A sustainable future for Marketing

How often do you think about the fundamental role of Marketing?
It's 1983, and I find myself sitting in the main auditorium of the Strathclyde University Business School in Glasgow, to have embossed on my young brain Professor Philip Kotler's definition that the fundamental role of Marketing is – "Delivering consumer satisfaction at a profit."

I like this definition. I love the cleverness of the words. They are concise and motivating. Yet give you creative licence in how they can be applied. The 'freedom of a tight brief', as I would later learn, and then spend a career trying to champion and emulate.

I was lucky. Generally, wherever I found myself, there was growth to be taken advantage of and enjoyed. And although many aspects of Marketing change, the primary ethos of consumers and profit, doesn't. Somehow, I survive and become a 'veteran'. Cut to 2024, and I find myself sitting in the virtual auditorium of the Cambridge University Institute of Sustainability Leadership, to be radically challenged that Marketing's fundamental role needs to drastically change

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