Mal's Musings: The myth of marketing excellence
*Marketing excellence is all well and good, but what we really need is marketing with a purpose* Evolution, thankfully, has not missed the marketing profession.
By on Oct 27, 2010Marketing excellence is all well and good, but what we really need is marketing with a purpose
Evolution, thankfully, has not missed the marketing profession.
Like others, marketers are constantly looking for improvements and new ways of doing things.
One of the recent outputs is marketing excellence, but now some critics have asked why we are getting bogged down with marketing excellence when we are struggling to define what we actually mean by marketing.
On the face of it, this has all the hallmarks of a fadexcellence on the surface, mediocrity in practice.
What is excellence in marketing? To answer that question, you first need to understand what marketing is.
There are as many definitions of what marketing is as there are people working in marketing.
It is about customers, competitors, markets, value, and so forth.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing famously defined marketing as the management process of identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer needs profitably.
Despite the definitions, assertions, and proposals, the reality is that marketing often ends up being what differing industries and organizations want it to be.
Just plain marketing, please
This is one of the reasons that movements across industries are rare; roles lean more toward industry peculiarities and less toward general marketing principles.
So what about excellence? Where should we start?
Perhaps we have a much bigger challenge than just marketing excellence.
Maybe our biggest challenge is just plain marketing.
At this point, I know memories of great campaigns, initiatives and programs that led to stellar results, come flooding back.
Nonetheless, ask most marketers what they do and they either waffle or give completely different answers.
If you dont believe me, try it!
Why does it matter what marketing is as long as it is perceived to add value?
Marketers tell us constantly that clarity of message is vital, but they forgot to practice what they preach.
At the same time, the perception is that marketing just spends money and goes on trips. If marketing is to avoid extinction, it needs a rethink.
We do not need marketing excellence; we need marketing with substance, clarity, and purpose.
It is time to professionalize marketing, like our finance colleagues, who often have more exposure to marketing training than the pompous, over-confident sales people we call marketers.
In the end, those who run most organizations are finance, R&D, and operations executives.
Where are the marketers? Still trying to come up with a coherent answer to the question, What is marketing?
There is a real danger that marketing is left to pick up the leftovers and try to make a meal of them.
Either marketers step up to the plate or the plate will be taken from them.
Marketing will be divided among clinical, medical, finance, operations, anddare I say itsales.
Time to park the obsession with marketing excellence and just tackle marketing.