Improving the Image of Marketing

1. Lack of empathy. Don’t just assume everyone wants or needs what you have to offer and target everyone the same way. Use online tools like HubSpot and FanBridge to help narrow the pitch and reach those targets that can benefit from your products and services.
2. Lack of authenticity. Some marketers have to represent bad products or substandard services. It happens. But you can still push to improve the offerings so you have something worth promoting.
3. Proliferation of boredom and mediocrity. Time is the most valuable commodity for people but we usurp it with useless or dull information. Instead, we can take every opportunity to intrigue and entertain so, even if our targeting is off, we create positive impressions with our brand.

Why CEOs Hate Marketing

There are numerous definitions of marketing from marcomm to analytics to strategic marketing and everybody has a different view of its purpose. The most damaging impact of this state of affairs is that marketing is failing to get a seat at the board room table, meaning that insights and business intelligence inherent to the marketing discipline are not being integrated. This is costing hundreds of millions in lost revenue, equity value and higher spending, as noted by ProMotion. The core problem is that marketing often speaks the language of the process and not the language of business strategy and results.

What marketers need to do is:

• Speak the language of business, not the language of marketing—it’s a subtle but important difference.
• Measure what matters, not what is easy to measure—determine how customers are created and connect programs to influence touch points along the way.
• Admit uncertainty, not all marketing is science and there is guesswork from time to time—have plans to adjust to surprises.
• Understand financials, not just the need to spend money—speak to the financial implications of decisions in order to balance the influence of CFOs and the inclination of companies to become cost- rather than results-focused.

Why Marketers Hate Marketing