Gartner defines thought leadership marketing as “the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a company’s product or service can deliver, in order to position and differentiate that offering and stimulate demand for it.&#. The problem is, knowledge of what a product or service can deliver or its differentiation does not establish real thought leadership. Part of the problem is that thought leadership marketing has lost all notions of actual thought leadership.