Marketing the Marketing Department

Imagine. You've spent weeks “negotiating” the marketing budget and you have finally got one approved, albeit a bit less that you would like. Now at last you can devote your time to getting on with some real marketing.

Sound familiar so far? What happens next will also be familiar in many organizations.

Business is not going as planned--cuts have to be made. Down from on high comes the message “cut the marketing budget and grow short term revenues and profits.” A chorus of “oh no, not again” plus various expletives, emanate from the marketing department.

“How are we expected to do quality marketing when our budget gets cut?” becomes the phrase on everyone's lips.

The next question in marketing is, “Where do we cut?” Most often there is no guidance from senior management, so the common first reaction is to try to do the same things but just reduce the costs.

Once any obvious savings have been made, a common target is market analysis and the measurement of marketing programs. After all, devoting most of the money to the actual demand generation programs is the best way to increase short-term revenues--isn't it?

→ end article preview
Read the Full Article