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The battle for marketing best practice...

When most people say “we need marketing”, what they mostly mean is “we need promotion.” A saying which leads many organisations reducing the marketing function to just promotion, sales support and Christmas party organisers. As a result, marketing as a discipline has experienced a decline in credibility. The consequence of such has led to marketing losing, or being offered, a diminished role within the organisation’s core strategy making entity. However, could there be a flaw in marketing which exacerbates the problem of strategy exclusion.

Whether or not customers or the organisation seek an engaged relationship, all products are common in that they contribute solutions (features) towards satisfying a customer’s particular needs or wants from its use or application (benefits). Whether an organisation is operating within either a B2B or B2C market environment, from a corporate perspective, the main source of customer value, actual or perceived is provided and obtained from the product benefits. Subsequently, an organisations structure, systems and culture are geared towards delivering and communicating product benefits. However, could predominately focusing on product features and benefits limit competitive effectiveness, leading organisations on a road to nowhere?