No Matter What Our Job Role Is - We All Work In Marketing
Having worked in small, medium and large corporate companies, I can feel the expletive’s coming out of all of those who see marketing as a waste of money. Those that wonder what marketing do all day. Most people see Marketing as those that work on posting on social media, run events, put adverts in newspapers etc. That is what’s called Marketing Communications. It is the department that comes up with how we communicate with potential clients on a grand scale. Branding and PR also come under Marketing Communications.
"Everything we do is a reflection on the company we work for"
However no matter where we work within a company, no matter what our job role is, we are always representing the company we work for and how we conduct ourselves is a reflection on the company. The receptionist is the first person people come into contact with when somebody walks through the door and so the receptionist is potentially creating the first impression of the company. If we are driving a sign written van, our driving is a reflection on the company. If we are walking around with a branded shirt or t-shirt, how we conduct ourselves is a reflection on our company. Everything we do or say is building the perception of the company within people’s minds.
How many times have we experienced sign written vans pulling out when they shouldn’t or somebody posting something on Twitter in a personal capacity which has come back to haunt the company they work for. How many times have you been spoken to, negatively or positively in your uniform? How many times have we had pleasant or unpleasant calls with company call centres?
These things are a daily occurrence but if the leaders in companies can inspire their staff to have an invested interest in representing the company, once staff understand that everything they do is a reflection of the company, we can start creating an environment where staff throughout the company are a very positive reflection on the company. This depends greatly on how happy staff are working for a company. Too many members of staff have the attitude of “not my job”, “more than my jobs worth” “just need to cover my a—-“. All of this comes down to leadership and strategy. Staff are a reflection of our company values and these values are reflected in how they conduct themselves within work time in the company and during personal time. Somebody who is unhappy in their job and in a negative mindset will use every opportunity to tell people what it is like working in their job. This will always be reflected in productivity.
"Every member of the company needs a basic understanding of marketing"
This is why it is extremely important for every member of the company to have at least a basic understanding of marketing. Marketing comes in the forms of individuals marketing themselves, departments marketing themselves internally and companies marketing themselves externally.
Larger companies not only need to conduct marketing to the outside world (Marketing Communications Department) but also individual departments need internal marketing within the company. Done correctly internal marketing goes a long way to negating the CYA attitude and helps to build a feeling of “we’re all in this together or we’re one big team”. In larger companies this can be tricky when everybody is overworked and bombarded with emails every day, however when leaders can inspire staff to take a moment to come together just small things can make a big difference.
One of the most important marketing practices people need to learn is strategic marketing but it is one of the marketing practices that people understand the least and very rarely do. Please read our blog post on What is strategic marketing for more details on this. We also have a blog post on internal marketing which you will find here.
At the end of the day the perception of a company starts and stops with the person at the top. Inspirational leaders create inspirational strategies and inspirational staff who create inspired customers. Take a look at our post on The Upside Down Triangle.
