Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit

CHAPTER 2

Return on Audience

BY ROBERT ROSE

That was the moment I gave up on decision analysis. No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.

—Daniel Kahneman

You may hate gravity, but gravity does not care.

—Clayton Christensen

If, indeed, we are going to kill marketing, we should know what it is we are killing, and what we’re replacing it with.

So, let’s start with what we’re killing. What is marketing?

You might be surprised at just how modern the word marketing is. Now, there is certainly debate about how long the word itself has been around. Some scholars trace it all the way back to the Dutch in the 1600s.

But then let me introduce you to Maria Parloa—or Miss Parloa, as she more normally went by (Figure 2.1). Maria ...