I have been involved in Marketing for over 40 years. There isn’t much I haven’t seen or done. I’ve worked in multinationals to startups, having lived and worked on four different continents across that time. But I feel exasperated. The discipline I love has become a shadow of its former self and I feel I need to speak out.
I’m not even sure if business leaders understand what Marketing is. In fact I’ll go so far to say that most Marketers don’t know what the discipline is. The reality is that the Marketing function in most companies represents a fraction of what the discipline should be responsible for.
Let’s look at how the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines it:
“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”
On a quick assessment that would seem to represent significantly more than just comms and demand generation, don’t you think? In fact if I see another job description for a CMO that just focuses on awareness and filling a pipeline, I will likely scream.
So what is required to turn this around?
1. Focus on customer value.
The first step is easy. Very simply every Marketing meeting should start with “What’s in it for the customer?” Let’s take some inspiration from Lean Thinking. Muda requires the removal of anything that adds no value to a customer. If only we thought this way, we would remove at least half of the Marketing going on today. Pretty radical, don’t you think.
2. Remove the subjectivity.
There are 3 characteristics in Marketing
- Everyone has an opinion
- Every opinion is different
- Every opinion is right (especially when it comes from the CEO)
If anyone is making decisions without customer insights then ask them to leave the room, and to come back when they are better informed. Viewpoints and ideas from colleagues are always valuable except when it is “I prefer that colour, it just looks right”.
3. Get off your chairs and get out there.
The third step is Marketers need to get in front of customers, better engage other disciplines and educate colleagues on what great Marketing looks like. First-hand insights are 10x more valuable than third hand as you have context and the ability to ask Why?
It’s up to Marketers to re-establish this discipline, so let’s get back in front of the customer and start owning it. Remember that ‘Marketing’ as the name suggests is about connecting your company and products to the external market in a way that is distinguished, differentiated, valuable and profitable for all stakeholders.