Tomorrows world

tomorrow’s word

agenda
Shape the
Re-evaluating the role of marketing

Tomorrow’s word



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Everything changes

Those of us working in marketing back in that long hot summer of 1976 will be able to recall a very different world from today. On the international stage there were riots in aracially-divided South Africa; Chairman Mao, the founder of Communist China, passed away peacefully; and Britain went to war with Iceland over cod. Concorde completed its first commercial flight, Bjorn Borg won the first of five consecutive Wimbledon titles, and a new music genre called ‘punk’ began to shake up the music scene.

David Thorp
Director of Research and Information

IBM broughtout the first laser printer, and Apple Computers was founded, launching its Apple II microcomputer, one of the first and most successful personal computers or ‘PCs’ the following year. Some of you reading this may not even have been born in 1976; finding a world of three TV channels, fixed phone lines, and no PCs, internet or email a completely alien and unnatural landscape. Yet it was in 1976that The Chartered Institute of Marketing last defined what marketing is: ‘Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.’ Whilst this definition has served us faithfully for over 30 years, we believe that the world marketers now inhabit has fundamentally changed, and both the role marketing plays and itsdefinition need to be examined afresh. With massive technological changes, globalisation, and the spread of marketing techniques into new areas, such as the public sector, marketing has undergone enormous changes over the last 30 years. If it is to remain relevant in the 21st century, the profession needs to reassess its role in business and society, and redefine what we mean by ‘marketing’. Ourlatest Agenda Paper, Tomorrow’s Word, aims to open up debate on the subject, so let us know your thoughts on the role of marketing going forward and our suggested new definition of marketing.

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Tomorrow’s Word
Re-evaluating the role of marketing Executive summary
What’s the role of marketing? It seems an obvious question, but choosing one answer is elusive and likelyto be incomplete. As the profession has become more diverse, the balance of power has shifted in favour of the customer, who now has more control of the relationship than ever before thanks to technology. As the role of the customer has altered, so too the role of marketing needs to change in response. Marketing has become more sophisticated – and yet its status with the customer and therest of business has never been lower. Complicating this is an increasing divide between the thoughts of academics and the experiences of practitioners. To address this, The Chartered Institute of Marketing wants to open up the debate about what the role of marketing should be, and how it can move forward as a profession. One proposal is to sub-divide marketing into specialisms. This wouldenable marketers to become experts in their field, rather than being expected to be all-rounders and then criticised for not understanding a particular part of the business. We also want to reconsider The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s definition of marketing. The current definition – ‘the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirementsprofitably’ – is 30 years old and we propose that it is no longer fit for purpose. Tomorrow’s Word offers a new definition that places value from customer-centricity at the heart of marketing, whilst acknowledging the increasing relevance of marketing for notfor-profit and public sector organisations.

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ONE: A view of the world
Recent research commissioned by The...