Marketing is dead.

When Bill Lee wrote the article Marketing is Dead  in the Harvard Business Review he cited research done among CEOs and decision makers; “73% of them said that Chief Marketing Officers lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth, 72% are tired of being asked for money without explaining how it will generate increased business, and 77% have had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognized financial metric.”

In other words they think us marketing people are a bunch of con artists; promising steak but only delivering sizzle.  And expensive sizzle at that.  And this thing called social media and its big brother ‘word of mouth’ has come along to make things even worse.  Ask Mitt Romney or the brand manager of our very own Single Barrel, if you need proof.

There is no doubt that brands need to embrace social media.  Even if they don’t use it themselves, they must at least acknowledge how it has changed the balance of power.  But I also think that there is an opportunity here for brands to get back to basics with their marketing;

  • To be authentic
  • To decide on what they want to be and deliver it, at all touch points
  • To do what they say they will do every time, every day

All of this to me is marketing and it’s far from dead.

 

 

1 Comment
  • S R Persad

    1 December, 2012, 11:38 pm

    A big part of the problem is the Mars and Venus syndrome between marketing and finance. Marketing and the understanding of what moves a group of people to choose one product versus its competitor is not an exact science. Strategy, Research tools and experience increase the possibility of success but there is no guarantee. The translation of this risk into financial terms understood by the C-Suite is beyond the training of most marketeers hence when results are not as expected credability is lost.

    Finance is better defined and with the exception of business planning tends to take place after the event and sale has taken place. Finance has little participation in understand what makes the end consumer tick.  Hence the cost and process of swaying a consumer is lost.

    What is needed to cross training to understand each others perspective and cross department Teams that work together on generating growth. Like any living organisms if there is no growth and regeneration in an organisation there is decay.