New role of marketing

John Moore at OurHouse expands our blog dialogue on Engaging Employees (original posts here and here) and offers a wonderfully concise definition of marketing's role in the 21st century:

...marketing might think of its task as resolving the conflicting needs and interests of stakeholders. I suggest this because a focus on the word customer risks oversimplifying the real challenge... And as Jennifer's comments suggest, if marketing is limited to pleasing customers, without having either the power or responsibility for squaring that with everyone else at the party, then it is likely to waste resources.

A role like this would certainly redefine marketing's place in the company and (if executed successfully) enable more marketing pros to move up the ladder to C-level positions.

Along these lines, here's the process I went through in my last full-time position:
1. Learned the unmet needs of our customers through qualitative/quantitative research
2. Created a brand position that was meaningful to both customers and employees
3. Translated the brand promise for every customer-facing department within the organization. Presented "this is your customer," here's why we're making this brand promise, and here's what you can do to make it happen. (BTW, employees on the front-line were thrilled to think that they could actually make a difference in building the brand. People like to feel part of something bigger than their own job or department).
4. Worked with customer-facing departments to realize the brand promise. This included simplifying billing statements, rewriting customer service scripts, rewriting billing/collection letters, producing standardized sales presentations, etc.
5. Worked with the agency to translate the brand promise into marcom tactics & Brand ID
6. Published weekly/monthly results of ongoing, online customer survey to each department head, which indicated how well we were delivering on the brand promise and what improvements needed to be made

Unfortunately the product didn't work and the company was sold to a competitor before we could track key brand metrics (customer attraction, customer retention, sales efficiency, etc). So although I have no tangible results to share with you, this was a very effective process flow. For future reference, I'd also add what John mentions in his post: work hand-in-hand with HR to align policies and hiring practices with the brand promise, and measure employee loyalty as well as customer loyalty.

The good news is, no area of the business is exempt from marketing's influence today. It's now up to marketers to step up to the plate and make it happen. Done correctly, marketers shouldn't run into many territorial, departmental roadblocks; simply position yourself as someone who can help them do their jobs better. You're bringing valuable information about customer needs, likes and dislikes. I've found no one inclined to argue with customer data. Ditto for HR: by offering to do an employee survey, you're making yourself a valuable ally to the HR team.

If anyone has experience that's run counter to this, please post a comment. Let's work together to figure out how marketing can best evolve and expand its role within the corporation.

Comments

[mohamed]

hey man i have a research to write down and i must finish it tonight about marketing department and its role can u help me find out what to write thanks

[K. Jett]

I found this site very helpful. I am in school for Criminal Justice, but taking a Marketing class right now. I am not interested in Marketing at all and really found ALOT of information here to help in my papers....thanks.

[M.Sarah]

I've found your information about marketing very impotant and i do encourage you to keep updying us because as students we realy such updates as we persue our education.
I wish you God's blessings in you are doing.

[elvis]

i would want your organization to send me more info about marketing in details.

[PHILLIP KOBUSINGE]

I'm a male(PHILLIP KOBUSINGE) Business student persuing a Bachelors Degree in Commerce and now in the 3rd year of study at Makerere University Kampala-Uganda.

The comments and Marketing Ideas presented here are good in the era of a Competitive Wold.They have actually added gr8t value to me as A Busines student

However, I would suggest that, in order for the Organisation's product to survive in the Market, there is need to fully study the customers' needs and lay strategies of meeting them beyond the customers' expectations(Delight). The Prodution department together with the Marketing department in the Organisation should first determine the requirements a product should posess that meet the consumers' needs while Developing New Prodcts-Easily done through proper Market Research in the existing market.

Thanks to You and hope to Here or know from You. Have a Happy stay and I wish U A goahead in Developing the Marketing Proffession. In addition to the E-mail address I have given, my phone number in Uganda is 078500722.

[Jennifer Rice]

You bring up a good question about the best path to the CEO position. I'd always read that finance and operations were the best paths as they give the best overview of the inner workings of the business. However, looks like we're both right according to this article:

"To be sure, certain disciplines are still seen as the fast-lane up the ladder. Fortune 700 CEOs' top three work areas are finance, operations and marketing, with sales a close fourth. Among the heads of Fortune 100 companies, though, there are some significant trends. A hefty 27 percent of CEOs know their numbers, in line with last year's findings that more CEOs are moving up through the financial ranks than through any other function. And 16 percent have experience in planning and development-double the number with sales experience."

My point was just that if marketers can take a more active role in every department, they can get more cross-functional expertise faster than if they simply focused on external communications.

[David Foster]

Marketing and sales can help in building employee motivation by giving an "outside" view of the corporation to those whose work is primarily "inside." One of the best ways to do this is to bring actual customers in to talk about how they use the product or service. Another is to pre-announce advertising and other marketing campaigns internally.

But I think it's a stretch to say that "marketing might think of its task as resolving the conflicting needs and interests of stakeholders.." That's the responsibility of the chairman and the CEO (or, in a multidivisional company, the division general manager). Attempts by marketing people to claim such a broad scope would disperse efforts and by perceived by many as a territorial grab.

And I didn't understand the comment about "level C positions." In just about every company I know, marketing (in its broad sense, including sales and product/brand management) is one of the best routes to the top, perhaps *the* best route.