Why Companies Don't Market

No matter what a company's excuse is for not investing in Marketing Talent to create Marketing Programs, the reasons behind the excuse are usually the same.

The company's management has a predisposition against marketing programs. All too many executives don't understand the difference between marketing and sales. They consider marketing and communications programs not vital to their selling process. They believe the only way to sell their products is the old fashioned way, with salesmanship selling face to face. They can't understand positioning and the real purpose of marketing. The company's management sees itself as the market. All too many executives view the market as if they were a typical buyer. If a marketing program doesn't fit with the executive's perception of the market place, the marketing program will not work. This is a typical inside-out thinking mistake. The company's management gets lost fighting short term fires. All too often executives find themselves without the time or resources to devote to long term marketing plans. Time spent on immediate operational problems takes away from the time that they should devote to planning for their company's future. The company's management develops a nearsighted attitude. The company's management does not see marketing as an investment. All too often executives see marketing programs as an expense rather than an investment. They have a misconception with advertising. They also feel that each element of a marketing program should produce immediate results. If it doesn't, they should drop that element of the program. They lack basic understanding of advertising and what a marketing program accomplishes. The company's management must put their own mark on a marketing program and the communications. All too many executives feel that they must develop their own marketing programs. They won't consider programs developed outside the company. When they do look outside, they make short sighted changes to the program to compensate for their own thinking. All too often these changes are for the sake of change rather than improvement. They often change individual and unimportant words in communications text for ego reasons rather than marketing reasons. The company's management can't separate strategy and execution of marketing programs. All too often executives get lost in discussing how they will carry out a program. They totally forget that someone developed a marketing program for a specific goal. And, analyzing how to carry out the individual steps of the program become more important to them than the program itself. The company's management has a general lack of guts and confidence. All too often executives find themselves unable to decide what to do. They simply don't know how to go about developing and carrying out marketing programs. Their answer usually becomes "We'll wait and see what happens."

So, Ask yourself... When business is bad, do I have the guts to increase my sales and marketing budget? Would I tell my salesmen to get out of the office and travel more? And, do I have the guts to make an investment in marketing programs for my company's future when cash is so scarce? When business is good, do I have the foresight to reinvest my profits back into my company for future growth? Could I strengthen my long term position? When I am good at what I do, do I have the insight to admit there might be someone better? Would that person help and provide me with an objective viewpoint? Would I call upon that person to help me develop and carry out my marketing programs?