Why Marketing Still Matters

Is there still a place for marketing in the organisation of the 21st century? Consider the following current trends pointing to the contrary:

n Mega brands are not what they used to be. Built on years of high and persistent advertising expenditures, they have come under increasing pressure from their low-branded, but low-priced, rivals. Some major brands have retrenched; others are undertaking a long-overdue soul-searching on what went wrong.

Staff marketing departments, once fashionable, have all but vanished in many industrial organisations. They have fallen victim to management efforts to downsize and re-engineer. In these more streamlined structures, more focused functions with clear line responsibility have replaced traditional staff marketing.

Some specialist marketing skills are no longer in much demand. For example, at a time when progress in information technology has made it possible for middle- and senior-level managers directly to access front-line market data, many traditional marketing tasks that involved collection and analysis of such data for reporting to the rest of the organisation have simply lost their raison detre.

The above evidence may suggest that the days of marketing are numbered, that it has reached the end of its usefulness as a management discipline.

Yet an international survey of more than 220 managers carried out at IMD suggests otherwise. In fact, this broad-based survey suggests marketing is alive and well though it is living under a different guise. The data is compelling: More than 90 per cent of all respondents from a wide spectrum of countries and business sectors reported that although marketing has undergone major changes in their companies, it has come out stronger in stature and with more influence on strategic decisions.

Why the apparent contradiction? An in-depth look at the survey findings clearly shows that the marketing task has experienced a metamorphosis so that it can more effectively serve companies in increasingly shifting and competitive markets. To understand marketings changing contribution better , in this section we will first highlight the surveys findings on the changes that are transforming competitive environments of companies. (A complete report of the survey findings can be found in the journal Long Range Planning.)

This section will show in some detail the forces that have made markets far more competitive and examine the evolving management challenges of operating in these contested markets. The survey results in respect of key management challenges will be reviewed and we will highlight how marketing has survived the market upheavals. The focus will be on the changes that have combined to redefine the role of marketing and enhance its contribution in todays business organisation. We will conclude with a look at the new face of marketing