Contemporary marketing emphasizes that companies have to `think brands in order to prosper. Thus, the way to success goes through the creation, management, and protection of brands. However, empirical evidence suggests that not all consumer good companies agree with this claim. On the contrary, although some companies think this way, other companies act in a way that emphasizes sales more than marketing.
Often,
the saying goes that companies have to build strong
brands in order to prosper. For example, Kotler and
Keller (2006, p. 274) argue that "perhaps the
most distinctive skill of professional marketers is
their ability to create, maintain, and protect brands".
Hence, one would expect marketing departments to control
brands and products. However, an empirical study (Blichfeldt,
2004) that was carried out in the years 2001 to 2004
suggests that the relative prominence of sales and
marketing differs across consumer good companies.
Accordingly, not all of these companies are marketing-oriented;
nor do all of these companies find that the brand
is their most valued asset. Thus, two distinctive
patterns of prominence were identified. First, some
companies are highly sales-focused and as a result,
sales departments have a major saying in relation
to all decisions and activities that relate to both
marketing and selling. Secondly, some companies are
truly marketing-oriented and thus, marketing departments
hold primary, or even sole responsibility for all
activities that effect brands and products.
For
both sales-oriented and marketing-oriented companies,
relations between marketing and sales departments
can best be described as "brand battlefields".
Thus, the two departments do not agree upon how the
company should manage the brands, for which they have
spent decades to build. As a result, the triumph of
one department is decisive for the ways in which the
company manages its brands. |
