That’s a great suggestion for the frame Nate. I really like how you tied the concept to investment and return on investment. That’s what’s really missing in most people’s thought process for marketing!

I like this response a lot Michael.

If I understand where Tony may be coming from – it’s all well and good to want to “make a positive corporate impact by meeting customer needs” but if your dept.’s KPI’s are anchored to delivering sales lift and not to improving the service performance of product, or if your organization has drunk the cool-aid on a definition of customer need that only behavioural and is parasitic to customer wellbeing, well there’s the rub.

As a marketer it can seem easier to absolve responsibility and say, “my job is to feed myself/my family by feeding the machine. Customers and organizations can be responsible for themselves” even when we know that this is less than honest.

Unfortunately marketers don’t have a Hippocratic Oath.

And when someone offers a positive spin on marketing practice, it may be met with resistance as it surfaces the underlying reality that there is power asymmetry between organizations and their marketers when it comes to advancing ethical outcomes for customer relationships.

Let me propose frame that might be useful:

“The job of marketing is help the organization understand customer needs and facilitate customer relationships so as to earn customer investment”

Organizations depend on their marketing function to help them achieve customer investment, however if they aren’t committed to mutuality and responsibility-ethics in the value delivery and governance of this investment, no amount of marketing leadership will make them worthy of it.

Thanks Pohor, I get really worked up about defining marketing in the larger sense. I appreciate your support of that message that marketing should be helpful.

Thanks so much Christian! I appreciate the support and your kind words. Hope you’re doing well!

It’s so refreshing to know that there are still marketing professionals who understand the basic foundations of marketing. In such a fast-paced, technology driven world, so many people are pressured to prioritize quantity over quality. So we get companies that don’t really take the time to assess their customer’s needs to produce a product/service that actually helps. This was on the money!

Well-written!

That’s a smart teacher! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks Jonathan, I’ve sort of made it my mission to re-define marketing for the world. I appreciate your support!