Blame it on the technology user

Your article on marketing technology “Great Expectations” (MW April 29) raised some interesting questions about why some organisations fail to invest in new marketing related technology.

May I suggest one possible set of reasons your article did not consider?

The answer lies not in the technology but in the people who use it.

Far too many marketing departments are populated by staff who do not understand their customers. They may read the research and be able to quote the statistics, but they lead lives that are fundamentally different to those of their customers and yet do not make the effort to get to know them.

When they come to make the case internally for expenditure on IT, they are viewed with suspicion by their colleagues in areas such as customer service and finance. After all, these are the people who have consistently failed to provide quantitative assessment of the benefits accrued from spending money on marketing activities. Little wonder that their claims for the new Jerusalem are met with some scepticism.

My plea would be that in the entirely understandable and desirable quest to harness technology for the benefit of all parts of the business, let us not fail to examine the core skills and expertise of the people who will be required to deliver.

John Abram

Abram Hawkes

London

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