Marketing is not a department
Let’s be honest. Most companies do not even have a real marketing department. Most often, the persons who hold the word marketing in their title are glorified executive assistants to the sales manager and organise events and contacts with marketing communication agencies. Some CEOs even take pride in the fact that “they do not need any marketing since their product or service sells itself”.
What these two seemingly paradoxical facts reveal is that indeed a company can thrive without a marketing department – as long as the marketing function is operated effectively throughout the organisation; by sales managers who identify and pursue the right clients; by product managers who keep their finger on the pulse of the market; by R&D people who keep the users in mind in whatever they do; by service professionals who are brand-conscious in all their client-interactions; by administration executives who think about the impact of their actions on their clients; etc.
To be clear, I’m not saying that companies should not have a marketing department. What I’m saying is that whether you really need one or not, has no bearing on the fact that the support of everyone in the organisation is required for marketing to work. If you are working in an organisation that has “making money” as one of its objectives, marketing is part of everybody’s job description.
Effective marketing comes from the relentless efforts of everyone in the organisation towards the best possible presentation of the value created, to the best possible clients.