role of marketing

It’s been more than 50 years since marketing thought began to shift toward what became known as the marketing concept—an attempt to focus the firm on customers. Yet, in practice, the customer centricity that the marketing concept produces is still highly firm-centric, usually concerned with trying to sell customers more of what the firm produces.

Late last year, 60 marketing experts shared their visions of the future of marketing through a “micro-conference” run by Sam Rosen of thoughtlead. I found it fascinating on several levels.

In many B2B companies, marketing is still regarded as a secondary, non-essential part of the business.  Whether this opinion is justified, depends on the situation.  But these days, it is an expensive opinion to hold.

In the coming months C-suites from around the world will be presented with the marketing budget proposals for 2011.  Once again, many will approve them without real conviction.

After all, when it comes to marketing, many financially focused CEOs find themselves in a quandary.  On the one hand they know that the people who work in the marketing department are smart, creative, well-intentioned and hard-working.  On the other, they have difficulty figuring out what these people do all day.  Whether their beautiful initiatives actually make a difference.

It happens every time. The moment those E.D. drug commercials list the possible side-effects: dry mouth, muscle weakness, nausea and, oh yes, erections lasting for more than four hours. I laugh out loud (or did the first hundred times I saw it).

I’ve been mulling over a debate for the past few weeks and haven’t been able to resolve it, so I thought I’d share it here and get your input.

I just re-read The Economist's "Future Tense: The Global CMO" survey from late last year.  And I'm not encouraged that there's even a future for the job description.

The report reflected results from a survey of 250+ senior marketing execs around the world, so it's far more of a snapshot of the present than an insight into what the future might reveal. EIU.com normally studies countries and other substantive subjects; this report was sponsored by Google, which has an obvious interest in what CMOs think they're supposed to be doing.

by: Scott Goodson

The word is Mark Earls is Malcolm Gladwell on Speed. Last year, he wrote a book called "Herd: How to Change Mass Behavior by Harnessing Our True Nature" available here.

by: Scott Goodson

I love building brands. It's an art and a science. A brand is a set of beliefs. It's a set of expectations. Moreover it is a culture. A culture that is celebrated and lived in real terms by the people who work with the brand every day inside the company. It is also a culture to be associated with by people who have relationships with the brand in the world at large.

by: Scott Goodson

This old film from circa 1950 is all about the powers of outdoor advertising. But in truth it's right out of the pages of 1984 and a rather creepy v/o tells you how to lead the lemmings to the edge of the cliffs.