Making the big shift

While the selling of the product has historically been the key priority, market forces (e. g. more fragmented customer segments) and changes in customer behaviour and technology (e. g. increased number of sales touch points) are now dictating that companies place the customer at the core of their business strategy.

In other words: from product-driven (getting the customer to come to you) to a customer driven (taking the product to the customer) organisation design.

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Value of marketing

Indeed, as many South African marketing professionals could testify, marketing has often a low to medium influence in an organisation. The corporate marketing team is all too often left out of high-level strategic business discussions until it is time to communicate those decisions, as opposed to influence them.

This is set to have far reaching consequences for not only the businesses themselves, but for marketing professionals - who are being presented with a unique opportunity. The question now is how to best utilise this opportunity, build-up credibility, and demonstrate the value creation of marketing.

Many marketing functions are addressed or performed in corporate functions such as strategy, R&D, business development, and/or corporate affairs. These days with the advent of big data - even the CIO owns a piece of the customer. Essentially, the customer is "shared" across the organisation and no longer "owned" by marketing. So how can one design a truly customer-driven enterprise, in which the customer is central to all aspects of the business?

The right approach

The way to overcome this challenge is to create a market-centric organisation, design the required structures and to establish business processes that work towards the heart of the business. Avoid organisational "silos" and foster the "right" connections and interfaces between marketing/the CMO effort and other parts of the organisation.

It also requires the selection of tools, approaches, and practices to drive customer-centricity. Marketers are required to relentlessly drive marketing accountability and to realise efficiencies and effectiveness. Marketing is a value creator, not a cash burner - as unfortunately often perceived by the top-management of an organisation.

In addition - and this might be a hard truth to hear - marketers must equip themselves with the required business acumen and general management skills that would allow them to participate meaningfully in strategic, high-level business conversations and to create top-management appreciation of the marketing discipline.

Shaping local businesses

Internationally, marketers hold their own chair at the boardroom table and CMO and CFO create a strong marketing-finance interface, supporting the CEO in key business decisions. In South Africa, CMOs are in short supply. Unfortunately marketing studies represent another challenge in this regard since they focus more on creative and communication side of marketing, with little focus on the fundamentals of running a company and handling the financial aspects.

Some organisations claim wholeheartedly to be "customer-centric", although their business processes and customer interfaces suggest that they are rather product-driven. There is no 'right' or 'wrong'. It is important for any organisation to pay close attention to both its products and its markets. But knowing which one is the primary driver of the business strategy is the critical success factor. Only then can budget and resources be allocated effectively and efficiently.

In South Africa, marketing professionals should play a key role in shaping a local business environment that is undergoing a major makeover. Unlike in the established and stabilised corporate structures of international companies, local marketers are treading in new and uncharted territory - and can craft the new rules of engagement as they see fit. An opportunity every driven marketer unremittingly strives for...