Marketing and beyond
A popular notion in many organizations remains that marketing is a function of the sales department only and they are solely responsible for it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Marketing is more than advertising, sales and promotion. No doubt the sales department directly interacts with customers in the market-place , still they are only front- ending the organization. Basically, what ever an organization does, with its end goals of customer delight, enhancement in share value and ROI, is marketing. An end-to-end, customer-centric approach requires all segments of the organization – viz production, finance, HRD and administration – to align themselves and evolve a customer-driven approach and understand the meaning of marketing. They must become an integral part of the marketing team and assist in the company’s marketing efforts. Employees of successful organizations, while carrying out their day-to-day roles, cannot isolate themselves from the gamut of marketing. The entire organization must orchestrate itself in a cohesive manner, keeping the marketing at the forefront.
In a successful publishing organization, when the production-in-charge works through the night to print a newspaper and meet his schedules, he is deeply involved in marketing. Here his primary concern is commitment to his reader for the product’s timely delivery. Editiors who burn the midnight oil to maximize value are keeping the marketing function in focus and striving for customer delight. In a telecommunication service provider company, if the chief operation officer fights to keep the uptime of his services to the customers at 100 per cent then marketing is his main theme. Everybody in a successful organization must participate in marketing. This is the secret of many successful companies.
Marketing is more an attitude than a department. A telephone operator who is not polite is not doing her job and is undermining the marketing efforts of the company. Even badly maintained toilets can add to a customer’s dissonance and spoil the reputation of the business house. A liftman, receptionist and peon can all contribute towards marketing by presenting the customer with a smiling face. A customer will judge a company on the basis of his/her contacts with one individual of the organization. That impression, if adverse, could prove to be the last impression. Anyone in the organization can either enhance or undermine the marketing efforts. Marketing has thus evolved in its wider role that pervades the entire organization.
Technology is helping to emphasis the involvement of everybody in marketing and new emerging applications like call centers , help desk, ERP projects through supply chain management, data mining and data ware housing about customer’s profile, e-business, etc network everybody to evolve a marketing-driven organization. Technology has given the customer a wide choice shaking the marketplace continuously and the marriage of technology and marketing must take place to make organizations more responsive to a customer’s changing needs. A closed loop control system must evolve to where the entire organization participates. It should first collect feedback. This new feedback loop has replaced the advertiser’s one-way communication. This interactive experience is necessary for a successful organization.
In today’s globally competitive environment, involvement in marketing cohesiveness is necessary for every segment of the organization and best practices can evolve only by understanding the true meaning of marketing.
Written By Professor Akhil Chandra
(The article has been published in Economic Times earlier )
