While there are many professional companies in India that get what marketing is, I find that there are the rest who don’t have a proper idea of what it really entails. I have been aghast to find that many so-called marketers in India spend the bulk of their time on advertising and other promotional activities. And that’s just about it.

This is how Nirmalya Kumar starts his book, Marketing as Strategy: ‘In the Practice of Management, Peter Drucker wrote, “The business enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” Today, many CEOs of major companies are disappointed over marketing’s inability to produce measurable results. Increasingly, they view their marketing department as an expense rather than an investment, and fewer marketers are rising through the ranks to become CEOs. While companies unabashedly declare their wish to get closer to customers, marketing is actually losing power to other functions in the corporation.

What happened? How did marketers lose their influence, and marketing its organisational relevance? More importantly, how can marketers capture the imagination of CEOs and marketing recapture its strategic role in the firm? Ironically, while the marketing function has been declining, the need for marketing has never been greater. However, to rescue themselves from the corporate obscurity that comes from responsibility for implementing tactics – the traditional four Ps of product, place, price and promotion – marketers must start driving overall strategic change. They must help CEOs lead organisation-wise transformational initiatives that deliver substantial revenue growth and increased profitability.’

I think that snapshot from Kumar’s book sums up the problem that marketing is facing today. So what exactly is marketing? Simply put, marketing is everything that a company does to place the right product or service in the hands of potential customers. It includes diverse disciplines like an understanding of consumer needs, development of a product or products to meet that need, packaging, pricing, distribution and selling, and promotion and public relations.

Most people tend to define marketing as the coordination of the 4 P’s of marketing:

• The identification, selection and development of a product,
• Determination of its price,
• Selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer, and
• Development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

While that covers a lot of what marketing is supposed to do, it is still a pretty narrow description and has contributed to the loss of influence of marketing. The marketing function in an organisation has to be the centre of it with other functions interacting with it to meet a company’s objectives and targets. Successful companies have two fortes – an excellent strategy and a commitment to grow profitably. Good marketers must understand what strategy is and must develop a sound knowledge of the drivers of profitability. I have found that many marketers are the weakest on these two critical aspects. The result – the increasing reliance of CEOs on Finance, Operations and other functions.

If I were to enumerate some of the key concepts/disciplines that marketers should master apart from, of course, a sound understanding of the theory and practice of the four P’s, these would be it:

• Strategy. While all of us would have our own definition of strategy, very few of us would have a really good understanding of it. If you really want a crash course on what strategy really is, I would strongly urge you to read books and articles by Harvard Professor Michael Porter. Or better still, you could read the outstanding book ‘Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy’ by Joan Magretta. The book distils Professor Porter’s years of work on strategy and competition. Of course, there are other great books on strategy as well.
• Differentiation. Former legendary CEO of Coca Cola, Robert Goizueta, once said, “In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In business, it’s differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.” Differentiating your product or service offering is the essence of good strategy and, as a marketer, you must strive for it. Again, while one can read a number of good books on differentiation, a nice starting point would be Joan Magretta’s book. Another good book is The Discipline of Market Leaders by Fred Wiersema and Michael Treacy. Also, one can learn a lot about differentiation by reading some of the collective and individual works of Al Ries and Jack Trout, starting with their excellent book – Positioning.
• Marketing Research. Good marketers should develop a sound understanding of marketing research, especially the concepts of segmentation, identification of needs and testing elements of the 4 P’s. However, do remember not to get too research oriented – good marketers generate insights by directly talking to consumers and non-consumers of products and brands. Also, do keep in mind that consumers don’t react well to new concepts since they are not aware of them.
• New Media. Marketers are still pretty deficient in their understanding of marketing on the internet – via social media, websites and advertising on the internet. I find that there are very few Indian companies that use Facebook, Google+ or Twitter in an engaging and effective manner. If you want a good understanding of marketing on the internet, I would recommend The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.
• Financial Concepts. Marketers have ceded ground to the finance function because they have not mastered financial management concepts like profitability (P&L, gross margins, EBITDA), return on investment, payback etc. Spend quality time in understanding financial concepts; you don’t need to become a finance expert but you do need to understand the concepts well.
• Wide Range of Interests. I would always recommend budding marketers to develop an interest in a wide range of topics – music, movies, TV serials, sports, the economy, the stock market, food, drink…the list can go on. Marketers have to constantly look at the current trends and broadening your interests will help you in understanding trends and in developing new ideas.

I would also recommend that students and young marketers go through Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller and keep it handy for ready reference. Many of you would already have read it but going through it again would be worth the time; it covers marketing in a pretty holistic manner.

Marketers must see themselves as heads of businesses. To do that, they must have a sound understanding of the concepts that I have highlighted above. Else, they will only end up spending most of their time on the 4 P’s, especially promotional activities, while other functions run away with the more important stuff.

Visual courtesy : https://www.flickr.com/photos/nakrnsm/