Rebrand “marketing”?

Last summer, Harvard Business Review (HBR) declared that marketing is dead (Lee, 2012, para. 1). In the fall, Adobe (2012) commissioned a study that concluded digital marketing is failing consumers (para. 1). IBM (2013), however, sets the record straight: marketing is undergoing a “massive transformation”(YouTube). Deepak Advani, VP, Business Analytics at IBM, quite simply points out that going forward, marketing must focus on what happens with the customer after the purchase equally or more so than how the customer is approached prior to purchase (IBM, 2013, YouTube).

The Transformation of Marketing (IBM, 2013)

Does there need to be a new term for the word marketing, a word that reflects this reality? Perhaps, but that would be costly and inefficient. After all, how many MBA programs, associations, or industry publications (to name a few) would buy into the idea of scrapping the word marketing?

However, Advani’s advice is at the heart of relevance and engagement. Managing the experiences that consumers have with the brand after purchase makes the difference between a brand loyalist who is passionate and vocal and one who is not.  As students in the USC MCM degree program, we are, in a sense, being charged with carrying this notion into the marketing and communications departments in which we work – a challenge that takes on special meaning when the department is housed in an established institution or company rather than a cutting-edge visionary outfit.

One approach to this reality might just be to rebrand the word marketing. What if “marketing” was conceived as meaning quality, two-way conversation between a brand and its customers? Maybe then surveys and studies would no longer declare the death of marketing; consumers wouldn’t resist being “marketed to”; and traditional companies would understand why their marketing departments are clamoring for the resources to create these types of brand experiences.

After making such dire pronouncements, Lee (2012) and Adobe (2012) then discuss marketing in very similar terms to what Advani is calling for; so in a sense, the rebranding effort may already be underway. Perhaps marketing doesn’t fail consumers…the marketers do.

References

Adobe. (2012, October 24). U.S. study reveals online marketing is failing with consumers (press release). Retrieved from http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201210/102412AdobeAdvertisingResearch.html

IBM (Producer). (2013, February 1). The transformation of marketing [YouTube video]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwZOAfa0FKc

Lee, B. (2012, August 9). Marketing is dead. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.html

Cathy Williams

CMGT 541

Fall 2012 cohort