Marketing is all about making things sell.
The marketing professionals take pride in increasing the sales of a company.
Often when the economy is down, these same professionals cannot perform and blame it on the markets.
If markets are going to influence the sales of a company then what exactly the marketing professionals do?
Where is the creativity and the skill of marketing professionals in recessionary situation?
We have many examples where innovation has influenced marketing.
The Sony Walkman is an example where the market was not present, and the Walkman provided a new market.
Mobile Phone is another such product.
In these cases innovation rather than marketing created the market.
Well one can argue that such need was predicted or forecast by assessing the market needs by these marketing professionals.
I don’t think so, as in case of Mobile & Walkman it was the innovation and the utility of these equipments that markets were created.
I always wonder then what is the role of marketing.
If everything goes well in a company then the Sales and marketing professionals are regarded as the people who drive a company forward but in recession the company does not do well, then the same marketing professionals get away saying that market conditions are bad.
The Product quality and its role in customer satisfaction is an accepted fact. Only if the quality is good can the product sustain in market.
If that is so, then why need marketing?
Let the product speak for itself.
Lux soap, Dalda, Pepsi , Coca Cola, Macdonald Burgers are household names and they need no marketing, they sell because consumers like them.
The marketing professional only facilitate the product reaching the customer’s mind but the sustainability is not because of them.
If that is so why then manufacturing professionals are not in par with the marketing guys?
Can we then conclude that Manufacturing is the mainstay in business rather than marketing?
3 comments:
Dear Mr. Ananth Iyer,
Would like to share some of my Random Thoughts on marketing.
The fact is that, the Marketing plays a very critical role in many organizations. The marketing professionals are involved in various activities like Market Research, Product development / innovations, test marketing, Selling features & benefits of the products, fight competition, advertising, publicity, Client servicing, Client entertaining, follow ups with the Purchase department for the raw materials, with the Production dept on the goods produced, follow up with the outsourcing department on the activities outsourced, follow up with the stores department for releasing the materials, with the packing department to arrange for the packing materials, with the dispatch department on the delivery of the goods. Attending to customer’s complaints in case of production error or goods damaged in transit. Several visits to client to pacify and request for future business (which in many cases it’s lost for ever), run after the balance outstanding, negotiating for the not deducting the balance amount or lesser amount, approvals and credit notes from the CFO for the deductions, carrying on to complete the balance targets etc. Where as all that the Production or the Dispatch department would do is to apologize for the errors made and get back to their work.
The statistics prove that the Marketing people put in great efforts to convert the goods produced to make the brands a household name. With great marketing skills even an average product becomes an established brand. The repeat business is generated more by the relationships and the assurances by the marketing guys to serve the customer better.
The marketing guys are the face of the company on which a client believes and trusts and hope to have a long and fruitful relationship.
Hence it’s a worldwide fact that the marketing professionals are the most critical people in any company as they are the breadwinners and the success of any company is in the direct proportion to the sales generated by the marketing people. It goes with out saying that the marketing people must be given the VVIP treatment always.
Regards,
Mohan Gajria
General Manager - Marketing,
Infomedia 18 Ltd.
Mumbai.
Dear Mohan,
Thanks for your comments.
All that you have written is from your marketing perspective.You have justified very well the role of marketing department.
Unless the Quality of a product is good, marketing cannot sell that item.
In many organisations it is the product which speaks for itself and merely good marketing skills cannot bring more orders.
As for the followups etc you have indicated it is only large organisations which can afford this luxury , it is also true where there are disputes the production personnel is needed to clear the doubts or problems faced by the customers.
In short if everything goes well then it is to the credit of marketing guys and if something goes wrong it is to the discredit of the production personnel.
You have still not touched the point of survival in recessionary market where the marketing people should have shown their skills and should have brought in orders but that is not the case.
Thanks.
Let's not miss the big picture ie the organisation. Be it marketing or manufacturing or customer service...all are links of the organisation. If we consider the organisation as a chain, the strength of the chain is as good as the strength of the weakest link. All I want to say is that no individual department is supreme...the organisation is...
Came across this post much late....however, happy to leave a note here...Iyer sir, thank you for expressing your thoughts thru this medium...
Best wishes,
kk
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