Great little post on Marketing this week over at Ageless Marketing. In his post, David Wolfe reminds us of the old story of the five blind men being asked to describe an elephant. (And yes, it is VERY relevant to our discussion on Marketing and Branding.)

"Over the past two years or so I've participated in Soflow discussions, time and again I've been reminded of the ancient allegory about five blind men touching a single part of the elephant and asked by a teacher to describe the elepant. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll retell it anyhow:

* The blind man who touched the leg told the teacher the elephant is like the trunk of a tree; the tail-toucher said it's like a rope; the one who feels the trunk compares it to a tree branch; the man who felt the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; and the tusk feeler insists the elephant feels like a solid pipe.

This story particularly comes to mind in forum discussions about branding: what branding is, how it’s done and even if branding is a valid marketing idea in today’s market."

As I read stories like the recent one in Advertising Age about the short tenure of CMOs – barely two years! – I can only contemplate my profession with a sense of regret over how broadly and deeply it is failling to fulfill the expectations of just about everyone.

In their 1991 manifesto The Marketing Revolution, Kevin Clancy and Robert Shulman former chairman and CEO respectively of Yankelovich Clancy Shulman warned, “The revolution is coming because failure is sel-evident and everybody – stockholders, directors, CEOs, the government – is angry because marketing doesn’t work.”

Marketing has definitely not done a very good job of selling itself. (Pretty ironic, eh?) It isn't so much that people don't understand Marketing, or that the nuances between all of its disciplines, methods and schools of thought haven't reached a whole lot of execs and company presidents in the proper context. The most telling failure of Marketing as a whole is this: According to a Strativity Group study, most business leaders and managers have no idea how to quantify Marketing ROI. When asked "Do you know the cost of acquiring a new customer," only 8.6% answered yes.

91.4% said no.

Let me say this again: 91.4% of respondents had no idea how much they spend on acquiring a new customer.

Let me push a few buttons in the crowd by asking YOU if you know the answer to that question when it comes to your business.

If you don't know something this basic, then don't you think that perhaps Marketing has some work to do? (It can't all be about cool creative... or uncool uncreative, as it were.) Without a basic ROI proposition, Marketing is nowhere. It's the red-headed stepchild of any organization. It is relegated to one of those pesky "necessary evils" in budget meetings.

Sorry folks, but Marketing cannot be seen as an expense. It should be seen as an investment. As a business function, just like Accounting, Customer Service, and IT. Sadly, most of the companies I worked for in my twenties a) never took Marketing seriously, b) didn't understand how to take full advantage of a Marketing department's awesome power, and c) never held their Marketing Departments accountable for anything. They reluctantly gave their Marketing Departments a budget (an allowance), and scoffed at their pretty little brochures and websites and fancy little projects. They frowned at their print ads and trade show expenses. They talked about how back in the day, salesmen didn't need Marketing.

Pow. No ROI = no ROI. End of discussion.

Another problem facing Marketing has to do with its image. Marketing professionals are seen as being just one rung up from lawyers on the slime scale, it seems. What's the message here? Marketing is all smoke and mirrors? Lies? Fine print? Artifice? (Wow. Great. Way to go.) How did we get here? How do we dig ourselves out of this hole?

One little confusing fact that seems to be contributing to Marketing's image problem is the fact that many HR professionals still use the terms "Sales" and "Marketing" as if they were interchangeable. (Or inseparable, as it were.) Browse through any job search service, and what you will find is that most "Sales" jobs are posted as "Marketing" jobs.

*sigh*

Can we please divorce the words "Sales" and "Marketing" once and for all?

Can we write a general memo or something?

Marketers aren't salespeople. Marketing isn't about selling.

Apples and oranges, here. Really.

It's time to put an end to the confusion. There's a lack of clarity out in the world about what Marketing actually does. It really wouldn't hurt for CMOs and Marketing Managers everywhere to focus on metrics a little bit... and on restoring its image instead of perpetuating stale stereotypes.

Tell you what - Let's get you started this week with five simple tasks:

1. Find out how much it costs your company to earn each new customer.
2. Find out how much it costs your company to keep each existing customer.
3. Hire a company that will give you an objective assessment of your image. From the outside. From a fresh perspective.
4. Bring the brass into your project and ask them to help you turn your department into a viable business unit.
5. Be ready to start from scratch with your customers. (Trust me, they'll appreciate the effort.)

I guarantee that if you work towards a) clarifying your Marketing Department's role in your organization's business development strategy, and b) help your Excel warriors see that every dollar they spend on you is a dollar well spent, your tenure as a CMO will be longer than just two years. (No, it isn't quite that easy, but that's a heck of a good start.) Let's get off our butts and fix this thing once and for all, shall we? We've been stuck in this rut for far too long.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone. :)