Exit left center stage? The future of functional marketing

James Mac Hulbert and Leyland Pitt explain the demise of functional marketing in terms of more competitive markets, more powerful customers and more pervasive information technology. Post-functional marketing to create competitive advantage must be holistic - a philosophy that permeates the whole company. Transforming marketing in this way requires attention to ‘supporting’ elements in the organization such as structure, systems and human resource managements as well as strategic considerations including the more traditional statements of vision, values and mission. For the future, the authors stress the roles of leadership, changing in small steps, and being practical rather than intellectual. These will strengthen marketing as a capability rather than as a function.