They say the Eskimo culture has anywhere from ten to a hundred words for snow. Although that’s a charming idea, it’s not actually true. But did you know that the Marketing culture has dozens of words for its trade? That is true, but is it necessary?
Too Much Marketing
Search “marketing types” and you get literally millions of results. Wikipedia carries 81 pages for the entry of “types of marketing.” I asked a few marketing veterans for input, did some Googling, and came up with dozens of types of marketing, some I’d never heard of. Megamarketing?Reality marketing? Who knew?
Large vocabularies in specialized fields are not unusual. I understand the need for a fewhyponyms, but does this seem excessive? I’m not the first one to bring this up by any means. I believe this article lists over 130 categories of marketing:http://www.chiefmartec.com/2010/12/131-different-kinds-of-marketing.html.
You’re targeting consumers? Okay, you’re a B2C marketer. Sending mailers? Great, you’re doing direct. As social media has taken hold, even more marketing terms have, too. There’s viral, social, e and search, and now the most popular kid in marketing school — mobile. Of course, there are the old standbys like one-to-one, guerilla, transpromo and integrated. Didn’t these sound so progressive a few years ago?
40 Types of Marketing and Counting
Here is a partial and alphabetical list of the types of marketing we inflict on our target audiences.Disclaimer: This is not a definitive list by any means. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
- Affiliate
- Article
- Attraction
- B2B
- B2C
- Brand
- Cause
- Channel
- Content
- Database
- Digital
- Direct
- Email
- Franchise
- Green
- Guerilla
- Inbound
- Influence
- Integrated
- International
- Internet
- Loyalty
- Matrix
- Mobile
- Multi-channel
- Multilevel
- Nonprofit
- One-to-one
- Outbound
- Permission
- Product
- Niche
- Relationship
- Search
- Social media
- Target
- Transpromo
- Vertical
- Viral
- Word of mouth
It’s All Good
You probably have to be in marketing to care that there are so many different names for what we do. I guess it comes down to the fact that marketing is such a versatile strategy. I just wonder if we risk diluting the message and value of our profession by splintering our contributions into so many different categories?
And what does this mean for the target reader of this blog – the overwhelmed, overworked B2B technology marketer? Know what you want to achieve, and don’t worry about what we consultants call the process to get you there. The important thing is, does it connect you with your customers? Success by any name is what counts.
What marketing phrases would you add? What marketing categories are used in other countries?
