These are not demand generation communications, they are communications that are part of the product or service that the company is selling. I.e. Marketing is becoming accountable for delivering part of the service.
Peter Drucker nailed this when he said:
“Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view.”
Takeaways
If your firm is small or mid-sized and has neglected investment in marketing to date, the question expands beyond can the founders understand the role of marketing in offering product marketing and demand generation capabilities? The question becomes do the founders understand marketing’s role to deliver product and services and their ongoing relationship with customers to convert them into loyal advocates? Marketing is taking on responsibility for delivering these parts of the total solution.
Yes, as David Packard once said, “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” The things we are accountable for extend beyond the bounds of traditional marketing views. We have become part of operations and part of the product and service delivery system because we are masters of communication with customers. We are becoming a service organization to more parts of the firm than ever before, including operations.
Should these marketing capabilities be a center of excellence and centralized in marketing, or do we encourage other parts of the firm to develop their own communications operation? That is a question for another time.
Bottomline:
- Don’t settle for just being accountable for the traditional marketing influenced outcomes.
- Explore how marketing can contribute to the delivery of the product or service.
- Recognize that marketing’s assets include communication skills and mastery of the technologies that make it efficient and effective.
