Marketing Actually Defines Opportunity for the Entire Organization

April 9, 2009 4:04 PM

By Mark Sutter, Chief Strategic Officer, The Halo Group

While there are many departments that impact profitability, marketing is the engine room for company growth. Marketing, more so than any other department, is best suited to help shape a company’s or brand’s vision. No one understands changing customer behaviors and market dynamics better than marketing. In fact, it should help lead organizational priorities and shape customer strategies that impact each and every department.

Some companies still view marketing as a support function— tactical rather than strategic. They seek out marketing services rather than marketing strategy. They see it as a cost center rather than a revenue generator.

Today, marketing is responsible for driving profit and revenues. Marketing is tasked with solving consumer problems profitably. And guess what, that’s not a one-man or a one-department job. It needs customer service, sales, IT, finance, operations, and of course, the CEO to make it happen. It takes an organization. In fact, all departments should be a support function for marketing, not the other way around.

Marketing can actually define the roles every department should play in seizing market opportunity and growing the company. For example, customer adoption of technology has been moving faster than business, so quite often IT priorities need to be reexamined to ensure they meet consumer expectation. Companies have also been redefining consumer expectations for customer service. Marketing can help provide focus and guidance to ensure that customer service is seamless across all connection points. For example, Four Seasons Hotels have excelled at actively creating and strengthening relationships with customers by employing “guest historians” at each hotel. These guest historians work to further customize customer experiences based on the customers’ preferences. CEOs have become celebrities— and customers, not just investors, hang on their every word. What they say can have direct impact on customer perceptions and the bottom line.

In most organizations, different functions and departments vie for budget and resources. At the end of the year, they answer first and foremost to department goals. But they’re not always corporate goals. And that’s a problem. Marketing must be at the forefront of the discussion. Helping articulate a company’s vision and goals. Creating a shared commitment and understanding of customer priorities among all departments.

Everyone in an organization should think like a marketer, asking not how will this serve my department, but rather, how will it serve the customer? How will it help achieve the company’s goals?

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