Well, at least the term is dead as used in today’s parlance.
Deader than a doornail. Kaput. It has passed on! Marketing is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! It’s kicked the bucket, It’s shuffled off this mortal coil,
Pardon for the traipse along Monty Python memory lane!
I saw an ad for a MANAGER, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS job recently. (For the life of me, I have no idea how to stop some of the emails I get – you unsubscribe … but well, you know?) Anyway, this one went on and on about the communications requirements and proficiency in Adobe Suite and – get this – “Drives the development of annual marketing plans …”
And ends up needing membership in the Canadian Public Relations Society
No, it isn’t a marketing-communication manager job. It is a PR gig.
Going back … the first corruption for Marketing was where folks thought Marketing was mere “advertising” then mostly in B2B companies who thought Marketing was Sales. Side note: I worked with a partner company once that hired a very, very, serious strategic marketing professional and the Boss (I use that term loosely! And that guy couldn’t sell eternal life to dead people!) told her her job was “cold calling!” Yeah, she lasted a long time at that joint! Marketing is and always was a science. It is not solely about communications. It is about building and maintaining a business through sound strategic planning,
At the top of the food chain is Marketing as seen holistically. It drives the business. The 4 Ps if you will.
Under marketing, you have subsets ideally staffed and managed by specialists in these areas to name a few: Product, Advertising, PR, Brand, DM, Online, Sales, CRM, Channel, Partner, VAR and on and on and so on and so forth.
So I think we either need to whack all the Lil Ones on the side of the head who continue to confuse the term Marketing with some tactic or subset or … yep, kill the term.
I constantly muse what should be used for these practitioners?
PowerPoint Maurauder
Chief of Flackster Avenue
McMeeting McDouchebag
Clickbait Crusader
Or simply Sales Weasel
But don’t use the term Marketing!