Blog: What do you really mean by “Marketing”?

Is everyone in your organization on the same page as to what is meant by “Marketing”?

I just love those conversations that start with someone asking me “so what do you do for a living?”, and I answer: “I am in marketing”, after which I wait for a reaction which I must admit is a mean thing to do since marketing could be interpreted in so many different ways and I know it too. I admit I need to give that person a bit more specifics for him/her to be able to put me and what I do in a category in their mind, but that would take the fun out of finding out how different people perceive “Marketing”. Since the first reaction of most humans is to relate the unknown in front of them to a known in their mind so that they can decide what to do next, I wait with great enthusiasm for the follow-up question. Most of the time, the follow-up question(s) determines their understanding of the term “Marketing”.

As long as the Marketing department does not clarify its position, vision, and mission within the organization, it misses the opportunity of tapping into the power of the collective

I find this to be not only interesting but also relevant and important because nowadays we are the target of countless different marketing campaigns and advertising gigs without even realizing it. Our online activities are being tracked and monitored in order to determine our next move and BAAMM, all of a sudden you see an ad popping up on your Internet browser for a new coffee machine, coincidentally some hours prior to that you watched a couple of clips on Youtube how to fix a broken coffee machine. This actually happened to me by the way and is just one example of how sophisticated the algorithms in targeted advertising in B2C have become, but more importantly, the boundary lines between different platforms when it comes to sharing consumer behavior (information) seems to have gotten very thin and blurry.

Since my area of focus and expertise is not in consumer marketing I will stop there, however, I do see a similar pattern when it comes to B2B Marketing. And by “a similar pattern” I mean the inability to see the entire picture. Just as lots of consumers do not realize to what extent they are being “helped” make their next purchasing decisions, lots of folks working in B2B firms, in my experience, do not realize the impact they could have on their firm’s marketing effectiveness while doing whatever it is they do every day regardless of them coming in contact with a customer or not. Whats worse is that this potential often goes unnoticed even by the Marketing Department and the reason why, in my opinion, is lack of a clear definition of what is meant by the term MARKETING as it relates to THIS firm. Contrary to the person who asks me about what I do for a living and continues with a couple of follow-up questions to clarify, average employees normally do not go the extra mile and ask questions like “what exactly does our Marketing department do?”, or “is there a way I can contribute?” In my experience, most employees outside of the Marketing department think that marketing is what Marketing department does behind closed doors and it costs a lot. By the same token, as long as the Marketing department does not clarify its position, vision, and mission within the organization, it misses the opportunity of tapping into the power of the collective.

Therefore, my advice to any leadership team and especially the Marketing department is: clarify what is meant by Marketing, articulate what you do, make sure others know where Marketing starts and where it ends in your organization.

by: Ali Hoorsun – January 2018