" What kind of department is this department?
In the eyes of Party B’s son, the marketing department is like a god of wealth; in the eyes of the finance department, the marketing department is a department that only knows how to spend money; in the production In the eyes of the sales department, the marketing department is a department that doesn’t know what it can do; in the eyes of the human resources department, the marketing department is a department with two levels of remuneration; in the eyes of the sales department, the marketing department is dispensable but necessary. Subordinates who can come when called upon, can fight when called upon, and can win in battle; in the eyes of the marketing department themselves, the marketing department is a department that is like snake oil...
In the eyes of some bystanders, including Brother Chan, the marketing department is a hard-working scapegoat, especially since the industry suffered an unprecedented cold winter in 2018. .
Why do people think that the marketing department is the scapegoat? Why is it that from a certain perspective, the marketing department is indeed the scapegoat? Based on reality and in-depth thinking, Brother Chan believes that the main reasons are nothing more than the following three major reasons.
First, it is due to bad habits in the industry< /p>
In China (I have never been to a foreign country, and I have no way to understand it in detail, so I don’t know the real situation), no matter what era you are in, no matter what unit you are in, "Once the emperor, you will always be the emperor." Courtiers” seems to be a common bad habit. This situation is particularly serious in the construction and ceramics industry where the professional manager system is very immature.
For marketing people, especially the head of the marketing department, who survive in a workplace environment full of bad habits, the main assessment indicator for promotion or retention is often not work performance or corporate systems, but a word from the leader.
Some savvy marketing people have found a "shortcut" to career development, that is, it is better to get the leader than to get the job done: instead of racking their brains to come up with ideas and working hard To satisfy customers through execution, it is better to be opportunistic and do whatever they want to make the leaders happy; instead of down-to-earth doing some thankless practical work, it is better to do some false work that is easy to please the leaders.
Over time, the workplace atmosphere in the industry has become a mess, and marketing people who are truly interested in doing pure marketing work have been suppressed by marketing people and leaders who are good at taking "shortcuts" Unable to get ahead. Once the blame is passed, the marketing people who are not appreciated by the leaders will become the best candidates to take the blame; once the leaders fall, the marketing people who are appreciated by them will also be unlucky, and they will either take the blame or leave. Such cases abound, and everyone in the industry knows about them, but no one has written about them. A marketing manager once complained that if life had not forced him, who would want to be a marketing manager under bosses and leaders who don’t understand marketing at all and only know how to blame others?
Surviving in an industry where bad habits are hard to get rid of, if the marketing department doesn’t take the blame, who will?
The second is due to congenital deficiencies in positioning
As we all know, the business model of the building ceramics industry is mainly production-oriented, but in the marketing section, sales is still the leader. Therefore, for the sales department, many departments including the marketing department are service departments or logistics departments. Such departments have a common feature, which is to do auxiliary work around the core work or core departments of the enterprise.
Some people divide the marketing department into three categories: sales-assisted, market-driven, and large-market and large-operation. The marketing department of a building ceramics company is a typical auxiliary marketing department and does not need to do market-leading work. , just do a good job in publicity, training and promotion. Although the work done is laborious and closely related to sales, it is not easy to achieve results. It is also time-consuming and money-consuming, so it is also the most vulnerable to the impact of sales. Brand promotion, training, promotion, etc., which is not time-consuming, costly and labor-intensive? But what about the results? If done well, the sales department will say that the product is good, the channels are good, and the dealers are good; if it is not done well, it is good. Well, the sales department will say that the marketing department has poor advertising, poor planning, and poor training.
In addition, there is a very unique situation in the building and ceramics industry, that is, in most companies, especially those that implement multi-brand business models, administrative and human resources forces are generally weak Weak, generally do not set up separate administrative and human resources departments for subordinate brands. Therefore, in addition to doing their job well, the marketing department also has to do part-time administrative and human resources work for the brand, becoming the administrative assistant to the brand boss, drafting various manuscripts, hosting various meetings, organizing various activities, and interviewing various personnel. , endlessly doing complicated and messy work that is not part of my job, working hard, dirty and tired.
The inherently deficient positioning makes the marketing department inevitably reduced to a secretary and miscellaneous department of the marketing system and leaders, thereby losing its due status and being unable to create core Value is in name only.
The building and ceramics industry is an industry that is eager for quick success and quick profits, and bosses and leaders who are eager for quick success and quick profits are everywhere.
When it is necessary to adopt the path of brand operation or enhance brand competitiveness, when the market situation is not good and active measures need to be taken, when operating difficulties require reduction of staff and efficiency improvement, the boss The best way to deal with the problem is to strengthen the marketing department or reduce the marketing department staff. As far as Brother Chan knows, there are quite a few ceramic construction companies that suddenly establish or strengthen the marketing department one day, and suddenly cancel or weaken the marketing department one day, just like child's play.
When brand management is in trouble, when an important task is messed up, the marketing department, which is closely related to sales but cannot play a real role, often takes the blame and becomes the first department to take the blame. When something big happens to the leader, the core staff of the marketing department will step forward to take the blame; when the leader can no longer work and find another way out, the core staff of the marketing department will choose to follow him. Even if they don't follow him, they will most likely be replaced by the new appointee if they stay. Kill the leader. Since the construction and ceramics industry suffered a cold winter in 2018, the number of marketing departments taking the blame has increased sharply. This is why they are like one after another. According to reliable information, among the marketing managers that Brother Chan knew, no fewer than 10 were directly killed, forced to resign, or voluntarily resigned.
As a department with inherent deficiencies in positioning, if the marketing department doesn’t take the blame, who will?
The third reason is that it is difficult to improve the ability< /p>
There was a time when simple and crude promotional activities were in full swing and had obvious effects. A little bit of training could also play a certain role. As a result, the marketing department became famous in the construction and ceramics industry. Then for a while. At that time, whenever there were promotional activities or training to be done in each sales area, marketing people became extremely popular. In order to get marketing people to do promotional activities or training, the sales area managers could use coercion and inducement. Used them all.
However, the good times are always short-lived and will soon pass. At this moment, new channels such as fine decoration and complete decoration are rising strongly, and traditional retail channels have shrunk significantly. Not only have promotional activities been promoted but not sold, even door-to-door customer flow has become scarce. In addition to miscellaneous work, only promotional activities and training can be obtained. The marketing department that took action became extremely embarrassed. Channel fission has put many manufacturers and dealers in deep trouble, and layoffs are the most common means for companies to deal with difficulties. It is natural for marketing departments that are unable to help dealers to take the blame.
Brother Chan learned from the dealers interviewed during his terminal research in Xuzhou in mid-to-late June that some of them were not supportive of the manufacturer's marketing department.Very satisfied. This is because the marketing department’s promotional methods are not innovative and are still limited to the past rules. The training content is also relatively simple and remains at the entry-level level of the industry. This is just fine. The key is that such assistance cannot be satisfied. The marketing department There is simply no manpower available.
This current situation reflects a naked fact: the capabilities of the marketing department can no longer keep up with the development of the ceramics industry and the survival needs of dealers, and need to be improved urgently. .
Of course, Brother Chan also knows that commenting on the marketing department in this way is a bit disrespectful of the truth. This is due to the positioning of the marketing department by the construction and ceramics enterprises, rather than the marketing department itself wanting to be like that. In other words, the boss and leaders ask the marketing department to do what the marketing department can do, rather than what the marketing department thinks should be done; otherwise, even if the marketing department is creative and comes up with an idea that can bring dealers or companies back to life, their vision is A few years ago, we saw that fine decoration and complete decoration channels would pose a huge threat to the construction and ceramics industry, so we were prepared in advance. If the bosses and leaders disagreed - in fact, they would basically disagree, everything would be zero.
Affected by the fact that the ability is destined to be difficult to improve, if the marketing department does not take the blame, who will take the blame?
Given the unchangeable fact that the marketing department has to take the blame for three major reasons, what else can the marketing department do?
If the boss and leaders have the courage to change the status quo and are willing to give the marketing department the opportunity to learn and improve, then they should give full play to their personal subjective initiative and seize every opportunity to do something useful. Value work and find ways to improve personal abilities. For example: bosses and leaders value training, so they take the initiative to improve their training capabilities; bosses and leaders value assembly, so they take the initiative to improve their ability to develop assembly channels; bosses and leaders value centralized engineering procurement, so they proactively To improve the ability of centralized procurement of open projects...it is said that ceramics companies have already tried this.
But then again. If the marketing department is not upgraded from a sales-assisted type to a market-driven or large-market operation type, and does not have a certain say and dominance in the enterprise, it will not be able to change the overall situation. They are taking the blame for the current situation.
But I have to say it again. It doesn’t matter if you have many skills. As long as you have one skill, it will always be useful. Even if you don't work on this platform, you can still work on another platform; even if you don't work part-time, you still have the capital to start a business. Are there too few capable marketing people in the building and ceramics industry going out to start their own businesses?
If the boss and leaders do not give any opportunities to learn and improve, then the biggest risk may be to take the blame. Perhaps, changing jobs is also a good choice. Going to a new platform to shoulder new responsibilities is quite exciting.
Finally, Brother Chan warned everyone to take care of the aftermath before changing jobs, in case the leader chases him and shouts: Stay here, hero, you still have a problem to take before being fired. back!
