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About The Author
Kim Phillips is an independent marketing consultant specializing in branding, communication strategy, creative writing and design, online content, email marketing and social media.
It's all marketing.
Posted in Marketing - 1 Comment
Once upon a time, standing in line for breakfast in the cafeteria of the major financial institution I used to work for, two ladies in front of me were discussing the latest corporate initiative. “Sounds like something MARKETING dreamed up,” said the one, in an unflattering tone. “Really,” snorted the other. As a member of the Marketing Department, I was sort of interested in this exchange. Clearly, the area of the company where I had been spending 60-hour weeks was not beloved. Who was to blame? We all were.
Marketing folks are often viewed by non-marketing co-workers as some sort of barely necessary evil, a bunch of ivory-tower, wacky “creative types” who throw parties, keep a closet full of tote bags and coffee mugs, put together an advertisement now and then, and dream up busy-work for customer-contact people to do instead of serving their customers or actually selling something.
You’d think that Marketing would do a better job of communicating what it actually does. One way we could do that, and increase our relevance, would be to walk a mile in the shoes of the guys and gals on the line, the ones who deal with customers. Spend a few months answering phones in Customer Service (I did) and it will give you an insight into what the public actually wants. It will also give you some credibility with the lines of business. Get into their world, find out what they deal with every day, and ask them how you can help. Work out marketing strategies with them, not in spite of them.
CEOs use “marketing” in some interesting ways. They tend to give marketing people anything that doesn’t fit into the activities they understand better, like Accounting, Human Resources and Information Technology. (Actually, almost nobody really understands that last one, but if it’s about computers, that’s where it goes.) It is rare for a marketing manager to have the same status as managers of “lines of business.” Marketing is a cost center in most organizations, an expense that doesn’t make any money, rather than a vital part of everything the organization does. Marketing seems messy and undisciplined and hard to measure, and purely subjective. Hiring professional marketers with the right tools – and holding them accountable – will take “marketing” out of the realm of events and ad specialties.
The truth is that it’s ALL marketing. Designing a website and installing a new phone system aren’t technical tasks, they are customer-experience projects. A new invoicing method can help sell a company or keep it sold, or not. Hiring a new truck driver can be a form of advertising.
If marketers are not feeling the love and sometimes seem like a luxury to the boss, it takes two to tango. And it takes everybody for a conga line.
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Tags: business blog, marketing blog
One Response to It's all marketing.