Lack of Expertise
Actually there are not many “real marketing person” around in the job market. Real marketing person means someone who can see, feel and understand the total marketing from business perspectives. Most of the time the marketing person employed based various
criteria. Based on my experience that candidate with event, branding and media background will have the highest value; at least in today’s world. Therefore you will notice that some companies overused the event, branding and media such as public relation as their marketing strategies.
We all know they are oblivious with what they do, but that’s the reality here. The second highest value now is, if you are from FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Good) company. Companies such as Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Coke. More so in today’s highly populated world (around 6.2 billion people) where food needs are in high supply, marketers with FMCG background know more about consumer than any other people in this world. Some might argue that FMCG is more of retail than business to business marketing which involves millions of dollars in transaction, but people in FMCG deals directly with the consumers.
They are usually upbeat and adaptable to change quite easily. They also are very close with the market and sensitive with the changes around it. Simply because that’s how it is when you are dealing with highly fragmented customers these days e.g. same product needs different packaging and size to cater to different needs. Tough right?
Can you guess what type of marketer an organization will employed when they are in crisis? People with financial expertise and background. They say, now it is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the number two most powerful person in organization. Sometimes the CEO assumed position as CFO, in that case they are the number one. To me, typical financial person only concerns about profit and loss. But the good news when we hire financial background people for our marketing department; we no longer have any problem with the CFO. They talk the same lingo and they shared the same values and opinions. They probably the same person who handles finance and marketing departments! You will see (or rather experience) budgets slashed in marketing. Of course it will be reflected as higher net profits by the fiscal year in the balance sheet, but we all know that will not last. Marketing requires investment, and investment requires time to flourish. Quarter to quarter will not work.
Because of lack of expertise, our dream for strategic marketing is a tragic nightmare. We spend a lot of money but our return on marketing investment (ROMI) is very poor.
The second reason why our strategic marketing fails to deliver is customer focus. Check out my next post!
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