Recently I was at another industry function, this time for designers. I like to go to these sorts of things to learn what’s happening inside the brains of the working parts. At the do’ I heard something I keep hearing every time I go to something like this. That “marketers are a waste of space” and “marketing is dead”. Everyone always nods their heads in agreement.
This is common in New Zealand.
Add to this the lack of representation of marketers on company boards, the perception that 80% of marketing doesn’t work and the nickname “the colouring in department”.
You would have to say that marketing as a business function is in trouble.
Not so.
Every CEO I have worked for in the last 8 years has come from marketing. Marketing is entrepreneurial and lends itself to leading businesses. If the people they are elevating within the business are from marketing why is there a perception from outside that marketing doesn’t work?
Marketing is still a relatively new field with degree majors only offered here for the last 20-25 years. Those that started out in marketing at the beginning are doing pretty well now.
The problem I think is ignorance of what marketers do.
The digital environment is impacting heavily now and the wide use of media targeting and guerrilla tactics means that many of the things marketers do isn’t noticed by the general population.
Thing is, if you’re not in the target market or if the marketer is seeding the market correctly, you shouldn’t notice. So suppliers see the product and think ‘if I had that job, I’d make sure everyone knows about this’.
Or their client will say no to an idea for good reasons and the supplier will think ‘what a muppet, that was a great idea’.
Marketing has moved on and the environment we work in changes very quickly. Many of the functions that used to be the engine room of marketing are now the window dressing of what we have to do.
Brochures, adverts, even websites have become library programs. They maintain an established position but are no longer effective enough to justify the best talent or time for suppliers with marketing managers. This work has been moved to someone learning the marketing trade. The suppliers often teach the newer staff and this further forms the opinion that marketers don’t actually know what they are doing.
The great thing is that we generally have good suppliers that rethink and review what is already known to keep things up-to-date. Though it is now pretty rare to see some big break through. Most of what is supplied is now an operational rehash of ideas and no longer provides a point of difference or a durable competitive advantage.
But there is another side of this as well. Suppliers put themselves out there as experts. They’re supposed to know more about their chosen subject. So what’s your problem? That is why we’re paying you. If I know more than a supplier I don’t use them.
So then it begs the question – what do marketers do? Simply put, we look after the revenue line.
Outside of the stuff we already know which often involves maintaining the programs we have, marketing can mean employing new and unfamiliar techniques. So we have to be fast learners.
It means sorting out the relevant suppliers from the irrelevant. Even though many suppliers are passionate and knowledgeable in the value of their products, you’re often off the mark for what we need to achieve.
Marketing means managing a process which can often be made up on the fly. So the logic and time management of project management is essential.
It means locking whatever “this” new thing is onto the brand and vision of the business. Ensuring ‘it’ takes hold in the existing market and broadens the appeal of the products to new markets.
Time, cost, technology and competition has made marketing a more complex and sophisticated vocation that doesn’t require specialists knowledge. It needs generalists that know a bit of design, know a bit of print, know a bit about negotiating contracts. A bit of everything.
We need to know a lot about brand, an increasing amount about psychology, particularly behavioural psychology. We need a good measure of statistics and an exceptional amount about business strategy.
We manage budgets so we need a bit of accounting on top of managing costs (and suppliers are costs). As it is essential we need to know media and the complexities of search engines and optimisation if you live in the digital world.
All this mixed in with the creativity, vision and insight into consumer behaviour.
But most of all, and this is where most marketers fail, it means coherently and compellingly selling your vision to the business you work for. To communicate this at board, executive, operational and customer levels. Gaining their support, buy in and trust that you have the ideas and ability to deliver.
This last bit is what makes a good marketer as then you can drive the revenue line, control the brand and support and add value to the company strategy.
So suppliers …. marketing isn’t dead.
Anyone who boasts this wide collection of skills will be the business leaders of the future. And every CEO I’ve worked for in the last 8 years is a marketer.
