Marketing is too important to be left either to marketers or CEOs — but for different reasons.
Much of marketers’ energy goes into what is popularly known as self-marketing; that is, landing the next marketing gig. If you don’t believe it, take a trip through LinkedIn, where self-promotion among marketers is brazenly transparent.
Marketing is also too important to allow company CEOs to get their hands on it. Inevitably, they will try to shape it to fit some notion they have inside their heads. And it will be wrong. Look no further than J.C. Penney’s tragic history. Even if those surrounding the CEO, including board members, know what’s wrong, many are prone to nod their heads on cue.
For marketing to be effective, it requires the best that both CEOs and professional marketers can bring to it; the former for the story and the latter for astutely translating the story into winning and keeping customers.
Because marketing is critical to a company’s success, the role of a marketer deserves careful attention, and playing the role of cynic is the best way to perform this task. Here are a few pointers:
• Be cynical of anyone who lays on the marketing jargon. If someone is in marketing and they use terminology you don’t understand, watch out. This person is faking it. Marketing is all about clarity and doing away with roadblocks to communication.
• It helps to be cynical and believe that much of what a marketer does is actually a carefully planned exercise in resume building. Don’t be surprised if you discover that some marketers seem to have only one customer: themselves.
• While the coveted “Marketing Manager” title is intended to elicit confidence, the cynic recognizes that it may be a cover. Quite often, this title is a sign that the person’s self-appointed role is heavy on talking, telling and meeting but extremely light on thinking, planning and doing.
• Sure, you should be cynical if a marketer talks a lot about what the company wants. Rather than focusing on customers, it’s a good bet that the boss is the only customer that counts. Marketing isn’t easy — it requires a high degree of objectivity that recognizes when saying no is the right thing to do.
• You should be cynical when the new marketer says, ‘We want to spruce up the company’s image with a new logo.’ If this happens, you can be sure you have the wrong person. It’s a ploy that’s often used by hires to let everyone know who is in charge (and to buff up the resume).
• If it seems that the company’s marketing program is all over the map, it’s time to be cynical about what’s going on. A primary role of a marketer is to constantly monitor the marketing activities and make sure they reflect the agreed upon marketing plan. If this isn’t happening, you may have a marketer problem on your hands.
• Crank up the cynicism if a marketer speaks disparagingly about customers. As odd as it might seem, there are marketers who seem to have little regard for their clients.
• If it seems that those responsible for your marketing think that their task is to get people to buy stuff, it’s time to be cynical. When marketing becomes the handmaiden of sales, it’s no longer effective. In fact, it’s dead. It isn’t easy to maintain a solid customer commitment when the pressure is on to make the numbers. Yet, if marketers have a justifiable role, it’s doing everything possible to create customers, those who discover the company is aligned with their values.
• Be cynical if you’re getting copycat marketing. If you think most marketers are innovators and risk takers, think again. While there are exceptions, most marketers play it safe to avoid negative repercussions. They often prefer borrowing sure-fire ideas from others, rather than developing marketing activities that uniquely serve their customers’ best interests.
All this suggests that a careful review of your company’s marketing may find that cynicism doesn’t go far enough. Marketing is on target only when the various components exhibit a strong sense of unity so the whole delivers a greater impact than the sum of the individual elements.
If the picture of your company’s marketing is more like the scattered pieces of a puzzle with the parts bearing little resemblance to one another, it’s time to make some serious changes.
John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales consultant and business writer in the Boston area. Contact him at johnrg31@me.com or johnrgraham.com.
