Marketing Definition by Philip Kotler and Other Authors

Search for the definition of marketing and you get the same handful of lines, copied from blog to blog. Some are misquoted. A few are pinned on the wrong person.

That matters if you’re writing an exam answer. I think it matters more if you run a marketing team, because every definition is really an argument about what the job is for.

Read them in date order and you can watch the job change. In 1960, Theodore Levitt was arguing that marketing is not selling. In 1985, the AMA defined it as a list of tasks. By 2017, the AMA’s version had widened to “society at large”. Kotler’s own wording moved the same way, from an exchange between two parties to a company building relationships and capturing value back.

Below are the definitions worth knowing, quoted exactly, with where each one comes from and what I think it gets right or misses. This is a companion to my earlier post on branding definitions by Kotler, Aaker, Keller and others.

Philip Kotler’s definition of marketing

Kotler doesn’t have one definition. He has co-written more than one textbook, each revised over many editions, so the wording depends on which book and which edition you open. These are the four you’ll see quoted most.

1. Principles of Marketing (with Gary Armstrong)

“The process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships, and create customer value in order to capture value from customers in return.”

Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing (wording in recent editions, for example the 2019 printing)

Earlier printings said something quite different. The 2008 printing defines marketing as “a social and managerial process by which individuals and organizations obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging value with others” (page 5).

Notice what changed. The older line is about an exchange where both sides get what they need. The newer one is about a company capturing value back from customers. I think the newer one is more honest about who the definition is written for.

2. Marketing Management (with Kevin Lane Keller): “meeting needs profitably”

The shortest definition Kotler has put his name to is three words: “meeting needs profitably”. It appears in Kotler and Keller’s Marketing Management (the 2009 edition, for one).

If I had to keep only one definition on this page, it would be this one. It has two halves, and most marketing arguments happen because a team quietly drops one of them. Chase only “profitably” and you end up discounting your way to a number. Chase only “needs” and you end up with a lovely brand nobody pays for.

3. “The science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value”

This line, “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit”, is real. It appears in Marketing Management (the 2019 European edition by Kotler, Keller, Brady, Goodman and Hansen, for example). Most blogs present it as a standalone Kotler quote. It’s a textbook sentence, so cite the book.

4. The societal definition

“A societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value with others.”

Philip Kotler, Marketing Management (earlier editions; for example the 2001 edition co-written with Cunningham and Turner, page 8)

You’ll often see this credited to “Kotler and Keller”. It comes from Kotler’s earlier editions of Marketing Management, so credit it to Kotler.

American Marketing Association (AMA) definition of marketing

“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.”

American Marketing Association, approved 2017

The AMA’s 1985 definition, which first ran in Marketing News and is reproduced this way in later academic sources, read: “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.”

Put the two side by side. The 1985 version is the four Ps written as a sentence: conception, pricing, promotion, distribution. It reads like a job description. The 2017 version adds partners and society, and reads more like a mission statement. I prefer the old one for clarity and the new one for scope. If you’re explaining marketing to a new hire, start with 1985.

Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) definition

“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”

Chartered Institute of Marketing

The word doing the work here is “anticipating”. Identifying and satisfying are what most teams already do, because both show up on a monthly report. Anticipating rarely does. It’s the part of the job that gets skipped when the quarter is tight, and it’s the part that decides next year.

Peter Drucker on marketing

“The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), section “From Selling to Marketing”

Drucker also made the point that a business has only two basic functions, marketing and innovation. The line is usually dated to The Practice of Management (1954).

This is the definition I’d put on the wall of a marketing team, because it’s the only one on this page that gives you a test you can fail. If your sales team has to push hard to close every deal, marketing hasn’t done the job Drucker described. Read that again before your next pipeline review.

Theodore Levitt: selling vs marketing

“Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it.”

Theodore Levitt, “Marketing Myopia“, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 38, No. 4 (1960), original wording

Strictly, this is a distinction rather than a definition. It’s still the cleanest way to explain marketing to a founder who thinks marketing means the sales deck. And look at the last phrase: “the whole cluster of things”. Levitt was counting delivery and use as marketing in 1960.

William J. Stanton’s definition of marketing

“A total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote, and distribute want-satisfying products and services to present and potential customers.”

William J. Stanton, Fundamentals of Marketing (1982 printing, page 6)

A version ending “to target markets to achieve organizational objectives” circulates widely. That isn’t the wording in the 1982 printing, so if you quote Stanton, quote the original.

Stanton’s is the most operational definition here: a system of activities. Useful if you’re designing a team. Less useful if you’re trying to explain why the team exists.

Seth Godin’s definition of marketing

In This Is Marketing (2018), Seth Godin describes marketing as “the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.”

It’s the least academic line on this page and the one you’re least likely to see in an exam paper. The last two words are the whole point. Their problem, not yours.

Marketing definitions compared

Author	Source	Year	Marketing is…	What it puts at the centre
Kotler and Armstrong	Principles of Marketing	Recent editions	engaging customers and building relationships to capture value back	The relationship
Kotler and Keller	Marketing Management	2009 edition	meeting needs profitably	Need and profit together
AMA	ama.org	2017	activities, institutions and processes for creating and exchanging offerings of value	Value, including for society
AMA	Marketing News	1985	planning and executing conception, pricing, promotion and distribution	The tasks
CIM	cim.co.uk	Current	identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably	Anticipation
Peter Drucker	Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices	1973	making selling superfluous	The customer
Theodore Levitt	“Marketing Myopia”, HBR	1960	focused on the needs of the buyer, not the seller	The buyer
William J. Stanton	Fundamentals of Marketing	1982 printing	a total system of business activities	The system
Seth Godin	This Is Marketing	2018	the generous act of helping someone solve a problem	Their problem

Which definition should you use?

For an exam or an assignment: quote Kotler and Armstrong or the AMA, and name the edition or year. Examiners know these get revised, and naming the edition shows you know it too.

For a marketing plan: use the CIM line. “Anticipating” forces you to write down what you expect to change, which is the part most plans leave out.

For running a team: Drucker. It’s the only one that tells you when you’ve failed.

Common misquotes to avoid

• The AMA’s 1985 definition ends “individual and organizational goals”. Versions that say “objectives”, or “design” instead of “conception”, are paraphrases.
• The CIM’s current wording has no “efficiently and” before “profitably”.
• Kotler and Armstrong’s older definition says “individuals and organizations”. Dropping “and organizations” changes who the definition is about.
• “The science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value” is a sentence from the Marketing Management textbook. Cite the book.
• Stanton’s 1982 wording ends “to present and potential customers”.
• The societal definition is Kotler’s, from his earlier editions of Marketing Management. It isn’t a Kotler and Keller line.

Frequently asked questions

What is the definition of marketing by Philip Kotler?

In Principles of Marketing, Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong define marketing as “the process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships, and create customer value in order to capture value from customers in return.” His shortest definition, from Marketing Management with Kevin Lane Keller, is “meeting needs profitably”.

What is the AMA definition of marketing?

The American Marketing Association’s definition, approved in 2017, is: “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.”

What did Peter Drucker say about marketing?

In Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Drucker wrote: “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

What is the difference between selling and marketing?

Theodore Levitt put it this way in “Marketing Myopia” (Harvard Business Review, 1960): “Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer.”

What is the shortest definition of marketing?

“Meeting needs profitably”, from Kotler and Keller’s Marketing Management.

Every definition on this page will get you through an exam. The harder question is which one your team actually behaves like on a Monday morning. If the honest answer is the 1985 list of tasks, that’s worth knowing too.

Related reading

• Decoding Branding: Definitions by Kotler, Aaker, Keller, and More
• Marketing Mix Definition by Authors: Borden, McCarthy, Kotler
• Brand Equity Definition by Aaker, Keller, Kotler and Others
• What Is Digital Marketing? A Plain Answer From Someone Who Runs It Daily
• Brand vs Performance Marketing: Where Should a Startup Spend First?
• Marketing for Beginners: The Operator’s First 90 Days