The increase in new channels and technologies has dramatically changed the environment in which marketers operate. But the way in which marketing is taught, understood and operates has not really changed. This is not sustainable. We need a new unifying framework as a reference for what marketing has become.

Alongside this need for a framework, there are new requirements for marketing competencies and capabilities around domains of expertise like data and analytics, customer experience, content, multichannel and personalisation, which are neither properly understood nor being met. This is acknowledged in the marketing industry but not reflected in any definitive model.

Due to these changes and the rise of digital, the marketing function is going through an existential crisis: it is not clear on its own remit, does not know what skills it needs or how to organise itself and struggles to resolve a dislocation not only in how it interacts with other business functions but within itself with ‘digital’ vs ‘traditional’ schisms.

In 2013, we launched the Modern Marketing Manifesto articulating our belief that the marketing discipline should embrace digital and classic marketing.

The Modern Marketing Model (M3) now creates a new framework for applying this thinking within organisations. The Modern Marketing Model is a unifying force which fuses digital and classic marketing into one future-facing framework. This informs marketing’s remit, required competencies and organisational design. M3 defines marketing in the digital age.

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