Marketing Definitions from the Top Marketers on Twitter How do you define marketing's role in today's competitive, fast-paced, and ever-changing business environment? It's not as cut and dried as it once was. So I asked the top marketing book authors, marketing professors, marketing analysts, and CMOs on Twitter to share their favorite definitions of marketing. Their interesting and varied responses are noted below, organized alphabetically by the contributors' last names. Please let me know if you have any comments about these definitions. Please also visit my other “Top Twitter” lists: Top CMOs, Top Marketing Book Authors, and Top Marketing Professors. Enjoy! "Marketing is the process of making selling unnecessary." --Jennifer Aaker Professor at Stanford University www.Twitter.com/Aaker "Marketing is creating demand for a good, service, idea, etc., so that you don’t have to 'work' to create demand." --Chip Abernathy Chief Marketing Officer at Touchpoints www.Twitter.com/FiveoUs "Marketing is how value is created, commuted, and communicated from a firm or person to a customer." --Dave Aron Associate Professor at Dominican University www.Twitter.com/ProfAron "Marketing is finding a need and filling it." --John Blossom Author of "Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes Our Work, Our Lives, and Our Future" from Wiley Publishing www.Twitter.com/JBlossom "In a modern organization, in the purest form of the craft, the marketing function and thus the marketer serves as an ambassador in the finest sense of that term. By this, I mean that the successful marketer must live among customers and prospects (physically and, more and more often, virtually); strive to faithfully understand their cultures, desires, hopes, and fears; bring their unfiltered voices back into the organization; participate at the highest levels internally to implement that feedback loop into every aspect of the operation; honestly and sensitively communicate back to the customers what the organization is doing, can, and will do to meet their needs; oversee creation of efficient opportunities for customers and employees to interact directly; and do all of this through ongoing (i.e., not episodic) efforts that are highly strategic, carefully measured, regularly analyzed, and consistently optimized." --Marc Blumer Adjunct Professor at Mercy College www.Twitter.com/MarcBlumer "Marketing is creating a compelling, authentic brand through experience interacting with a company, its people, and its service or product. Effective marketing echoes throughout all aspects of an organization. It delivers on the brand's promise. Success is measured by repeat clients, brand loyalty." --Ruth Brajevich Chief Marketing Officer at Ware Malcomb www.Twitter.com/WareMalcombCMO "Marketing is a relationship -- with a customer, partner, or your ecosystem. As the heart and soul of every business, marketing is a game changer for competitive advantage by helping companies make better decisions, create and drive better strategies, and have better execution. In today's world, in which CEOs are focused on growth and profit, marketing can be one of the winning ingredients that help to propel a company forward. As Peter Drucker once said, 'Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.' Marketing and innovation produce results; the rest are support." --Sandy Carter Author of "The New Language of Marketing 2.0: How to Use ANGELS to Energize Your Market" from IBM Press www.Twitter.com/Sandy_Carter "Marketing needs to tell a story to consumers that makes them want what you've got -- truthfully, uniquely, and repeatably." --David Cooperstein Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research www.Twitter.com/MiniCooper "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." (from Groucho Marx) --Jarvis Cromwell Chief Marketing Officer at Reputation Garage www.Twitter.com/JarvisCromwell "Marketing encompasses activities that maximize the value to the customer and the return on investment when bringing a product or service to market." --Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice www.Twitter.com/SamDecker "Marketing extends from understanding what the customers need to making sure they get it and are happy with it." --Nigel Dessau Chief Marketing Officer at AMD www.Twitter.com/NigelDessau "The SCIENCE of marketing is: 1) targeting the right customers for your product or service, 2) presenting an offer that solves their specific problems, and then 3) making it easy to buy by presenting an offer too irresistible to pass up. Once you've developed an ongoing relationship with those key elements as the foundation, you're practicing the ART of marketing." --Stephanie Diamond Author of "Web Marketing for Small Businesses: Seven Steps to Explosive Business Growth" from Sourcebooks www.Twitter.com/DiamondSF "Marketing is the process of defining a viable opportunity and target market, working collaboratively to create a product or service that meets the needs of that market, and then engaging that target market in a way that drives word of mouth, competitive strength, and profitable sales over time. In other words, the central notions are 'define it, create it, make people love it!'" --Stephanie Fierman Chief Marketing Officer at Revolution Money www.Twitter.com/StephFierman "Marketing is the art and science of creating mutually satisfying exchanges." --Theresa Flaherty Professor at James Madison University www.Twitter.com/FlahertB "Good marketing is developing trust between a consumer and a product. Great marketing is developing trust between a consumer and a product without the consumer even knowing it happened." --Jesse Friedman Professor at Johnson & Wales University www.Twitter.com/Professor "Marketing is a set of activities or processes aimed at creating satisfactory exchanges for both customers and sellers." --Harsha Gangadharbatla Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon www.Twitter.com/GHarsha "Marketing is the brand shepherd that ensures that every customer contact point is consistent. The magic is making sure that this consistent message is relevant and motivational. The science is making sure that the message is where the customer is." --Lisa Gavales Chief Marketing Officer at Express www.Twitter.com/ExpressLisaG "Marketing, in short, is manipulation. I want to get you to do -- what I want you to do -- when I want you to do it. In fact, you can boil down the catalyst for one's actions into two basic elements -- greed or fear. GREED: Because I want to be loved. FEAR: I'm afraid that if I don't, I won't be. Yes, this thought process is primal and crude in nature and has varying levels, but I think that everyone can agree that when it comes down to it, we act either because we want something, or we want to avoid something. It all depends on what drives us in the moment. Messages, campaigns, approaches, etc. are all designed to pull at this core of basic human nature. Whether you are using a coupon (greed) or your offer is as simple as 'for a limited time only' (fear), it is our job to elicit response, by whatever primal means necessary." --Duke Getzinger Chief Marketing Officer at Mile High Swap www.Twitter.com/DukeGetzinger "Marketing is magnetic induction that leads to seduction." --Norman Hajjar Chief Marketing Officer at Guitar Center www.Twitter.com/Venezia "Marketing: to identify, acquire, and retain higher-margin clients." --David Harkleroad Chief Marketing Officer at Hay Group www.Twitter.com/DavidHarkleroad "Marketing is the exchange of goods/services for money." --Beth Harte Adjunct Professor at Immaculata University www.Twitter.com/BethHarte "Marketing is the only function to connect a business from first idea to customer use and satisfaction. For us at Kodak, we take it a step further to say it serves as a 'catalyst for growth' by leveraging people, brand, products, partners, and technologies to transform Kodak into an industry-leading growth company." --Jeffrey Hayzlett Chief Marketing Officer at Kodak www.Twitter.com/JeffreyHayzlett "Marketing is the combined art and science of reaching out to consumers wherever they are to tell them a story, to ignite desire, and to convert that desire into demand." --Jeff Hennion Chief Marketing Officer at Dick's Sporting Goods www.Twitter.com/DicksSportCMO "Marketing is three parts science, two parts art, one part passion, 1/2 part participation, and a dash of magic. Adjust portions to your taste!" --Scott Hoffman Chief Marketing Officer at Lotame www.Twitter.com/Lotame "Marketing is communicating with customers and responding to customers' desires." --Dr. David Horowitz Professor at Sonoma State University www.Twitter.com/DMHoro "You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, 'I'm fantastic in bed.' That's direct marketing. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, 'He's fantastic in bed.' That's advertising. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, 'Hi, I'm fantastic in bed.' That's telemarketing. You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, walk up to her, and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, 'By the way, I'm fantastic in bed.' That's public relations. You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, 'I hear you're fantastic in bed.' That's brand recognition." (from Geoffrey Kidd) --Lewis Howes Coauthor of "LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World's Largest Professional Networking Website" from 418 Press www.Twitter.com/LewisHowes "At its core, marketing is simply the process of connecting buyers and sellers. But to be truly effective, marketing also requires the creation of measurable, repeatable results by listening to customers and prospects, engaging in meaningful discussions, developing strong relationships, delivering value, and finally, engendering loyalty." --Kent Huffman Chief Marketing Officer at BearCom Wireless and coauthor of "Maximizing Your Marketing Efforts: Leading CMOs on Overcoming Budget Constraints, Positioning Your Brand, and Harnessing Creativity" from Thomson Reuters/Aspatore Books www.Twitter.com/KentHuffman "Marketing is communicating to your customers and prospects what you want them to do and why." --Simms Jenkins Author of "The Truth About E-mail Marketing" from FT Press www.Twitter.com/SimmsJenkins "Marketing is the art of getting people to want something before they would have come to the same conclusion." --Guy Kawasaki Cofounder of Alltop and author of "Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition" from Penguin Group www.Twitter.com/GuyKawasaki "Marketing is everything you do up to the close of the sale and everything you do after the sale to keep your customer coming back." --David Kimball Chief Marketing Officer at 10Beyond www.Twitter.com/DavidKimball "Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose your product or service over your competitors; if you are not doing that, you are not marketing. It's really that simple! The key is finding the right method and defining the right message to use to educate and influence your consumers. Companies make the mistake of thinking that marketing is just 'one' thing, but marketing is everything that the consumer encounters when it comes to your business -- from advertising, to what they hear, to the customer service that they receive, to the follow-up care that you provide. It's all marketing and creating the decision within the consumer whether or not to choose you initially or for repeat business." --Laura Lake Author of "Consumer Behavior for Dummies" from Wiley Publishing www.Twitter.com/Laura_Lake "Marketing is understanding customers' needs, and then fulfilling those needs better than anyone else." --Jim Lyons Professor at the University of Phoenix www.Twitter.com/JFLyons "Marketing is the art of helping people overcome their indecision and inaction. If you simulate for consumers the emotional experience of your satisfied customers, you'll overcome all of the mental blocks that scare people from taking risks and making decisions about the products and services that they want and need. Marketing is helping people overcome that basic fear of deciding what to choose and of making the wrong decision." --Sam Mallikarjunan Chief Marketing Officer at American Health www.Twitter.com/Mallikarjunan "Marketing is a comprehensive process through which people discover that their needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others." --Gary Marcoccia Chief Marketing Officer at AvantLink www.Twitter.com/GaryMarcoccia "Marketing is the development and management of an exchange process between multiple parties (consumers and/or organizations)." --Denny McCorkle Professor at the University of Northern Colorado www.Twitter.com/TweetRightBrain "The definition of marketing is actually a two-part answer. Part one boils down to a simple formula: Marketing is the RIGHT product + the RIGHT market + the RIGHT media + the RIGHT message + the RIGHT time. Marketers can only control the first four. Time is the one thing prospects control -- WHEN to buy. And that leads into part two: The PURPOSE of marketing is to be on the mind of the prospect when the prospect is ready to buy." --Steve Miller Author of "How to Get the Most Out of Trade Shows" from NTC Business Books www.Twitter.com/SteveAMiller "Audience needs and expectations have changed. Communication tools have evolved. The way we search for information and make decisions has altered. The way we approach marketing and audience engagement needs to evolve. We are living in an information age where competitive advantage comes from our ability to make better-informed decisions based upon real-time understanding. We have shifted away from marketing as a means to creating demand for a predefined product or service, to creating a product or service based upon our real-time understanding of demand, need, competitor landscape, and industry trends. This changes the position of marketing from something that only happens after production to a position where it feeds into, informs, and is informed by every aspect of the organisation. I like The Chartered Institute of Marketing's definition: 'Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably.' One thing I would change in the definition is 'profitably' for 'according to an organization's objectives.' While the fundamental principle of any organization is to operate sustainably, within its resources, producing a profit is not a universal objective. In this age of social entrepreneurship and cause marketing, success is not always measured in terms of profit." --Alasdair Munn Chief Marketing Officer at TCG www.Twitter.com/AJMunn "Marketing is two-way communication with customers. Pairing insights and established processes with creativity, marketers help bring the business plan to market." --Gail Nelson Chief Marketing Officer at BurrellesLuce www.Twitter.com/Gail_Nelson "Marketing is more like politics that ever before. 1) Figure out what people are passionate about. 2) Determine what they believe to be true about your product (and your competitors'). 3) Connect to that passion in an authentic and compelling way. 4) Repeat. In the age of conversation, what people say to each other is much more important than what we say to them." --Tom O'Brien Chief Marketing Officer at MotiveQuest www.Twitter.com/TomOB "Marketing is writing a book that your intended market wants to read/is waiting for, rather than writing the book that you want to read." --Roger C. Parker Author of "Design to Sell: Use Microsoft Publisher to Plan, Write, and Design Great Marketing Pieces" from Microsoft Press www.Twitter.com/RogerCParker "Marketing is the art of creating demand for your ideas." --Christopher Penn Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco www.Twitter.com/CSPenn "Marketing is the process organizations use to create value for their members, customers, donors, and other stakeholders. Effective marketing results in stronger brands. The strength of a brand reflects the quality of its relationships with its stakeholders. A strong brand can be an organization's most valuable asset. In this way, effective marketing returns measurable value to the organization." --Carol Phillips Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame www.Twitter.com/Carol_Phillips "I've done my job as CMO when I stay on budget and our sales people are too busy taking orders to make cold calls." --Marc Poirier Chief Marketing Officer at Acquisio www.Twitter.com/MarcPoirier "Marketing is telling a story to a targeted customer segment that they want or need to hear -- resulting in some behavior change or transaction. In order to build a long-term relationship with the customer, the story must be valuable, relevant, compelling, and consistent, and must truly solve the customer's pain points." --Joe Pulizzi Coauthor of "Get Content, Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing" from McGraw-Hill www.Twitter.com/JuntaJoe "Marketing is understanding how people get and share information, experience things, and consume stuff -- and responding accordingly." --Brian Reich Coauthor of "Media Rules! Mastering Today's Technology to Connect with and Keep Your Audience" from Wiley & Sons www.Twitter.com/BrianReich "Marketing starts and ends with telling a story, be it emotional, comical, educational, or other; but continuing that conversation for as long as you need is what truly distinguishes the successful from the flash in the pan." --Charlie Riley Adjunct Professor at St. Bonaventure University www.Twitter.com/CharlieRiley "Marketing is essentially a process of interaction between companies and customers that is based on four fundamental propositions: customer centricity, creative engagement, co-creation of value, and consistent enhancement of shareholder value." --Martin Roll Author of "Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands" from Palgrave Macmillan www.twitter.com/MartinRoll "Marketing is a set of integrated, and well defined, processes and activities through which companies satisfy demand generation, lead generation, branding, and selling functions. Marketing is at the heart of gathering, analyzing, and satisfying customer requirements, while assigning and tracking metrics to measure results. In the 21st century, marketing does not only combine advertising, selling, and distribution functions, but it acts as a catalyst for business strategy, business development, and the overall business growth. Marketing has emerged to include important interactive, social media, and Web 2.0 strategies and tactics, helping businesses explore new channels for demand and lead generation, as well as awareness building." --Alex Romanovich Chief Marketing Officer at Social2B www.Twitter.com/Social2B "The founders of a major public broadcasting network were recently asked to explain the success of their programming. Their response was that because they were operating in a non-commercial environment, they were free to experiment and be creative without the risk of commercial failure. The same opportunity exists for any application of marketing principles to the world of social media: Marketing = experimentation. Using old marketing tactics in this new media can fail without clarity on the reasons for their failure. It is much more likely to find new approaches to communication that are meaningful in a contextual and appropriate way. Just as testing has always been a critical part of developing marketing strategies, experimentation will be the lifeblood of successful results when expanded to reflect the new opportunities and venues created by the proliferation of social media. Businesses need to take initial proactive approaches to social media, using it for branding the way they use sponsorships. They cannot let fear or embarrassment over mistaken initial steps stop them from attempting other approaches. It is a mistake to presume that businesses need to have a resident expert to enter the fray, just as it is a mistake to presume that they need a young intern to handle this newest of media. The principles of trial and error, moderated by a good marketing instinct are the critical skill sets for success. In fact, companies can be active in social media without writing a blog, tweeting -- or even using a computer. The challenge is to effectively get others to blog or tweet about you. Developing the right strategic relationships can go further than the largest marketing budget in extending a company's reach into social media. In essence, by definition social media requires creating a campaign that is viral in nature." --Ted Rubin Chief Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Cosmetics www.Twitter.com/TedRubin "Marketing has always been a simple mandate to me: invent desire. The title of Karen Stabiner's book about Chiat/Day, the employer that shaped my perspective on work, was "Inventing Desire." That's the game we're in. Not selling more stuff to more people anymore, and probably never was, but definitely leaving them wanting and respecting what we have on offer: product, service, leadership, style, cause." --Marian Salzman Chief Marketing Officer at Porter Novelli and coauthor of "Next Now: Trends for the Future" from Palgrave Macmillan www.Twitter.com/MarianSalzman "Marketing is the use of strategies that create a transaction between a buyer and a seller." --Dan Schawbel Author of "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success" from Kaplan Publishing www.Twitter.com/DanSchawbel "Unlike sales which is working with one buyer at a time, marketing is the art and science of identifying a distinct group of buyer personas and learning about the problems they face and creating a product or service that solves the problems. Marketers then create information to capture the attention of the buyer personas so they learn about the company and its products. The materials can be Web based ways to generate attention (YouTube videos, blogs, content-rich Web sites, Twitter feeds, and the like) or offline (tradeshow exhibits, speaking gigs, advertising, and the like). Marketers also communicate through the media and analyst communities to generate attention." --David Meerman Scott Author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing, and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly" from John Wiley & Sons www.Twitter.com/DMScott "Fundamentally, marketing is the process by which marketers prepare their customers to buy. This begins with the first contact, perhaps in the form of a business card or blog post, and continues all the way through to the sale. Soft sell marketing, which we teach and write about, holds that spiritual service is the deepest form of marketing integrity available because with soft sell, you market with heartfelt care for your potential buyer. Marketing as spiritual service is neither shy nor modest in preparing the customer to buy because neither shyness nor modesty are in service to the customers' needs. Honesty -- in product description, pricing, and persuasion -- is the hallmark of marketing as spiritual service in that the buyer receives a clear and credible picture of the true benefits to be expected from the purchase -- without spin or scam." --Dr. Judith Sherven and Dr. Jim Sniechowski Coauthors of "The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers, and They Will Love You Back" from Morgan James Publishing www.Twitter.com/JudithAndJim "Marketing is the process of influencing a target market's perceptions and/or behaviors around a brand." --Kim Skildum-Reid Author of "The Ambush Marketing Toolkit" from McGraw-Hill www.twitter.com/KimSkildumReid "Great marketing is about connections -- finding, creating, and examining the connections between products, brands, concepts and people. When done well, people will consume, discuss, engage, and recommend without ever knowing they were marketed to." --Joshua Smibert Chief Marketing Officer at Fuel Brand Group www.Twitter.com/JSmibert "Marketing is distilling chaos into beauty." --Meg Smith Chief Marketing Officer at American Booksellers Association www.Twitter.com/IndieBoundMeg "Marketing is the creation of ideas which turn into products and services that meet the changing demands of consumers." --Linda Solomon Adjunct Professor at Purchase College www.Twitter.com/ProfessorS "Marketing is the process of persuading others that what you have is what they've always wanted." --Michael Stelzner Author of "Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged" from WhitePaperSource Publishing www.Twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner "Marketing is in many ways similar to a marriage, comprised of both the magical (romance) and the mundane (housekeeping). The business aspects of marketing -- such as channel development, budgeting, measuring, and managing -- provide the framework to grow and deepen our relationships with customers. The creative side of marketing keeps the glow alive both for customers and for brands, and can be reborn over and over again for years if we really listen to our partners/customers. For me personally, the romantic/creative magic is the thing that keeps me inspired in the trenches day after day." --Dana Todd Chief Marketing Officer at Newsforce www.Twitter.com/DanaTodd "Business marketing is creating consumer interruption -- one that asks permission to share a unique proposal, which at its successful end requires an investment from both parties." --Peter Twombly Chief Marketing Officer at MMB www.Twitter.com/PeterTwombly "Marketing is creating valuable content that you are passionate about, that your intended audience wants to consume for free, and that inspires them to make a purchase down the road." --Debbie Weil Author of "The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right" from Portfolio www.Twitter.com/DebbieWeil "Marketing is the process of making a difference by meeting customers' needs or wants through providing goods, services, experiences, or ideas they value while benefiting the organization (company or nonprofit) and its employees, suppliers, partners, communities, and our planet. It goes without saying that marketing should, by definition, be ethical and transparent rather than manipulative or sneaky." --Marian B. Wood Author of "The Marketing Plan Handbook" from Pearson Prentice Hall www.Twitter.com/MarianBWood "What is the definition of marketing? It's a difficult question in today's environment as the role of the marketer is in constant flux. To look for a definition of marketing, we first need to look at the buyers we are here to serve. The shift among buyers from face-to-face conversations to online research and discovery has crippled our sales team's ability to see body language and "read the room" when interacting with prospects. That leaves us less able to connect with prospects to determine their level of interest and their willingness to hear more -- and ultimately, less likely to convert them. The solution? Marketing must evolve its definition of its role in an organization. Today's marketer must step in to read "digital body language" and use that knowledge to guide the buying process. This digital body language can be used to facilitate the buying process of our prospects in a number of ways. First, by sharing an understanding of prospects' digital body language with our sales teams, we can arm sales with deep insights into the areas and levels of interest of each individual. This allows sales to understand what topics of conversation will be most of interest to each potential buyer. Furthermore, we as marketers must determine which leads should be passed to sales at all. By applying the principles of lead scoring, marketers can leverage digital body language to determine the right buyer profile and interest profile of a sales-ready lead. By only passing leads to sales who are ready to engage in a buying conversation, marketing is able to establish a more productive approach to optimizing the revenue generation process. Leads not yet ready for sales can be nurtured until they are found to be ready. Again, an understanding of our buyers provides crucial insights. The art of lead nurturing is to maintain the permission of the audience to remain in front of them with your messaging. Understanding signs of loss of interest in the audience's digital body language can give us a warning that our audience is losing interest and engagement. An understanding of buyers' intentions can also help us analyze the effectiveness of our marketing efforts in a new way. Applying marketing analysis to understand the stage of buying process of each buyer is in can give us insights into how each marketing campaign has facilitated (or hindered) the potential buyer's path towards purchase. The definition of marketing is changing. Rather than being a discipline of outbound communications, marketing today is a discipline of buyer understanding and facilitation." --Steve Woods Author of "Digital Body Language: Deciphering Customer Intentions in an Online World" from New Year Publishing www.Twitter.com/SteveWoods "Marketing is an integrated communications process which develops messaging that attempts to gain attention from people in order to accomplish specific objectives." --Eric Yaverbaum Coauthor of "Public Relations For Dummies: Second Edition" from John Wiley & Sons www.Twitter.com/RealYaverbaum

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