"Companies that continue to see marketing as a bag of tricks will lose
out in short order to companies that stress substance and performance."
Regis McKenna
Marketing doesn't really get much respect in the business world and is rarely looked at as a key contributor to the bottom line. It is frequently
looked at as the function that produces the pretty Web site or the glossy sales brochure, but not much more than that. This is odd, considering
marketing is a business discipline. Thus---as a business discipline---it should provide real value to the business.
Marketing's inability to produce measurable results is probably one of the biggest
reasons that many executives don't know what to do with marketing.
As the saying goes, if you can measure it, you can control it. And if you don't know how to measure it, then you can't effectively use it.
Many
executives have formal training in, for example, finance and accounting. Things are fairly concrete in the accounting world. Tracking things,
creating reports, and understanding the value of specific scenarios is the foundation of this discipline. Yet, the executive who tries to apply these
same principles to marketing is frequently frustrated with the results.
Once we get to the point where marketing is left unaccountable---because those
responsible for it don't know how to track it or measure its worth---
management begins to have serious doubts about the value of marketing. Once the belief is held that there's no way to verify marketing's worth,
marketing becomes viewed as an expense, not an investment.
Thus, since it's believed that marketing can't be tracked and the value to the
company
is essentially unknown,
marketing is tossed aside as a "nice-to-have" business
accessory. Instead of trying to learn more about marketing and discovering how it can be turned into an asset for the company, executives
exacerbate the situation by basically ignoring it. Research shows that executives devote only 10% of their time to marketing.
If nothing else, devoting so little time to such a vital business function further marginalizes its worth.
And thus begins the cycle of disgust. It's as much about the attitude you hold as it
is
the actions you put forth. The attitude a lot of people have about marketing is reflected in the way it is implemented within the company. And the
way marketing is implemented fuels the attitude people take. And round and round it goes.
Many organizations
look at marketing as nothing more than promotions, which is really a euphemism for price cuts. And no one likes to see price cuts. It hurts both the
top and
bottom lines of a company.
Once you start thinking about marketing in these terms, it's hard to view marketing as something that should be valued. You may start thinking of
marketing a bit like a charity, something to fund in the good times, because ... well, everyone seems to be doing it. And there's some intuitive
sense that marketing is "good" --- kind of like a charity. And, if you apply yourself a little, maybe you'd finally understand what marketing can do
for your company. However, once revenues slide and things get tight, the marketing budget (much like charities) is the first to feel the pinch.
Yet, there's usually some additional confusion that creeps in that keeps real
understanding from happening. When marketing becomes marginalized or
disbanded altogether, there's no obvious consequence. The cause and effect relationship is diluted enough, and since there aren't any tracking
mechanisms
in place anyway, there's no perceived benefit or detriment to these efforts.
What happens is that marketing gets lumped in with several other business
functions and---ultimately---is deemed less than useful within these
disciplines, again for the reasons stated before ... lack of understanding, lack of tracking, etc. In other words, marketing becomes any one of a
combination of the following:
* Sales
* Product Management
* Advertising
* Customer Service
Our next few newsletters will look at how marketing is frequently confused with
each
of these areas. Finally, we'll cover how this can be resolved. If you'd like to more about this, feel free to email us directly. We'd be happy to help out anyway we can.
Discover your marketing elements.
