In 2011, the Common Language in Marketing Project was assembled by MASB, the Marketing Accountability Standards Board. Comprised of marketing association representatives, MASB staff, and MASB members representing both academics and marketing practitioners, the team used the American Marketing Association’s online dictionary as a basis and launched the Common Language Marketing Dictionary, marketing-dictionary.org, in 2022 renamed The Universal Marketing Dictionary.
The number of curated terms has grown from a few hundred to nearly 2,000. With no paid advertising, UMD usage has increased remarkably fast on organic promotions like Marketing Term of the Week and Google‘s use of the dictionary for marketing definition search snippets.
The UMD Project team meets monthly online to review new terms and consider term revisions. Current members are:
![]() MASB Director of Communication Dictionary Editor & Webmaster |
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![]() Landmark Communications Professor of Business Administration University of Virginia Darden School of Business |
![]() Associate Professor Notre Dame University Mendoza College of Business |
![]() William S. Woodside Professor of Marketing University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School |
![]() Allan Kuse |
![]() Chief Knowledge Officer Marketing Science Institute at the Advertising Research Foundation |
![]() Todd Kaiser Director Segmentations and Strategic Research Numerator |
![]() Chief Executive Officer MASB |
![]() Executive Director MASB |