In the old days, marketers were people in smart suits who were reputed to be able to sell
refrigerators to the Inuit. But marketers have moved on; they no longer want to be thought of as selling products to consumers who do not really want to buy. Marketing, they claim, has entered a more
sophisticated era of customer focus and brand management, driven by data procurement and technology.
This formalisation has spawned impressive
terms such as ECR (efficient consumer responsibility); category management; CRM (customer relationship management or, to some,
cause-related marketing); media
neutrality; integrated marketing;
value-based marketing; and economic profit. Although these phrases are bandied about
freely, a closer look reveals that marketers often interpret them differently. This lack of
consistency leads to confusion, and over a time an
unnecessary mystique has developed around the
various theories.
British Gas head of marketing Andrew Mann says:
"Jargon can sometimes be a barrier: marketers tend to be guilty of using it in different
ways." |
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Management consultants have capitalized on this confusion, developing a
whole
industry around telling brand owners and their marketers how to run their businesses in line with the latest disciplines.
One such function that has come in for recent criticism is category
management. According to Axis Management
managing director Jonathan Smith, category
management has become "an overly complex, jargon-laden, number
crunching exercise". He adds that category
management and CRM (in its "customer relationship
management" sense) badly need simplifying (MW last week).
Too much talk
Although CRM and category management are but two of the many mantras that marketers have relied on in recent years to manage their brands, customers, technology and growth, there is a general concern among senior marketers that
such jargon can distract marketers from getting on with the job. |
