the customer (whether current or prospective) so
well that there is no question I will read your newsletter and share it with your
friends, that I will carry a frequent buyer card in my wallet, and that I already
interact on your Facebook page. Ari Herzog– Policy and Communications
Specialist
37. Marketing is the umbrella term covering research, branding, PR, advertising,
direct response, promotions, loyalty, demand generation, etc. Anne Holland –
Publisher, WhichTestWon.com
38. Marketing is defined as we help people sell more stuff. Joey Iazzetto –
President, UniCom Marketing Group
39. Marketing is the art and science of creating, delighting and keeping customers,
while making a profit and building enterprise value. Marketing integrates, formally
or informally, many disciplines and every organizational function. Marketing
should embrace the highest ethical standards, respect the environment, and strive
to make the world a better place. Max Kalehoff – Vice President of
Marketing, Clickable
40. Profitable marketing is reminding likely-to-buy prospects of the value of your
products/services in meeting their needs, over and over, at an acquisition cost
lower than your allowable acquisition cost. Jerry Kaup – MemberLink.org
41. Marketing is the art and science of persuasive communication. Dave Kerpen –
Chief Executive Officer, Likeable Media
42. Marketing is the practice of increasing awareness, consideration,
purchase/repurchase and preference for a product or service through consumer-
driven benefits, advertising, packaging, placement, pricing and promotions.
Historically, marketing was a one-way interaction but is increasingly becoming
two-way through the use and influence of social media and viral marketing which is
often fueled by the company offering the good or service. Robin Korman –
Senior Vice President, Global Loyalty and Partnerships, Wyndham Hotel Group
43. Marketing is discovering what the prospect wants and demands and delivering it
more efficiently and effectively than the competition. Paul Kulavis – Managing
Partner, Sterling Park Group

7. 44. Marketing, defined as a value-exchange, is a two-way exchange of value between
a marketer and a consumer by providing the right product or service to the right
target in the right state of need and by using the right vehicles for interaction and
purchase. As a conversation, marketing discovers and tells the right story about its
product or service that engages the consumer in an authentic conversation
including true listening, engagement, affiliation, and ultimately purchase. Gerry
Lantzm –Stories That Work, Inc.
45. Marketing is a strategic and tactical multifaceted process that supports sales as
well as customer service and retention. The primary stages include identifying
target audiences, developing a marketing/communications strategy that usually
includes several methods and channels (e.g. advertising, PR, content, events/digital
print, broadcast), measuring and assessing results, and constantly refining the
process based on learnings and marketplace developments. Marketing can also
become a feedback loop between an organization and its customers and prospects
that helps to inform and shape the business going forward. Rebecca Lieb, Author
of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
46. Marketing defines the business opportunity, identifies profitable customers and
products/services that will meet customer needs, builds customer relationships,
drives customer demand and communicates corporate or product/services
value.‖ Ann Z. Marshman – Executive Director, TheLeadersCouncil.com
47. Marketing is the art and science of creating demand to drive profitable
growth. David W. Mischler – President, Altascend Consulting
48. Marketing is helping your customers understand how much they need something
they never knew they needed. Doreen Moran – Digital Strategist
49. Marketing is the art and science of persuading a potential buyer of a product/
service to purchase from a company that‘s responsible for creating a compelling
message and communicating that message through targeted channels with enough
reach and frequency to guide that potential buyer through the purchase cycle of
―attention, interest, desire, action.‖ Paul Mosenson President, NuSpark
Marketing
50. Marketing is an integrated, multi-channel (online and offline), customer-centric
process used to define, segment, reach, and convince potential clients to purchase
your product or service, followed by analyzing the metrics to refine your strategy
and repeat the process as needed to optimize the ROI (return on
investment). Sharon Mostyn – Assistant Vice President, 1st Mariner Bank
51. Marketing is the unique opportunity to establish respect and a relationship with
your target audience in a way that compels them to become addicted to your
products or service, your support. Successful marketing is recognized at the precise
moment when your target consumer feels so strongly about your company they

8. integrate you into their daily routines and lifestyle. Jeanniey Mullen – Global
Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Zinio and VIVmag
52. Marketing is strategic communications and promotions delivered in a mix of
forms, such as advertising, public relations, and direct marketing, through multiple
online and offline channels, to acquire customers, retain customers, increase share
of wallet and shorten the sales cycle. Valerie Oben – President, Foxboro
Consulting Inc.
53. Marketing is everything a company does, from how they answer the phone, how
quickly and effectively they respond to email, to how they handle accounts payable,
to how they treat their employees and customers. Done right, marketing integrates
a great product or service with PR, sales, advertising, new media, personal contact.
In other words, marketing is not a discipline or an activity – it is everything a
company is – at least if the company wants to be successful. B.L. Ochman –
President, What‘s Next
54. The modern definition of marketing is the practice of creating value for the
mutual benefit of meeting consumer needs and business objectives. In action, that
means knowing and meeting target audience/community information discovery,
consumption and sharing behaviors with relevant and timely communications
throughout the customer lifecycle. Those communications and relationships
influence consumer behavior to drive revenue outcomes. Lee Odden – Chief
Executive Officer, TopRank Online Marketing
55. Marketing is the ongoing process of engagement whereby strangers are nurtured
into advocates. Trey Pennington
56. Marketing is all activities designed to attract and connect customers with the
products and services they need. Includes inbound and outbound marketing tactics
across all channels – one-to-one and one-to-many. Ideally, marketing fosters a
long-term relationship, includes the entire customer brand experience – i.e.
support and customer service. Marketing starts with the design of the product itself
and extends through post purchase. Patrick Prothe – Marketing
Communications Manager, Viewpoint Construction Software
57. Marketing strives to connect a product or service with a market for that product
or service. Michael Puican – Associate Director of Corporate Training, DePaul
University
58. Marketing is identifying the pain points of your customers, developing content
and processes to best solve those pain points – which ultimately makes it easier for
your customers to buy or stay customers. Joe Pulizzi – Founder, Content
Marketing Institute (Disclaimer – I write for the Content Marketing Institute.)

9. 59. Marketing is about focusing efforts to develop deep insights into customer
behavior and overall market conditions to drive sustainable profitable growth for
the company. Humphry Rolleston
60. Marketing is deciding how to offer something specific customers crave and then
engaging customers and other stakeholders to create preference.Ken Rosen –
Managing Partner, Performance Works
61. Marketing is the ability to communicate a message to your audience and soliciting
a response from them. This response can take the form of a positive impression of
your company brand, an urge to purchase an item, to reach out to your company
for more information or even spread your message to others. And no matter what
the desired response is, marketing should always map it back to your overall
business objectives. Cece Salomon-Lee – PR Meets Marketing
62. Marketing is the combination of messages and programs (the 4 P‘s–
product/packaging, price, placement and promotion) that drive shoppers to choose
your product or service over someone else‘s. Charlene Samples – Director of
Marketing, Heartland Sweeteners
63. Marketing is understanding your buyers really, really well. Then creating valuable
products, services, and information especially for them to help solve their
problems. David Meerman Scott – Bestselling author ofReal-Time Marketing
and PR
64. Marketing is influencing behavior to get more people to buy more stuff, more
often, for more money. Mark W. Schaefer – Executive Director of Schaefer
Marketing Solutions. Author of The Tao of Twitter
65. Marketing, when done correctly, is creating such an amazing experience around
your brand or product, that people with no other connection to it want to tell their
friends about how amazing it is, and the cycle begins again. Peter Shankman –
Founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and Social Media Consultant. Author
of Customer Service – New Rules for a Social Enabled World [Affiliate link]
66. Marketing is marshaling all available resources to deliver constantly on the
fundamental principle that it‘s not what you want to sell, but what customers are
looking to buy. Successful marketers constantly think from the customer‘s
viewpoint and constantly ask, ‗What‘s in it for them?.‘ Successful marketers earn
trust through every contact and transaction. Jim Siegel – Director of Marketing
and Communications,HealthCare Chaplaincy
67. Marketing creates integrated campaigns to generate leads that positively
influence sales, brand, value and vision. Jayme Soulati – Soulati Media
68. Marketing, in general, is the communication of information about a product or
service to an audience. Effective marketing is a two-way communication that
combines both art and science. It is a discipline with no end game that must be

10. constantly honed, tweaked, and tested. Effective marketing builds relationships
and inspires trust; it is not ―push‖ or ―pull‖. The key to effective marketing is
getting the communication mix correct for your brand, product or service,
understanding how it best interacts with customers or users in the most conducive
and accepting environment. Mike Sprouse – Chief Marketing Officer, Epic Media
Group
69. Marketing is building an offer you believe and know in your bones you can deliver
on consistently and elegantly to the people who will love it. And it‘s constantly
listening to polish, tweak, and refine that offer so that it‘s irresistible by taking
away whatever customers don‘t need, adding more of what customers love, and
building in some extraordinary value that only you can provide — an extraordinary
surprise that makes customers fall in love. Liz Strauss – Founder, SOBCon, and
Chief Executive Officer, Inside-Out Thinking
70. Marketing from a scope perspective is anything that modifies the perceived value
and/or desirability of a product or service. From a function perspective is moving
the demand curve to the right, reducing the elasticity of demand. Bill Tanner –
Senior Director of Strategic Research, A. H. Belo
71. Marketing is inextricably linked to sales and unless it drives a trial or sale, the
effort should not be labeled ‗marketing.‘ The critical steps in marketing include
defining what is currently known about a business (trends, regulations, target
audience, competitors), who are the target users or buyers, what are the
measurable business objectives in terms of where to take that business, what is the
plan to get there and what are the measures of success of initiatives defined to
reach those objectives. This marketing approach can be applied whether the
objective is expanding a current business or entering new markets. Each step in
the marketing process is meant to move the user or buyer closer to making a buy
decision. Alexandra Tyler – Vice President of Branded and Social Media
Marketing, Citi Global Transaction Services
72. Marketing builds relationships between consumers and brands. The many
disciplines that go into the process, together create a brand personality designed to
be compatible with the target. Marketing romances the consumer in the hopes of
establishing a long term commitment. This takes persuasion and nothing moulds
opinion like the third party endorsement power of PR. As Bill Gates says ―If I was
down to my last dollar, I‘d spend it on PR.‖ Deborah Weinstein –
President,Strategic Objectives

11. Integrated Marketing (also referred to as Multi-Channel Marketing or 360o Marketing)
uses a diverse set of marketing techniques across a variety of online, offline and retail channels
that work together to yield desired results. In general, the advantage of this approach is that
customers who purchase from through than one channel tend to generate additional revenue.
The downside is that additional coordination is required across channels to present a consistent
brand image and offering to consumers.