thefunnel

Internet / Web governance – Who’s in command?

One of the topics frequently debated in marketing (but probably in other functions as well) is that of the role of the Internet to a business, and how the Web and decisions related to the Web should be prioritized and governed, in addition to what the most effective organizational structures are to fully utilize the Web.

Read more….. Internet Web Governance

This one is a continuation to a couple my earlier posts in relation to the different functions of marketing. On it’s simplest level some organizations have a hard time figuring out where to draw the line between outbound and inbound marketing, in addition to understanding how tasks should be split up between “creating value”, “providing value” and “communicating value”. Not intentionally, but in large organizations, with a lot of change, if roles and responsibilities aren’t clear it will create a problem. But things gets more complex than this, because marketing also interacts with both sales and business development and there’s the grey zone between marketing – sales, sales – business development, and business development – marketing, as illustrated. I think the obvious areas that warrants some more conversations are: The role of marketing in customer retention activities versus sales as a “farmer” function. The role of sales as “hunters” versus a business development function. The role of a business development function as a “value provider” or “value communicator” versus inbound marketing or marketing communications. The sweet spot is in the middle where you have a good balance between marketing, sales and business development.

Why doesn’t marketing work? Why is marketing in such a mess in many companies? Why does companies that claim they’re marketing and customer centric, end up in trouble? Have you ever wondered why? Here’re a few.
In many companies marketing doesn’t have a place at the C table, and therefore, doesn’t get heard. You would think that the other people could represent marketing, and they might be able to on some level, but when it comes to deep understanding of marketing and customers, being a generalist often isn’t enough.
Everyone is a marketer. Sometimes people that do marketing, or are appointed to marketing positions have little or no formal marketing training. Being streetwise and learning on the job is good, but nothing can compensate for a marketing mind. You wouldn’t have a surgeon without formal qualifications operate on you, would you? You wouldn’t appoint a marketer to key position in human resources or financing would you? (there are exceptions).
Lack of an outcome based marketing. Some marketers only provide fluff, with no metrics and very little accountability. Activity based marketing does more harm than good to the marketing profession.
Marketing doesn’t control the message anymore, the customer does? Social media have put the customer in control and everything upside down compared what it used to be. In addition with all the choice, no one can manage it all. Companies are struggling to make sense of it all, and deploy the right resources in the right places. Marketing is truly becoming everyone’s job, and that calls for guidelines and governance, but at the same time letting go of some of the control and moving towards transparency, risk taking and empowerment. Not having enough marketing minds around, doesn’t help either.
Companies don’t walk the talk. Customer intimacy, customer loyalty and customer retention are all familiar concepts, and many companies practice these disciplines, but how many companies truly understand the customer LTV, and how many really put the customer first, even before profit, short term, if there’s a long term gain? I believe that most of these types of marketing programs have never really worked. They might have appeared to work, but only because there were enough customers and business for everyone. Not anymore. The biggest scarcity in business today is availability of customers.