Why does marketing exist?

Today I would like to riff on a quote I saw the other day on LinkedIn. In fact, I would like to blow it apart. Here it is:

“When you strip everything away, marketing is the business of creating memories. This is how we create value for organizations.”

This quote came from a very well-respected senior marketing executive and it shows why I believe marketing is so lost today. Let me explain why.

The marketing fizz

Have you ever noticed the colored pull tabs on a can of soda or beer? They add a little splash of fun and color to an otherwise common package. This humble innovation also represented one of my greatest marketing victories … and it had nothing to do with creating memories.

Many years ago, I was the director of marketing for a large business that provided packaging materials like aluminum for cans. Our customers were desperate to find new ways to differentiate their packaging without adding significant cost, and the idea of colorful pull tabs was always coming up in my research.

The problem was, our customers wanted short runs of many different colors. For example, Heinekin wanted…