As someone who has worked in maintenance,shipping & receiving, production, quality assurance, technical support, product development, marketing and sales, I have seen first hand the impact the various functions have on business development and customer retention. There is no question in my mind that they all must be focused on the customers' needs for a business to be successful. A breakdown on any level can have devastating consequences to customer relationships and the company's reputation. From that standpoint, everyone in the organization impacts the corporate brand AND everyone in the organization affects sales.
To take it a step further, the entire supply chain has an impact. How would a big box store look to consumers if its products came in damaged, defective, or with missing components? How would the consumer product companies look to the box stores if their labeling and packaging poorly presented the products because of inconsistent or improper color, misspellings in the graphic design, poor adhesive bond strength, non-functional bar codes, poor registration leading to unreadable type, or any number of other print defects? How would those print defects make the label supplier look to the CPCs' print buyers? And so on down the line. Which is why it is so important to have multiple levels of interaction between the supply chain partners to insure that customer needs are clearly communicated, understood and addressed throughout the organization..
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that at the management table the emphasis is not on the customer or on the organization as a "marketing tool". With a recessed economy, a roller coaster stock market, bitterly divided government, and rising costs for everything from insurance to energy to raw materials, the focus is all too often on cutting costs to meet shorty term profitability targets. When looking for easy targets for cost cutting, how often is marketing looked at as beneficial when times are good, but nothing more than a cost center when times are tough? To be successful with the challenges we face today, it is critical that the corporate culture that emanates from the Board on down through the entire organization is predicated on a customer-centric marketing mentality.
For an interesting discussion about the role of marketing in business, be sure to check out http://www.linkedin.com/groups/I-think-message-management-table-59008.S.60716491?view=&gid=59008&type=member&item=60716491&trk=mywl_artile.
To take it a step further, the entire supply chain has an impact. How would a big box store look to consumers if its products came in damaged, defective, or with missing components? How would the consumer product companies look to the box stores if their labeling and packaging poorly presented the products because of inconsistent or improper color, misspellings in the graphic design, poor adhesive bond strength, non-functional bar codes, poor registration leading to unreadable type, or any number of other print defects? How would those print defects make the label supplier look to the CPCs' print buyers? And so on down the line. Which is why it is so important to have multiple levels of interaction between the supply chain partners to insure that customer needs are clearly communicated, understood and addressed throughout the organization..
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that at the management table the emphasis is not on the customer or on the organization as a "marketing tool". With a recessed economy, a roller coaster stock market, bitterly divided government, and rising costs for everything from insurance to energy to raw materials, the focus is all too often on cutting costs to meet shorty term profitability targets. When looking for easy targets for cost cutting, how often is marketing looked at as beneficial when times are good, but nothing more than a cost center when times are tough? To be successful with the challenges we face today, it is critical that the corporate culture that emanates from the Board on down through the entire organization is predicated on a customer-centric marketing mentality.
For an interesting discussion about the role of marketing in business, be sure to check out http://www.linkedin.com/groups/I-think-message-management-table-59008.S.60716491?view=&gid=59008&type=member&item=60716491&trk=mywl_artile.
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