Most marketers would agree, I think, that "marketing" is one of the least understood terms in the business world. Marketing definitions continue to proliferate, and, as a student of marketing, I've made it a hobby to collect them. This is my latest and greatest compilation of definitions from some of the world's top marketers, academics, consultants and thinkers.

1. My Favorite
Marketing Definitions
Collected by Gary Slack

3. Fairfax Cone
“Marketing is what you
do when you can’t go
see somebody.”

4. Jack Trout
“Marketing is simply
figuring out what you
have to do to sell your
product or service
for a profit.”

5. Kevin Clancy
“Marketing is
making what your
customers want.
Sales is getting rid of
what you make.”

6. “Marketing's job
is not just to help
sales sell more, but to
make customers want
to buy more.”
Tom Insprucker

7. Sergio Zyman
“Marketing is figuring
out how to sell more stuff
to more people
for more money
more often.”

8. Ted Levitt
“Marketing is all the
exhilarating big things you do
and all the troublesome little
things that must be done in
every nook and cranny
of the organization
in order to attract and
hold a customer.”

9. Ralph Oliva
“Marketing is the set of
activities that act to maximize
the value of the firm's assets
by connecting them to the
exact right demand.”

10. Peter Drucker
“You get paid for creating
a customer, which is
marketing. And you get
paid for creating a new
dimension of performance,
which is innovation.”

11. “Marketing's purpose
is to create,
communicate and
deliver value to
a target market
at a profit.”
Philip Kotler