Apples aren’t the only brands…
Mark Ritson’s excellent article of 1 July (Marketing is more than just increasing sales) raises some important questions that marketers should be asking themselves. However, he does paint a somewhat utopian picture of what marketing should be and that doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of the current commercial world, especially in the FMCG sector he references.
For one, the average tenure of a marketing director is 18 to 30 months, so their focus is often more tactical than strategic; second, most FMCG brand owners own their production facilities – if you have spare capacity there is pressure to fill it, as a full factory is more profitable than a half-full one; and third, channel customers have enormous influence over sales and share growth. I’ve not spoken to a marketing director who likes ongoing deep promotions, but they still play the game.
I agree with Ritson’s sentiment that this is what marketing should be, but surely it’s a case that a business needs to embrace this and not the individual functional areas? Marketing comes from the top – ask Steve Jobs.
Julian Price, Managing director, EMEA, Intelligentsia Worldwide