Contemporary Marketing Management

Agile Methodology

A project management and organizational approach based on iterative development, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous adaptation to change, enabling teams to deliver value quickly and efficiently.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The simulation of human intelligence in machines designed to think, learn, and act autonomously through algorithms, data processing, and adaptive models.

Augmented Reality (AR)

A technology that overlays computer-generated elements—such as images, sounds, or information—onto the real world, creating a composite and interactive experience.

Big Data

Extremely large and complex datasets that can be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and correlations, especially related to human behavior and interactions.

Blockchain

A decentralized digital ledger that securely records transactions across a distributed network, ensuring transparency, immutability, and trust without the need for centralized authority.

Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning is the strategic process of defining how a brand is perceived in the minds of its target audience, distinguishing it from competitors through a unique value, identity, and promise that guide all marketing and communication efforts.

Business Intelligence (BI)

A set of technologies, processes, and practices that collect, analyze, and visualize business data to support strategic and operational decision-making.

Circular Economy

An economic model designed to eliminate waste and keep products, materials, and resources in use for as long as possible through regeneration, reuse, and recycling.

Civil Economy

An economic paradigm that places the human person and the common good at the center of economic activity, promoting cooperation, reciprocity, and sustainability as drivers of prosperity.

Common Good

Resources, relationships, and social conditions essential to human well-being, which should be accessible and usable by all members of society in an equitable, sustainable and generative way.

Contemporary Marketing Management (CMM)

An advanced marketing and management framework that redefines value creation in the age of digital transformation, sustainability, and artificial intelligence by integrating ethics, human purpose, and systemic impact into strategy.

Corporate Art

Corporate Art refers to artistic works, initiatives, or collections commissioned, curated, or incorporated by companies to express identity, enhance environments, engage stakeholders, and support communication, branding, and cultural value creation.

Corporate Culture

Corporate Culture is the shared set of values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms that shape how people within an organization think, act, and interact, influencing decision-making, performance, and identity.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A management approach in which companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their operations and stakeholder interactions on a voluntary and ethical basis.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

A European Union directive requiring large companies to disclose detailed information on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, enhancing transparency and accountability in corporate sustainability practices.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A strategic approach and technology system for managing an organization’s relationships and interactions with current and potential customers.

Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM)

A managerial approach that bases strategic and operational decisions on data analysis and empirical evidence rather than intuition or tradition.

Differentiation Cycle

The Differentiation Cycle is a sequential framework describing how a brand’s unique characteristics evolve from internal analysis to market perception through four interconnected stages: Marketing Distinguo, Unique Selling Proposition, Value Proposition, and Brand Positioning.

Digital Marketing

The use of digital technologies, platforms, and data-driven strategies to connect organizations with audiences, creating measurable and interactive relationships across online environments.

Digital Transformation

The strategic integration of digital technologies into all areas of an organization, fundamentally changing how it operates, creates value, and engages with stakeholders.

Double Materiality

A core principle in sustainability reporting that requires organizations to disclose both how sustainability issues affect their financial performance and how their activities impact society and the environment.

Enlightened Management

A human-centered management philosophy that harmonizes business success with social and environmental responsibility, guiding organizations toward long-term prosperity beyond profit.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

An integrated software system that organizations use to manage and coordinate key business functions such as finance, supply chain, production, sales, and human resources.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

A set of criteria used to evaluate a company’s environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate governance practices, forming the basis for responsible investment and long-term value creation.

European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)

A comprehensive set of reporting standards developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to guide companies in disclosing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Extended Reality (XR)

An umbrella term encompassing all immersive technologies—including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—that extend human perception by blending physical and digital environments.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

A comprehensive data protection law enacted by the European Union on May 25, 2018, designed to safeguard the privacy and personal data of EU citizens and residents while regulating how organizations collect, use, and store such data.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI)

A branch of AI focused on creating new and original content—such as text, images, audio, or code—by learning from vast datasets and generating outputs that mimic human creativity.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

The art and strategy of making a brand visible, recognizable, and quotable within the answers generated by artificial intelligence systems.

Generativity

The ability of individuals and organizations to create new value—economic, social, or cultural—in ways that generate growth, meaning, and opportunity for others.

Greenwashing

The deceptive practice by which companies present themselves or their products as environmentally responsible through marketing and superficial actions rather than through genuine, impactful sustainability efforts.

Hidden Champion

A term describing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that dominate their global niche markets while remaining relatively unknown to the general public, combining deep specialization, innovation, and long-term customer relationships.

Horizontal Leadership

A collaborative and distributed leadership model in which authority and responsibility are shared among all members of an organization, fostering innovation, trust, and collective accountability.

Impact Marketing

A strategic and people-centered approach that mobilizes all stakeholders to generate a positive social and environmental impact, where profit is the natural result of ethical and responsible business practices.

Impactholders

Individuals or groups actively engaged in co-creating positive social and environmental impact with an organization, transcending the traditional role of stakeholders as passive interest holders.

Industry 4.0

The fourth industrial revolution characterized by the integration of digital technologies—such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robotics, and data analytics—into manufacturing and business operations.

Innovation

The outcome of a continuous process of learning, collaboration, and adaptation that transforms ideas into new value for people, organizations, and markets.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A network of interconnected physical objects embedded with sensors, software, and connectivity that enables them to collect, exchange, and act on data in real time.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Quantifiable metrics used to evaluate the success of an organization, project, or activity in achieving specific strategic, operational, or marketing objectives.

Machine Learning

A subset of Artificial Intelligence that enables systems to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.

Marketing

Marketing is the discipline that creates, communicates, delivers, and manages value for customers, stakeholders, and society, guiding how organizations understand needs, shape offerings, and build meaningful relationships.

Marketing Distinguo

A marketing philosophy focused on authentic differentiation, helping organizations stand out not by lowering prices but by amplifying their unique value, meaning, and identity.

Marketing Mix: Product, Price, Place, Promotion (4P)

The set of controllable marketing tools that a company uses to create and deliver value to its customers. Traditionally defined by the 4Ps—Product, Price, Place, and Promotion—the Marketing Mix has evolved to include new dimensions that reflect the complexity of contemporary markets.

Materiality Assessment

A structured process used by organizations to identify and prioritize the environmental, social, governance (ESG), and economic topics that are most significant to their business performance and to their stakeholders.

Metaverse

A collective, persistent, and interactive virtual environment where users, represented by digital avatars, can work, socialize, learn, and engage in economic and cultural exchanges within a shared digital ecosystem.

Mixed Reality (MR)

A hybrid technology that merges the physical and digital worlds, allowing real and virtual objects to coexist and interact in real time within a single, integrated environment.

Modern Marketing

The discipline of marketing that emerged in the 1960s, formalized by Philip Kotler, focusing on systematic methods for analyzing markets, defining products, and promoting them to target audiences.

Never-Ending Learning (NEL)

An experiential learning model in which education extends beyond a book, the classroom or course event, evolving into a continuous, interactive, and personalized ecosystem that connects learners, knowledge, and community through artificial intelligence.

People × Purpose × Planet (3P)

A strategic formula expressing the integrated relationship between people, purpose, and the planet as the foundation for sustainable prosperity in modern business and marketing.

Predictive Analytics

The use of statistical models and machine learning techniques to forecast future outcomes based on historical and real-time data.

Quantum Computing

A type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena—such as superposition and entanglement—to process information, potentially solving complex problems far faster than classical computers.

Regenerative Marketing

A strategic and ethical approach to marketing that seeks not only to sustain but to restore and enhance the social, environmental, and cultural systems on which business depends.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A performance metric used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment, measuring the return generated relative to its cost.

Scrum

An agile framework for managing complex projects and knowledge work, designed to enable teams to deliver value incrementally through short, iterative cycles called sprints.

Shared Value

A management principle and strategic framework that focuses on creating economic value in a way that also generates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges.

Social Washing

The practice by which companies exaggerate or falsify their social responsibility and ethical commitments through communication and branding, without implementing genuine or measurable actions that improve society or stakeholder well-being.

Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Engagement is the systematic process through which an organization identifies, involves, and collaborates with individuals or groups who influence or are influenced by its activities, aiming to build trust, alignment, and long-term value.

Stakeholder Theory

A management and ethical framework asserting that organizations must create value for all stakeholders—not only shareholders—by balancing economic, social, and environmental interests.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The management of the flow of goods, services, and information, encompassing the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished products from the point of origin to the point of consumption.

Sustainability

The capacity to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own, integrating environmental, social, and economic dimensions of development.

Sustainability Tracking and Evaluation Pathway Summary (STEPS)

A strategic document that helps organizations monitor, evaluate, and communicate their sustainability performance and progress, offering a transparent overview of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives aligned with Enlightened Management principles.

Glossary

Glossary Terms