Mismarketing is probably the biggest threat in the current commercial companies as far as Marketing is concerned. And what’s the Mismarketing about? Mismarketing is the completely misunderstanding, misleading and mistakes done when CEO and Top Executives think and act in Marketing without even thinking what Marketing is about. Unfortunately the (mis)concept that many top executives of the modern Corporations have about Marketing is simply scaring. There are 3 typical mistakes done by these people regarding Marketing what leads the Organizations to practice the Mismarketing:
1. Treating Marketing as a Department and not as a Mindset.
Marketing is a mindset and not a Department. Period. Most Organizations treat Marketing as a Department or Discipline like Finance, R&D or Sales. Marketing simply cannot be treated as a Department because on one hand must be understood as a task for all the employees, mainly those who ultimately have contact with the Consumer (the market) and on the other hand Marketing needs to be born outside the Organization (in the Consumer), brought into the Organization to workout and must be returned to the Market to be bought and consumed. This is the natural cycle of Marketing and if we want to break it or change it, please don’t call Marketing to the “stuff” you’ll get instead.
2. To forget the most important bit.
The name of Marketing has its origin in the word “market” which means basically the group of customers willing or needing to buy a certain product or service (well, this is my definition but I reckon is as good as any other). If “Market” means “Customers” and “Customers” are “People”, why Corporations insist in treating Marketing as a Department that should be generating tools to sell more their products or services “wisely” developed by R&D Departments? If everything starts on the consumers’ stated or unstated needs, why many Companies tend to forget this bit and jump straight on the last part of Marketing? Just doesn’t work.
3. Thinking in Marketing as a Cost Centre.
A famous quote of Henry Ford is “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time”. And he was obviously right. Of course that the word Advertising here is probably too strong as there are millions of Companies (mainly SME) that cannot invest loads of money in the “Traditional” forms of Advertising. But if we replace the word Advertising by Marketing, then this Henry Ford’s quote becomes Universal and totally up to date. Many CEO and Top Managers are willing to “spend” (wrong word) money in Marketing as long as the P&L is healthy. As soon as the Sales start dropping, the first line where the red pen is used is on the Marketing one. And you know what? In the beginning it works because Marketing is a long term concept and the effects of the money invested or withdrawn on it take time to show its real effects. But in the long run, in 90%+ of the cases, the result will be the same: the product or service of this Company will slowly become a commodity and therefore competing on price only.
All the above 3 mistakes are really common these days and are leading the traditional Corporations to grounds where they wouldn’t like to be.
Please stop Mismarketing!!!!!
The Flying Cow 