What’s with all the hate for marketing? I mean really, aside from the fact that marketing is always treated as the most useless department in downsizing organizations, there’s this growing opinion that the marketing function is reserved for people without the brains to crunch numbers or to recognize intricate statistical patterns. As the advertising industry – the most evident arm of marketing – starts to slide down the trust pole on par with lawyers and politicians, the insanity of the current technological paradigm has given marketers the opportunity to creatively use an array of rich media tools unlike ever before. But, as usually happens given great opportunity, there’s plenty of room for out-of-touch, bottom-line, overly-aggressive individuals and firms to ruin the whole thing for all of us by employing tactics that invade privacy, provide superficial results and do nothing to increase to the customer-brand relationship that should be the key driver of any good company. It’s gotten to a breaking point, a point marred with asterisks, fine-print and consumer-hate-facebook group after consumer-hate-facebook group.
the greed of few
What happened to the good old days when brands and customers were friends? Well, as is a theme of most of human history, the greed of few once again prevailed over the needs of many, in this case, companies mainly focused on their numbers manipulating or even lying to customers, playing on the ignorance of society and taking advantage of the now almost depleted well of trust built up since the marketing hey-day of the 1960s.
There are the obvious examples in big industries such as big-bad-oil and the barbaric Canadian cell-phone industry. And there are the less publicized stories of human rights violations caused by “brilliant and cutting-edge” marketing tactics such as forehead-brand-name-tattoos and naming babies after casinos. It’s becoming more and more obvious how desperate most firms are, too lazy and not bold enough to try something new and truly creative, just doing their best to pad the numbers and make things appear better than they actually are (the collapse of financial giants and automakers is case in point).
Most people are waiting for the bubble to burst, as it usually does when mediocrity is allowed to balloon out of control. And the current marketing system is for the most part a step below mediocre, getting worse every day, at a time when all most people need is guidance, counsel and pretty much just a friend, something to cheer and hope for. Having witnessed the way things have gone over the last while, the opportunity for firms to use marketing as tool help people with their purchase decisions will likely be used for firms to help themselves to the pool of fearful and still-susceptible consumers. I mean, if boxing day sales were any indication, sales numbers are all that matters, as I’m sure stores like Best Buy and Future Shop will gloat about record-level sales with their “x-years no interest” payment schemes, incentives for people who are already past their eyeballs in debt, banking on most people’s inability to think past next week.
backwards thinking
But that’s reality, or so I’ve heard, and in this reality there’s no room for idealism if you want to make a profit. And really that’s what we’re taught right away in business 101 – that the main goal of a firm is to make a profit, and everything else falls in line behind this, which is why jobs are cut in hard economic times, adding to fear, reducing the productivity of those lucky enough to not be sent packing. Is there maybe a chance that times have changed and this focus on profit, specifically for public-traded companies with shareholders, who come first before all has lost its place in the current global competitive climate? (case in point, Bell’s ex-CEO Michael Zabbia and his brilliant work boosting stock by cutting out “cost-centres” such as investments in their network and their people, leaving them crippled and desperate for customers, well, er, more desperate)
the power of good marketing
This is where good marketing comes in, and yes, there is such a thing. Lets think about what marketing is at the fundamental, it’s clearly spelled out in the word itself: it’s taking an idea from someone’s head, lab or factory and framing it in a desirable way so as to create value for people from a specified market. Or, for textbook-definition-lovers, “marketing is the process of creating, communicating and delivering customer value”. The key part in this definition is “delivering customer value”, and this is where most firms fail since their energy is focused elsewhere, which is why lazy ideas that are out of touch with what customers truly value are allowed to seep in and dominate the marketing landscape. The mandate for marketers then becomes solely “creating and communicating”, leaving both the customer and accountability out of the equation. It becomes “create a product” now “communicate its attributes or image or provide incentives for someone to buy it”, “leave the rest is up to the consumer”, making trickery a popular tactic.
Think Ford, think GM – if these companies were truly focused on delivering customer value, they wouldn’t be scrambling now, years behind the curve, to create more fuel efficient and cheaper cars. They would have evolved along with the needs of their customers, not in response. The examples of companies losing focus of their customers are numerous and not to say that this is true for all companies, but as the world goes, the greed and misconduct of few is so strong so as to affect us all.
The point is, the core of “good marketing” – truly delivering on your mandate to create value for your customers – is also at the core of “good business”. And anyone tuned into the world scene today realizes that something is shifting. People are fed up and the realities of years of laziness, opportunism and greed have struck too hard for us to ignore. This is a huge opportunity for firms to take responsibility for their actions, stop blaming the economy or their market, and to act efficiently and to effectively utilize all the tools they have at their disposal. To use marketing to build a rapport, to build trust between brand and customer. Not to focus on sales figures and to stop being so short-sighted with business decisions. To stop treating customers as herds or targets, but as associates.
a time of transition
This is a time in our history where we must all look in the mirror and collectively come together to transition into a better system. The days where a poorly run and unethical company can turn huge profits are going to end. The power shifted so long ago from firm to consumer as large groups of customers from across the globe can mobilize against companies in seconds. And when all is said and done only those companies on the same side of the fence as these customers will be left standing as these learn to use their power in even more effective ways.
This is why firms need good marketing more than ever. Marketing is the function that links customer to brand, person to product . When used to its fullest, marketing can be a guiding force behind a firm so strong that it creates a bond between groups of people so diverse that it defies logic (the iPod comes to mind – using a simple tool to link diverse cultures’ love of music, a bond that connects all humanity).
The old ways will not work anymore and people will not tolerate some of the disgusting attention-starved tactics some firms have so brilliantly decided to employ. Marketing is not about running around begging for someone to notice you…
… Marketing is about deciding who you are and how you can enrich people’s lives.
But really…. What do I know? I’m just a marketing student.
My next entry will get a little more specific on this issue by pointing to something called the Full Value Formula and why long-term goals and thinking always prevail
Posted in Business Opinion
