Blumenthal hits back at critics

Instead, what I am highlighting is that the marketing sector is one of the few sectors of our economy where "Service" and not "Product" is the substance of the sale.

That being the case, for our South African marketeers to remain competitive on an extremely competitive and cut-throat global stage, the quality of their qualifications and competency certification instruments must be beyond international reproach, something I am happy to report is the case with the qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework. This is necessary to enable South African marketing professionals to sell their services internationally and earn scarce foreign reserves for the country.

Message is clear

For aspirant learners my message is clear. Study marketing in South Africa by enrolling at a public or private training provider which is accredited by the Services SETA's Education and Training Quality Assurance Authority (ETQA) and you can be assured that the provider is recognised and its work in producing skilled and competent practitioners is valued by companies which are levy-paying members of the Services SETA.

On the other hand, study with a provider whose marketing programmes are not accredited by the Services SETA and you run the risk that the marketing sector of industries might reject your qualifications and therefore not employ you.

The advantage of obtaining a marketing qualification from a Services SETA-accredited training provider is that your qualification is automatically co-branded with the European Marketing Confederation, and you are registered on the EMC database as a skilled and competent practitioner. The EMC represents the marketing sectors in more than 38 countries throughout Europe and the Middle East, and now includes South Africa as full members.

Two choices

If your intention is to enter the marketing sector, you have two choices after qualifying. Either you intend to be employed by a dedicated marketing organisation, possibly specialising in one of the formerly mentioned industries, or you intend to be employed by a company which has a marketing function or division, but which is located in a more operationally-specific economic sector such as manufacturing, telecommunications, ICT or banking.

In the first instance, you need to ensure that if what you are selling is your "expertise" as a marketeer, you have credentials which are impeccable and beyond global reproach.

You need to be aware that outside of price competitiveness, there is very little today which differentiates your service from your European or US competitors. This being said, inferior qualifications from unrecognised sources will ensure that you are left out of the bidding game altogether.

If, on the other hand, you intend to seek employment as a marketing professional with a company operating in another economic sector, you need to ensure that you have a pedigree which is standardised and identifiable, and where you are accountable to a professional structure for marketing which offers you ongoing continuous professional development or CPD.

This is especially true in a sector such as marketing which is ever-changing and where you need to keep up with best global practices on a continuous basis.

Govern own affairs

The problem is that currently there is no South African marketing sector authority capable of self-governing the sector. The last such structure, the Marketing Federation of South Africa, collapsed at a critical moment in the maturation of the sector, leaving a huge gaping void. Government and more specifically members of Parliament very seldom choose to intervene in a sector and impose a statutory body upon that sector capable of governing it. Government prefers to recognise that a sector has the capacity to govern its own affairs.

Much is currently being done to ensure that a more sustainable structure is created, one representing the interests of both employers and marketing professionals, but from two very different perspectives.

A new marketing association has been created for individuals practitioners who are qualified and experienced enough to drive the professional interests of the individual employed and practicing within the sector.

At the same time, there is a lot of work going into the creation of an employer federation capable of articulating and representing the needs of employers within the sector. What I believe that those creating this Federation are intent upon, is not repeating the mistakes made in the creation of the previous MFSA, namely the erosion and sacrifice of strong existing brands for that of an unestablished and unknown one.

Hence you see PRISA, the DMA, SAMRA and other employer associations insisting that any new employer structure will be a federation of existing autonomous industry-specific bodies rather than a replacement of them.

Magic will spark

The magic which will re-establish the dominance of the South African marketing sector will spark when the Marketing Association of Professionals and the Marketing Federation of Employers meets to engage and agree on a blue-print for self-governance and regulation. The Services SETA which currently acts as the catalyst for this engagement would like to see this gap filled and these outstanding matters resolved by February 2007.

This country cannot afford for one of our most influential sectors to be in a leadership limbo for as long as it has been and threatens to remain without some form of intervention and facilitation.

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