Blog entry number 10 from MBA - www.mba-marketing.co.uk)
I still come across a number of incorrect assumptions about marketing. These can be summarised as follows.
1. Marketing equals advert sing. Or, marketing = advertising / PR / a website / and some brochures. Advertising is often the most visible and expensive marketing activity. Hence, it is often assumed that 'marketing' is concerned mainly with spending money, usually in an inefficient and profligate manner. It is this perception which has most adversely affected the image of marketing and marketers - according to research conducted at Cranfield, marketing directors are seen by their financial directors as 'unaccountable, untouchable, slippery and expensive'.
The effectiveness and measurement of advertising continues to be a relatively inexact science. However, adve tising is but a sub-set of the marketing process - a process which should encompass all product, service, market and customer decisions.
2. Marketing is what agencies do. This assumption is damaging to marketing, as not only does it tend to be accompanied with the opinion that agencies are charlatans, but it also suggests that marketing is something which can be outsourced. Even Sir Martin Sorrell - undeniably the most astute, successful and generally admirable businessman operating in the advertising, communications and marketing services sector - has stated that: 'agencies re-define every problem in terms of their proposed solution. Neither WPP nor our clients typically have processes to answer (or even to ask) the two critical questions: how much should we spend on marketing communications? And through which mix of channels can we most rewardingly spend it?' (FT).
Agencies provide advertising and marketing services, sometimes very well, and can be valued business partners and suppliers. However, these services are likely to be of most value if they are informed by marketing-driven business decisions made and owned by the client business or organisation. Otherwise, it can be a little like asking a car salesman for transport advice.
3. Marketing equals the marketing department. Often, the word 'marketing' is used to describe a group of people - 'marketing are doing this or that', 'marketing are useless', and so on. Hence, marketing as a disciplined approach to business becomes confused with a group of people, few if any of whom are senior within the organisation, and whose main concerns may seem to be peripheral to the core business.
As David Hewlett of HP fame pointed out many years ago, marketing is way too important for the marketing department- it's what the entire organisation is all about. People - in the form of a marketing department - may be necessary to provide specialised skills and to champion the marketing philosophy. However, unless the entire organisation is marketing-led, the marketing department is doomed to a shadow world of brochure design and budget cuts.
4. Marketing equals sales. This assumption is based upon the idea that a business doesn't need strategy, it needs sales, preferably this month. Marketing is seen as the way in which sales leads are generated. While this is ultimately true, the short-termism implicit in this assumption means that businesses thinking in this way rarely give marketing a chance - investment in the research and planning necessary for successful marketing is never made.
Businesses of this type are likely to favour direct sales over marketing, despite all the evidence - for example, the increased cost and decreased effectiveness of salesforces, the ways in which customers make and enact buying decisions, and the lack of any systematic way of understanding and responding to change.
So, what is marketing? Marketing is about alignment - identifying, planning and implementing the best way in which an organisation, business or brand can develop its strengths in order to best align itself with a changing business environment, hence generating value and profit. This requires an organisation-wide approach, whereby marketing is a business strategy, philosophy and process, as well as a specialised function and discipline with expert practitioners.
Most senior business people already know this. The problem is that they are unsure how to actually do it in practice. On the one hand, marketing is the key driver of business strategy and therefore a board issue, on the other hand, marketing requires specialist skills which the board do not have. Which is where I come in....