Chicago—The American Marketing Association has unveiled a new definition of marketing to reflect the discipline’s broader role in society.

The new definition reads, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

It will be used as the official definition of marketing in books and taught in university lecture halls nationwide, according to the AMA.

“One of the most important changes to American Marketing Association’s new definition for marketing is that marketing is presented as a broader activity,” said Nancy Costopulos, CMO of the American Marketing Association. “Marketing is no longer a function—it is an educational process.”

The previous definition read, “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”

—Kate Maddox