Why Marketing Isn’t Dead and Never Will Be

I recently read an article that claimed “marketing is dead, and loyalty killed it.” While the Harvard Business Review normally publishes thoughtful articles, I don’t believe this one could be further from the truth.  In fact, I am more than disappointed they would publish such a one-sided article from an author who is clearly out of touch with marketing today.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as:

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.

We at Inovautus Consulting further define marketing as those activities that allow you to communicate with many people, while sales is defined as one-to-one communications and interactions.

The author above believes loyalty is replacing marketing. The truth is that the underlying concept of creating loyalty has always been a foundation of marketing. One of the basic principles of marketing is to focus on what your market cares about, better known as WITFM (what’s in it for me).

Creating loyalty today and more importantly standing out requires you to put your target markets at the center of everything you do from a marketing stand
point. It’s not what you do or what you have to sell, but it’s why you are in business. Some of the best companies we have worked with focus on selling their why.  If you haven’t read “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek, you should.

Whether you are marketing and selling services or a product, what makes a company like Apple successful is its ability to differentiate itself, communicate that differentiation and create a brand experience that its users love. That creates value in the end user’s mind and that establishes loyalty.  Make no mistake, Apple markets and it spends a lot of money doing it, but it is effective in a way its competitors aren’t.

I don’t believe marketing is dying, nor will it ever die. I do however believe how you market is changing drastically. A great example are 5 Accounting Marketing Trends for 2015.