subject: The Discipline of Marketing [print this page] The Discipline of Marketing The Discipline of Marketing
I can't think of a worse fate to befall an aspiring marketer than to join the marketing department of a company that sells industrial raw materials. In fact, after some experience in this situation, I now, not so fondly, refer to this practice as faux-marketing. They have marketing on their business cards and they say they're marketing, but they're not really marketing.
There are two big problems in most marketing departments of industrial raw material suppliers. First, they are staffed with engineers. If you take a quick scan of job postings for marketing/sales staff at industrial companies, you'll notice that the most important qualification for getting the job is to be an engineer. With all due respect for engineers, what do the engineering schools teach about marketing?
Marketing is all about the intangible aspects of your products and services. Anyone can tell your customers about product specifications and you only need a catalogue, not a marketing department, to sell on price. Your marketing department is supposed to add value to your products not just tell people about them. Engineers, again with the utmost respect, are among the worst at creating and presenting the abstract. Frankly, these companies would be better off with arts or music majors than engineers.
Clearly, I have a minor chip on my shoulder about engineers, but its not just engineers that I get concerned about. Accountants, economists, and most scientists are in the same category and should be purged from the marketing department at once (except as a last resort).
The second problem is that raw material marketers use the term "commodity" as if it applies to them. That is, "commodity" is a financial term not a marketing term. Commodities are bought and sold on exchanges with standardized specifications to facilitate simple and anonymous transactions. In fact, the vast majority of transactions that are completed on exchanges never result in the actual delivery of the product. These are financial transactions, not marketing.
The existence of the marketing department is specifically predicated on the idea that the company's products are not commodities. That is, if your product is a commodity, sell it on an exchange and hire finance professionals not marketers. Anyone in your marketing department that uses the word "commodity" should be immediately and unceremoniously dismissed (perhaps with one warning).
These two problems are the visible symptoms of a serious underlying issue. These companies rarely have a healthy respect for our profession. It takes discipline and a lot of faith to invest in marketing programs and wait for them to pay off. With the wrong people and the wrong attitude, it will never happen. The marketing department will be reduced to nothing more than a library of brochures and a sales team.
The solution is not easy, but it is simple. Hire marketing professionals and give them the time and money to make an impact. Sarcasm aside, Engineers and Scientists can be effective marketers, but they need to be trained. Marketing is a discipline not unlike engineering or science, which must be learned. Marketing cannot be taught in a one-day seminar, it requires a long-term commitment to education and practice.
All in all, the most important element of a great marketing organization is attitude. Companies must demonstrate respect and confidence in the marketing function as an integral part of its value proposition. And we marketers must establish a level of professionalism and discipline worthy of that respect.
