There’s a peculiar phenomenon in business.
Finance is left to finance. Legal is left to legal. Nobody wanders into operations and says, “I’ve got a feeling about your supply chain.”
And yet when it comes to marketing? Suddenly, everyone’s an expert. The CEO has a view. The CFO has a view, often your budget is too big. Sales has a view, often that whatever it is it is your fault. Unless it is a sale, then that is all them. Your neighbour’s cousin who once boosted a Facebook post has a very strong view.
Which raises a fair question:
What is marketing actually and why does everyone think they can do it?
The Classic Definition (Before It Was Ruined by Buzzwords)
Let’s start with the grown-up answer.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”
Clean. Commercial. Slightly underappreciated. Feels right.
Similarly, American Marketing Association frames it as “The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value.”
Not, anywhere written, is marketing posting on social media, choosing fonts, or arguing about logo size.
Value creation.
Value exchange.
Profitability.
That’s the job.
What the Academic World Actually Says (And Why It Matters)
If you step into the work of the Bass Institute of Marketing Science, the tone sharpens further. Marketing, in its most evidence-based form, is about understanding buyer behaviour at scale, driving mental and physical availability, and balancing long-term brand building with short-term demand generation. Scholars like Byron Sharp have spent years demonstrating that growth doesn’t come from niche obsession or endless targeting tweaks, but from reaching more buyers (thats why we need the budget Keith), being easy to buy and being easy to remember (that’s why we have brand guidelines Sharon, and why we can’t ‘make it pink this time’).
It’s less “creative whim” and more applied behavioural science with a commercial objective. Which is, frankly, less romantic, but far more useful.
So What Does Marketing Actually Do?
Strip away the jargon, and a senior marketing function is responsible for:
1. Market Insight
Who buys
Why they buy
What’s changing
(Not what you think they feel. What the data shows they do.)
2. Value Proposition
What problem you solve
Why you are chosen
How you justify price
3. Demand Creation
Brand building (long-term)
Activation (short-term)
Channel strategy
4. Customer Experience
End-to-end journey
Friction removal
Retention and loyalty
5. Commercial
PerformanceRevenue growth
Margin impact
Customer lifetime value
6. Strategic Direction
Where to play
How to win
When to pivot
In other words marketing is not a function. It’s the system that connects market reality to commercial outcomes.
So Why Does Everyone Think They Can Do It?
Because marketing has three dangerous characteristics:
1. It’s visible
Everyone sees the output:
adverts
campaigns
social posts
Very few see:
segmentation
models
pricing strategy
portfolio decisions
It’s like judging a restaurant purely on the plating.
2. It uses everyday language
Unlike finance or law, marketing doesn’t hide behind technical jargon (well most of the time).
We talk about people, behaviour, decisions, which creates a dangerous illusion of “I understand people, therefore I understand marketing.” No, no you don’t Steve.
3. Everyone is a customer
And therefore, everyone believes their opinion is insight. It isn’t. Your personal preference is not a market truth. It’s a sample size of one with strong feelings. And a heavy bias to your product.
4. It (occasionally) looks easy
Good marketing feels obvious after the fact.
Which leads to “We could have done that.” Yes. You could have. You just didn’t did you.
The Real Problem (And Why It Matters)
When marketing is misunderstood, it gets reduced to:
communications
execution
“making things look nice”
And when that happens, businesses lose:
strategic clarity
customer understanding
growth potential
Because the function responsible for connecting the market to revenue has been turned into a production studio. A shit hot production studio, but with no strategic shaping.
A More Honest Definition (Let’s Call It What It Is)
Marketing is:
The discipline of understanding demand, shaping perception, and converting both into profitable growth.
Everything else is tactics.
Why This Matters Now (More Than Ever)
With AI accelerating change, markets are shifting faster than most businesses can track.
Which means marketing’s role becomes even more critical:
sensing change early
translating it into strategy
executing at pace
Or, put more bluntly, if marketing isn’t doing this, nobody in the company is.
Marketing the makeketer
If you want to describe yourself without sounding like you run social media:
“I lead the commercial discipline that connects market behaviour to revenue growth. My role is to understand where demand is moving, shape how our brand captures it, and build systems that convert that into sustainable performance.”
Or, if you’re feeling slightly less formal:
“I turn market reality into revenue and do it before our competitors realise the market has changed.”
Final Thought
Marketing isn’t misunderstood because it’s simple.
It’s misunderstood because it sits at the intersection of psychology, data, strategy, and revenue.
Which makes it look accessible…right up until you have to deliver growth with it. And that’s usually where opinions get a little quieter.
