Marketing as we know it is almost dead. In any case, the one that is taught in schools and practiced in most companies is doomed. To be more precise, current marketing, which is both a fundamental academic discipline in the curriculum of management students and a managerial practice essential to the good conduct of companies, will have to change its principles, its objectives, its strategies and tactics. Because even if some of its goals will endure, such as conquering customers or markets, traditional marketing will not escape a radical transformation of its modes of reasoning, its functioning and its structures. That’s why we dared to use this expression, a bit provocative, we agree, which borders on the oxymoron: “marketing revolution”.
If the oxymoron consists in uniting two words with incompatible meanings, then the expression “marketing revolution” belongs to this figure of speech which aims to give more expressive force to the words. As in the famous verse “This obscure clarity that falls from the stars”, the two terms “revolution” and “marketing” appear contradictory, as do the terms of many fashionable oxymorons: “sustainable development” (because development suggests movement and lasting immobility), “fair trade” (because trade means gain for one party and fair means equality) or “democratic luxury” (because luxury is a privilege that belongs only to a few) …
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