Who is killing marketing

This posting was promoted by the allegations against marketing and marketers. For example, an article posted on the Harvard Business Review blog claimed marketing to be dead; a report by Fournaise stated that CEOs think marketers lack business credibility. My observation of SMEs and entrepreneurs is that marketing is the last thing on their mind. Here I present my defence to reveal the truth and nothing but the truth about marketing and marketers.

The Four-Ps ideology has dominated marketing since the industrial revolution. Its popularity, however, has reduced marketing to managing a set of promotional activities. Consequent to the overt focus on management, marketers are less involved in participating in making strategic decisions. What is alarming is that professionals from other functions are making marketing decisions. For example, the establishment of the World Wide Web saw the development of new forms of marketing, such as search engine marketing and social media marketing. The rules for these forms of marketing are dictated by IT professionals who lack marketing knowledge. 

Another reason why marketing is somewhat downgraded is the tasks required of marketers. In many organisations, they are employed to manage marketing activities such as promotions, advertisements, and social media campaigns. Incidentally, there is an industry now providing such marketing activities. Consequent to this industry’s aggressive marketing directed at organisations, many have outsourced marketing to outside agencies. Perhaps this could be the reason why many CEOs are questioning the relevance of their marketers (Fournaise 2011). 

In many organisations marketing decisions are made by separate teams. For example marketing strategies tends to be decided by the management and the implementation is outsourced. This leaves the marketing manager to act as a coordinator between the management and outside agencies. While marketing decisions are made by separate teams yet when things go wrong, the blame is conveniently put on the marketers. 

To answer the question by which this posting was started, to a great extent the structure of the organisation is responsible for what marketers can and cannot do. In a competitive market, organisations that don’t have a marketing team or restrict the role of marketers will hit the ceiling very soon. It is therefore up to the management and owners to decide what they want to make out of marketing. 

Marketing in the present time is a mindset that must permeate throughout the organisation. In a sense, everyone from the person manning the front desk to the CEO is a marketer. As such, marketing is more relevant now than ever before. Here is a fact about marketers; they have green fingers for growth. In good times marketers bring in the harvest; on troubled waters, they sail the boat to safe shores. Grow them to see the business grow.