Marketing is in Trouble - what can we do about it?
We are delighted to have Colin Gordon join us at our Community Circle event to discuss his recently published book, Marketing is in Trouble.
The clue is in the title. Colin thinks we have a big problem. Marketing is poorly defined, poorly understood and we marketers have become obsessed with communications and all too often use Marcoms as a proxy for Marketing. And he’s done some research to back up these theories.
Join us for this discussion with Colin where we will pull apart these theories, learn more about his research and (hopefully!) determine what we can do to fix this problem. How do we ensure that marketing is well understood as a growth driver for the business? What must Ireland’s marketers do differently? How do we prove marketing effectiveness? How do we pave the way for marketing to have a well-earned seat at the boardroom table?
This event is complementary for all Marketing Society members.
Community Circle Series: "Marketing is in Trouble - what can we do about it?"
We were delighted to host a conversation with Colin Gordon at this event and we held a lively discussion about the core themes of his new book, Marketing is in Trouble. There were lots of questions from the audience and a lot of ground was covered in the 45 minutes. Here are the 5 key take-outs:
- Marketing is business. Business is marketing. It is impossible to separate the two and marketing teams who operate in isolation of the wider business will be architects of their own demise.
- CMO tenure is short, usually less than 4 years and agency partner tenure is even shorter. Long term planning is challenging in this context. Longer term sustainable growth models have been a casualty of a focus on short term wins.
- Marketing professionals have a tendency to focus on just 1 of the 4 x Ps – Promotion (Communications). Too much time spent here disrupts the balance that needs to be achieved across the 4 x Ps in order to be successful.
- Marketing leaders need to build credibility within their organisation – they can do this by really learning the business, all aspects of the business.
- Measurement is key. Universal metrics need to be defined for marketing and they should be business metrics. Anything else is a waste of time and you are in danger of losing your audience (the wider management team).
There is so much more to discover and lot of interesting case studies in the book, available now at orpenpress.com.
