The Marketing Leaders - The responsibility of Marketing Leaders in raising the professionalism of marketing

‘Marketing the marketers: addressing the prejudices’. Marketing leadership requires us to raise the standards of the marketing profession, and counter the opinions that go against it. But how?

For a long time the value of Marketing and Marketers has been the subject of heated debates. In particular many marketers have faced the following recurrent derogatory expressions: “Marketers are useless or / and irresponsible”. In this article I propose to briefly analyse the two themes reflected in this statement and then present a way forward for addressing them. First here are the two negative themes below and the possible interpretations they may inspire.

They put an undue burden on the resources of the company and do not make a difference to the value of the business.

Possible Meanings for the statement: The source of this statement shows ignorance about the value of marketing; or he/she is irritated about the arrogance (not to say eccentricity) of many marketers who give the impression of being the exclusive repository of business wisdom and do not feel the need to seek the views of their fellow colleagues who may have some very useful insight about important issues.

Possible meanings for the statement: Marketers are just concerned with helping their companies maximise the return on investment without any consideration for the consequences of their actions on society. A second, perhaps less cynical, meaning reflects the view that society is suffering from many preventable ills (e.g. drugs/smoking, alcoholism, vandalism, unwanted pregnancies etc) and they are not assuming their responsibilities to help improve the situation.

There is an irony about this situation as a London newspaper put it so adequately ‘If Marketing is about communication, how come not many people understand marketing’. Obviously marketing is more than just communication even though communication is a key element of the function. But this is yet another source of confusion about marketing since our research showed that many marketers suffer from the narrow relegation of the function of marketing to ‘communication/advertising’.

The second meaning, which in theory is incompatible with the attitude of a true marketer, reflects a position of isolation of the marketing function from the other company’s functions (finance, operation, sales etc). Such an approach is clearly self-destructive as it prevents the marketer from seeking useful advice and gaining support for long-term approaches to the market.

If we consider the “Marketers are irresponsible” scenario, we can see that marketers are only concerned about the here and now profit of the businesses they serve.

It is clear that only focusing on maximising profit in the present would not serve this aim. Regarding the accusation that marketers do not assume their responsibilities to help with societies’ ills, one might argue that this is primarily an issue for those responsible for helping address society’s ills, be it public or private/charity organisations whose responsibility is to address these issues.

Such a statement may also reflect the fact that whilst there are countless ‘marketing initiatives’ associated with existing or new products or services, there are very few initiatives that aim to help with particular social problems. Hence while we may have a campaign against obesity, such a campaign is believed to be a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to the countless campaigns encouraging us to buy ‘supremely attractive’ food products whose consequence is just the opposite.

Nevertheless despite the scarcity of funds available to promote healthier habits in society, there are plenty of examples in all continents (e.g. UK, USA, Australia, South Africa covering drink driving, drug education, smoking and aids awareness) that demonstrate that effective social marketing can take place with limited resources. The interested reader can find more information about this in many websites (e.g. see some of the report by the National Social Marketing Strategy at: www.nsms.org.uk).

What the above suggests is that Marketing has a potent armamentarium of tools that can be used to support a practice that promotes sustainable business while protecting society from abuse. This is exactly the perspective portrayed by the recently developed national standards in marketing. These world-class standards were developed through large scale consultations with marketing professionals inside and outside the country and benefited from best practice from many successful organisations.

In order to achieve these aims marketing may need to address several functions inextricably associated with good practice in marketing. Such broad functions are reflected in the circle below:

The Standards define best practice across these principal functions and the associated activities in achieving the key purpose. A total of 100 possible job role was identified in the standards. Each of these job roles were defined in terms of targeted achievements, relevant skills and underpinning knowledge (For more information see MSSSB website at www.msssb.org).

It is clear that many people associated with marketing practice may cover only a small dimension amongst those represented above. This applies particularly to specialist agencies that may only deal with say market research, advertising or PR etc.

However all of them are encouraged to consider the views of their stakeholders (including those representing social interests). In addition any professional practice associated with marketing needs to take into account comprehensive strategic considerations. These two aspects of the standards that are pervasive to any marketing practice highlight clearly the aims for sustainability of businesses through the triple bottom line of profit, social and environmental considerations. This implies that stakeholders have expectations beyond the profit line and expect social and environmental aspects to be included as a primary part of the decision-making process.

The standards are therefore a good benchmark to help not only develop professional marketers and recognise them throughout the industries. They are also a very good basis to develop credible qualifications that refer to skills that are relevant to the needs of the industries. As it was argued recently at the recent national launch of these standards: A truly professional approach to marketing is decisive for the health of businesses in this time of staunch global competition. It is crucial that these standards are supported so that best practice spreads throughout the country and supports the UK PLC.

The responsibility of the marketing leaders

Given the above work and latest advice on marketing, it is important that marketing leaders lead from the front and apply/promote best practice at every opportunity.

There are too many stories highlighting instances of malpractice and questioning the professionalism of marketing and sales. It is time that marketing leaders assume their responsibilities in helping disseminate good practice that will ultimately benefit them professionally and socially.



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