Advance warning: this post will likely open more doors than it closes. But they are important doors that need opening, especially if they aren’t already. Haniel Lynn pushed the first one open with his earlier post, asking if Marketing could foment a corporate cultural revolution through social media. Member conversations I’ve had over the past week have demonstrated there is a root-cause question that must come first – where does Marketing fit in the organization? Better yet, where should it?
In the best of worlds, I see Marketing as the general management function of the company (don’t tell Sales). In it resides the most critical elements of commercial success: the customer and associated insight. Subsidiary to that, it contains market assessment, competitive position, brand development, marketing communications, etc. No one makes a customer-impacting decision without Marketing’s input and stamp of approval. Again, best of worlds.
Yet oh how far most organizations are from that ideal. Marketing clamors to prove value with metrics and dashboards, struggling to remove itself from the dreaded SG&A CFO line item. The term “cross-functional” is more worn than an old suit. Not that Marketing can go it alone, but to live a day without subsisting on the beck and call of the next desired piece of sales collateral – that would be heaven.
Progressive marketing organizations are using the opportunity provided by the recession to rethink old-world organizational relationships. A direct question from a B2B software provider last week: “Who typically owns the customer experience?” Answer: typically no one function. So why not Marketing to drive the required coordination? Another question from department-store retail: “Social media impacts every function in our company – who should take the lead?” Why not Marketing as the subject-matter expert? More companies than ever are asking why their disjointed commercial operations are artificially delineated by Marketing and Sales. Why not an integrated function?
There is latitude for organizational realignment in 2010 as executives demand a return to growth, and a pressing need for marketing leadership within a forever-changed customer landscape. Without insight into rapidly changing customer needs, any effort by R&D or Sales will fall short. Without social media guidance, HR and Legal may shut down burgeoning efforts to produce low-cost, high-quality insight. There is opportunity for Marketing to assert its primacy in the portfolio of corporate functions and the case is clear. The only question remaining is whether the function can seize the chance.
