Comparison of various seminal definitions of marketing
Definitions
1. American Marketing Association (AMA)
- Definition: 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.
- Key Components:
- Broad scope: includes activities, institutions, and processes.
- Focuses on creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings.
- Emphasizes value for multiple stakeholders: customers, clients, partners, and society.
2. Philip Kotler (Marketing Management)
- Definition: Marketing is 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.
- Key Components:
- Scientific and artistic aspects of marketing.
- Focuses on value creation and satisfaction of needs.
- Emphasizes profitability.
- Highlights the importance of market research and segmentation.
3. Peter Drucker
- Definition: The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.
- Key Components:
- Customer-centric approach.
- Emphasis on understanding customer needs deeply.
- Implies that successful marketing makes selling unnecessary.
4. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
- Definition: Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
- Key Components:
- Management process.
- Focuses on identification, anticipation, and satisfaction of customer needs.
- Emphasizes profitability.
5. Theodore Levitt
- Definition: Marketing is a process by which a firm identifies and fulfills the needs and wants of consumers in a profitable way.
- Key Components:
- Process-oriented.
- Identifies and fulfills consumer needs and wants.
- Emphasizes profitability.
Comparative Analysis
1. Scope and Focus
- AMA: Broad scope, including all activities, institutions, and processes related to value creation and exchange for various stakeholders.
- Kotler: Emphasizes the scientific and artistic aspects, market research, and segmentation for value creation.
- Drucker: Highly customer-centric, focusing on understanding customer needs to the extent that selling becomes redundant.
- CIM: Management-focused, stressing the processes of identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements.
- Levitt: Process-oriented with a focus on fulfilling consumer needs and wants profitably.
2. Emphasis on Profitability
- Kotler, CIM, and Levitt: Explicitly mention profitability as a key component.
- AMA: Implicitly includes profitability by emphasizing value for customers and stakeholders.
- Drucker: Does not explicitly mention profitability but implies that understanding customer needs leads to successful product sales.
3. Stakeholder Focus
- AMA: Considers multiple stakeholders including customers, clients, partners, and society.
- Kotler, Drucker, CIM, and Levitt: Primarily focus on the company and its customers.
4. Approach to Customer Needs
- Drucker: Deep understanding of customer needs is central.
- Kotler: Identifies and measures market needs, desires, and potential.
- CIM: Identifying, anticipating, and satisfying needs.
- Levitt: Identifies and fulfills needs and wants.
- AMA: Creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value.