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In this chapter, we connect our focus — the organizing of marketing — to one of the strongest drivers for its change — digitalization — and draw attention to various “dual forces” that affect marketing as a consequence. These dual forces are associated with the concept of ambidexterity. Given that companies today are affected by digitalization, both internally in their organizations and in their external business relations, and that they need to act as ambidextrous organizations handling both old (“analog”) and new (“digital”) situations, how does this affect marketing, in general, and the organizing of marketing, in particular?

The chapter will be founded on the assumptions that digitalization is a central driver of change in business and society today, and this digitalization requires organizations to explore new opportunities while still operating with mature technologies in mature markets. Marketing most often has a central role in this situation of digitalization. The connection between digitalization processes, ambidextrous organizations, and the processes of organizing marketing is the focus of this chapter.

The subject is wide, and the aim of the chapter is to generate ideas on some potential consequences for marketing management and organization. The chapter ends with a set of propositions serving as starting points for further studies of the links between digitalization, marketing management and organization, as well as the forces resulting from digitalization.

In the final chapter of the book the authors discuss potential continued developments of some of the topics addressed in the previous texts of the book. The final overview of the book starts with a set of some more practical, empirical issues that deserve attention.

The choice of practical issues in marketing organization are collected from the authors of the various chapters, in contacts with marketing practitioners, and from various secondary sources. The issues deal with, for example, the new business landscape with well-informed and capable procurement organizations and aspects of organizing marketing in order to deal with customers in the public sector. Furthermore, the practical issues discussed deal with the organizing of marketing as part of the organizing of markets.

The chapter aims to provide a dynamic-process perspective of radical marketing reorganization processes and what drives such complex processes. The chapter draws on organization and management literature to develop a conceptual framework for understanding such reorganization processes. It is also based on two major empirical studies. The first is a historical study that focuses on the consequences for different parts of marketing organizations when two organizations merge.

The study shows how, for example, over time various tensions, conflicts, and contradictions become important drivers for the continued, long-term process to create a new, joint marketing organization. The second study investigates three cases of reorganization processes that integrated digital and physical sales channels. The investigation describes the tensions occurring among the groups and individuals responsible for each channel. By describing the handling of the tensions and subsequent effects, they outline a dynamic model of channel integration processes. Both models are presented in the chapter. The chapter concludes that marketing in reality is becoming more of an organizational topic in which successful transitions of marketing organizations become a matter of organizing and reorganizing.