What does the Definition of Marketing Tell us about Ourselves?

Following a brief historical examination of how the American Marketing Association has changed its definition of marketing across time, this essay identifies the 2004 effort as actually a definition of “marketing management,” not of the larger field of marketing itself. The concern with this definition is that it is incomplete; marketing management is important, but it is not all of marketing. The essay discusses six limitations that arise from the narrow conception that has been adopted and then presents the broadened conception of an “aggregate marketing system” that should adjoin marketing management as central to thinking in this field. The essay concludes with a recap of recent developments toward modification of the 2004 definition that indicate that this appears likely to happen.