The essentials of marketing are still as relevant as they've ever been. Understand what is valuable and compelling and unique about a product or service and leverage that.
It is marketers chasing shiny objects, notoriety, and an angle that have mucked up the business. It isn't about Lovemarks (Kevin Roberts); it isn't about Fascination (Sally Hogshead); it isn't about Firms of Endearment (Sisodia & Wolfe); it isn't about the pontificating of Umair Hague. And it isn't about Celebrity CMOs like Jeffrey Hayzlett who turned a few years as CMO for Kodak (a company that has since filed for bankruptcy!) and an affinity for Twitter into a prominent role on the speakers' tour. It is all rubbish. What we need are marketing practioners capable of connecting the customer experience from one end of the engagement spectrum to the other, and across the purchase funnel into leads and sales.
As Elvis so smartly sang, "a little less conversation, a little more action."