It’s Called Marketing for a Reason

Let’s do a little experiment. The next time you’re in a room full of techies, say something along the lines of, “Hey, how about that marketing department, eh?” Now count the number of people in the room who roll their eyes, snort derisively or start otherwise grumbling about how marketing is evil and clueless and a few other unflattering adjectives.

I used to be in that camp. I used to believe that marketing was nothing but advertising and manipulation, getting gullible people to buy stuff they neither want nor need. Then I worked at an online marketing company for six years and took the time learn what this wacky “Marketing” thing is all about.

While advertising is a large (and the most public) facet of marketing I believe it’s one of the least important. Which isn’t to say it’s not important, just that I personally rank it near the bottom of marketing operations.

A hint to the most important marketing operation is right there in the name: Marketing. Before a marketer can do anything else he needs to determine his market. I offer that this is the single most important operation not only in the marketing department but also in the entire organization. Why?

Your market is composed of your users. It’s the people with whom the sales team closes deals, for whom you put code to editor, for whom the customer service reps pick up the phone. These are, as far as your organization is concerned, The Most Interesting People in the World. Before it lifts a finger it must know not only who these people are but also what they need and how to communicate with them.

Do you know your market? Have you ever thought to ask? If not then I strongly suggest the next thing you do after you read this post is schedule a lunch or coffee outing with someone from your Marketing team to do a little learnin’. An understanding of the people for whom you’re writing software will lead to better decisions about design and features, more successful services, better roll-outs… In short, it will make for a more successful project. Not knowing your market means you’re not in sync with the rest of the organization. You’ll waste time adding features which no one will use. You’ll design interfaces which will confuse and frustrate. Sales won’t sell, customer service will be overwhelmed with requests and you’ll have to go back and fix it. No one wants that.

It’s possible that you may already have a pretty decent idea of who the users of your software are and for that I heartily applaud you. However I still recommend you take an hour to have that lunch with someone from Marketing to discuss it. As much as you know you can always learn more. Getting a different perspective on your market can only do good for you, your product and your organization. Furthermore you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the operation of the organization and where you fit in it. And let’s not forget that there are two people sitting at that lunch table. Forging a relationship with Marketing helps expand the horizons of both teams and enables the entire organization to be more successful.

Or, to put it into Marketing Speak, embracing a best practice of increasing interdepartmental face-time to leverage a holistic and synergistic approach to market knowledge can increase the core competency of the enterprise for greater return on investment, mindshare and thought leadership.

OK, so maybe sometimes marketing can be a little bit evil.