{"id":2552,"date":"2012-12-16T22:32:53","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T03:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2012-12-19T21:35:10","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T02:35:10","slug":"five-core-marketing-functions-a-business-organization-blueprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steinvox.com\/blog\/five-core-marketing-functions-a-business-organization-blueprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Core Marketing Functions – A Business Organization Blueprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Five_Core_Marketing_Functions,<\/a>Like trying to understand an electrical circuit board without the schematic, it\u2019s hard to keep up with the complexity and importance of the five core marketing functions without a reminder from time to time.<\/p>\n

And, with the daily hype around the tactical effort, tools, and constantly changing environment of social media, it\u2019s easy to lose sight of the five core marketing functions.<\/p>\n

As a corporate advisor and successful turnaround CMO, I regularly discuss the big picture as I guide CEOs and executives in building sustainable organizations for the long-term.<\/p>\n

If you are a marketing leader, CMO, VP of Marketing, or Director of marketing, and you haven\u2019t read at least a dozen articles in the past 3 months about how \u201cSocial Media has changed or replaced marketing<\/em>,\u201d then you might either be incredibly busy or already understand the foundational five core marketing functions.<\/p>\n

Importance of Core Marketing Functions<\/h3>\n

The five core marketing functions are every bit as important as R&D, operations, and finance \u2013 and by many accounts, even more critical to the business. Think back to business school and recall what you learned. Or, review your most recent business failure. Was there enough horsepower behind marketing? \u00a0Were the marketing basics of creating value<\/strong>, capturing value<\/strong> and building programs and plans for sustaining value<\/strong> put in place before the social media trigger was pulled?<\/p>\n

To understand these core marketing functions, one has to relax and clear their mind of the day to day frenzy of delivering on tactical activities and all the pressures of every other executive\u2019s demands on the marketing function in your organization. To do so, will allow this blog post to give you insight as to how you might need to organize for success. Do it now \u2013 relax and breathe deep before you proceed to read.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes \u2013 you will find social media\u2019s pervasive role described in context of the Five Core Marketing Functions at the very end. That way its tactical potential can be integrated into the structure of these functions more effectively.<\/p>\n

Internal Business Process Chain<\/h3>\n

A good friend, business mentor and coach once told me that every successful business needs three things.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Make a product or service.<\/li>\n
  2. Market the product or service to customers.<\/li>\n
  3. Manage the money.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This over-simplification makes a point \u2013 and helps us avoid being distracted by the most recent shiny object. My friend also indicated that \u201che has never met the person that could do all three of these functions<\/em>.\u201d Perhaps there is someone that can do 2 of these, but understand in addition to the different talent required, there probably isn\u2019t enough time in the day to do more than any one of these well.<\/p>\n

    Recognizing this fact helps to understand the value of organizational roles differentiated from specific tactical activities.\u00a0 A model I created many years ago and have successfully used in technology companies looks like this.<\/p>\n

    \"Marketing_Functions_In_The_Business_Process,<\/a><\/p>\n

    This model will take some digesting \u2013 and it will be the basis for a number of future blog posts from me. Briefly, the following describes the five core marketing functions in the business process.<\/p>\n

    Corporate Marketing<\/h3>\n

    This function has global marketing domain to set and enforce brand standards, define global infrastructure for public relations (PR), investor relations, advertising, corporate communications, event strategies, user group community programs and production synergies across all marketing. Operates on an annual corporate marketing plan calendar assembled from editorial, PR, product roadmap, and other coordinated calendars to deliver on milestones and objectives.<\/p>\n

    Strategic Marketing<\/h3>\n

    This function sets strategies for growth, assesses competitive landscape, works with engineering and product management to perform gap analysis, performs make vs. buy analysis, proposes and performs due diligence for merger and acquisition (M&A) targets, creates, develops and manages partner programs, manages key relationships to support technical, business, and other strategic needs. Strategic marketing operates on an opportunity-based calendar.<\/p>\n

    Product Management<\/h3>\n

    This function is the owner of the product and its long-term strategy (multi-release through end-of-life) and current direction (next release), articulates innovation such that it can be built and marketed. Defines and communicates initial positioning and messaging, pricing strategies, commercialization strategies, go-to-market strategies and competitive positioning. This function works in a cross-functional team with sales, marketing, product development, R&D, engineering and operations functions to achieve pre- and post-launch results. Product management operates on a product-lifecycle calendar.<\/p>\n

    Product Marketing<\/h3>\n

    This function builds and drives launch plans for products and service offerings, refines raw positioning and messaging (received from Product Managers in MRDs) into crisp value propositions, drives tactics for product and services sales training programs. Product marketing operates on a product-lifecycle calendar.<\/p>\n

    Field Marketing<\/h3>\n

    This function\u2019s modus operandi is to execute, execute, execute<\/em>\u2026 marketing programs and campaigns that have a singular focus of lead generation and driving opportunities through the pipeline. Operates under a quarterly calendar. This function has dotted-line or direct matrix reporting to the divisional or geographically distributed organizations.<\/p>\n

    Things To Ponder While Digesting<\/h3>\n