One of the most common complaints among marketing professionals is the lack of respect they receive from the rest of their company. This is especially true in technology- and science-based companies.

The decisions made by the sales force, engineers, finance and accounting folks all seem to carry more weight than the marketing department. As a consequence, it can be difficult for marketing to have much influence on strategy, product development, operations and other key business decisions.

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

First, and perhaps most importantly, marketers are typically perceived to lack technical expertise and analytical thinking skills. While engineers, computer scientists, and other technical people take well-known logical approaches to problems, marketers are perceived to do only creative thinking devoid of analysis.

As a result, many non-marketers in a company mistakenly feel that the research done by marketing is useless. They often believe such work is biased, easily manipulated, and incapable of understanding what customers really want. Even worse, they reason, research is useless for a technology product that people don't want until they see it.

In addition, many non-marketing decision makers feel that marketing should just be marketing communications. Instead of doing the analytical work of segmenting customers and positioning products, for instance, marketers are often relegated to the work of communication specialists. Communication is important to be sure, but it is only one aspect of marketing.

CULTURE AND MYTHS

There is a second reason marketers suffer a lack of respect in the organization. Many of the offending companies have an R&D-driven culture. Such environments often focus on creating a cutting-edge technology that customers will have to be taught to like. This incorrect thinking - firms are supposed to satisfy needs, not create them - that more often than not leads to poor sales. When this happens, marketing unjustifiably shoulders the blame.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Allen Weiss

Allen Weiss is MarketingProfs founder and CEO, positioning consultant, and emeritus professor of marketing. Over the years he has worked with companies such as Texas Instruments, Informix, Vanafi, and EMI Music Distribution to help them position their products defensively in a competitive environment. He is also the founder of Insight4Peace and the former director of Mindful USC.