One more time – what is marketing? 9
approach to managing production and dis-
tribution in response to major environmental
changes. The solution proposed is the adoption
of a marketing orientation which puts the
customer at the beginning rather than the end
of the production–consumption cycle. To do so
requires a fundamental shift of attitude on the
part of all those concerned with production and
consumption. Unfortunately, while this concept
seems both simple and obvious to those who
have subscribed to it there is ample evidence
that it is widely misunderstood and hence
misapplied.
In 1970, Charles Ames drew attention to
this in an article in the Harvard Business Review
entitled ‘Trappings versus substance in indus-
trial marketing’. The thesis of this was that
industrial companies that complained market-
ing was not working for them as it appeared to
do so for the consumer good companies had
only themselves to blame as they had not
4 The basics of marketing strategy
concept but had merely adopted some of its
superficial trappings. At worst, they had
merely changed the name of their personnel
from ‘sales’ to ‘marketing’.
More recently in the Journal of Marketing
Management(1985), Stephen King diagnosed at
least four different misinterpretations of mar-
keting in the UK as follows:
1 Thrust marketing– this occurs when the sales
managers change their name to marketing
managers. But the emphasis is still upon selling
what we can make with an emphasis upon
price and cost cutting but little attention to
fitness for purpose, quality and value for
money. In other words, it ignores what the
customer really wants.
2 Marketing department marketing– indicated by
the establishment of a bolt-on specialized
department intended to remedy the lack of
customer understanding. Some improvement
followed in markets where change was slow
and gradual but it did not address the critical
areas where radical innovation was called for.
A sort of ‘fine tuning’ of the customer service
function but based on existing products and
customers.
3 Accountants marketing– prevalent where chief
executive officers have no direct experience of
selling or marketing and concentrate upon
short-term returns to the neglect of long-run
survival. This approach was pungently criticized
by Hayes and Abernathy in their 1980 Harvard
Business Reviewarticle ‘Managing our way to
economic decline’, which has been echoed
many times since. Accountants marketing
neglects investment in R&D, manufacturing and
marketing and leads to a vicious downward
spiral.
4 Formula marketing– in which control is seen as
more important than innovation. This
emphasizes sticking to the tried and true and
reflects a risk-averse strategy. It appears
professional (many MBAs) and concentrates on
managing facts and information but its
consumer research bias tends to tell you more
about the past than the future.Failure of these approaches suggests that
realmarketing has four essential features:1 Start with the customer.
2 A long-run perspective.
3 Full use of allthe company’s resources.
4 Innovation.The marketing function
From the foregoing it is clear that without
commitment to the concept there is little like-
lihood that the marketing function will be
executed effectively. It is also clear that the size
and nature of the marketing function will vary
enormously according to the nature of the
company or organization and the markets
which it serves.
Basically, the marketing function is respon-
sible for the management of the marketing mix
which, at its simplest, is summarized by the
four Ps of product, price, place and promotion.