On Monday nights I give Greg a ride home from school (he has class, I'm teaching class but we get out at the same time and he only lives 5 min away). The class he’s taking is Marketing and of course the class I'm teaching at that same time is Marketing. He and I routinely debate the value of the material. He’s an accountant and sees all marketing as fluff. I, of course, love marketing and see it as an essential part of every business. Here are my arguments to him:
1) Even if you have a great idea, if no one knows about it you won’t be able to sell it therefore won’t make any money and will cease to exist. Therefore, because awareness is essential, marketing is essential.
2) Marketing is what helps put a positive image of the company/product/service in the consumer’s head, especially in situations of recalls and negative action/reactions. Therefore, because positive perception is essential, marketing is essential.
3) Accounting is important to a company. If you sell something but don’t get paid for it that’s useless. If you in turn don’t pay your debts (to vendors, shareholders, etc.) they’ll quit working with you making operations/production cease which is deadly to a company. No arguments that we need F & A folks. HOWEVER, they don’t have a job if nothing gets sold. Therefore, because companies need customers to exist, marketing is essential.
4) Greg tries to counter-argue that companies need start-up money to even exist in the first place and that those finances are done by accounting people. However, who is often the most compelling person presenting to those money-holders? The guys/gals with business plans, short & long-term visions, and sales prospects. The people who can spin the story so it sounds so compelling the money-holders can’t wait to dump some on them. Therefore, because raising capital is essential to companies, marketing is essential.
So, Greg, fluff snuff. Marketing is more important than Accounting.
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11 months ago
9 comments:
I kinda believe they are equally important.
"Marketing is more important that Accounting"? I don't think so.
Accounting is essential. You spell it out in your point #3: "If you ... don't pay your debts ... operations/productions cease". If you're not paying your bills and taxes and collecting money, then the business fails. F & A is essential.
You're right that marketing is essential, but so is F & A, and other parts of a company. You have to have many parts to have a successful operation.
Three cases in point:
1. To America's masses, perception is more important than reality. RC Cola may taste just as good as Coke / Pepsi, but since RC can't match their marketing spending, they'll never sell as well to the masses.
2. There is *one* vendor that supplies mud to Major League Baseball. That company has a monopoly on their business. The mud is smeared onto brand new baseballs to take the shine off the leather and make them easier to handle. I'd bet my 401(k) that my Mountain Dew budget is bigger than their marketing budget.
3. I've got a vendor that supplies me with essential tools. Their only "marketing" is word of mouth from other customers and who can find them from Google.
Marketing is important to a company, but it's not that big of a deal. It's not that "hard": it's just some happy customers and a website.
MJ
not that hard!? i know... okay i hope you're kidding.
I think this argument is more dependent on the industry. Like Mark said, for the mud supply company, they don't need marketing muscle, although I would venture to say they don't have a deep accounting department either as they probably do not have offshore operations or deal w/ the particulars of complex accounting.
My company is the opposite side of the coin, we employ nearly 20x more marketers than accounting staff, and I worked in both fields. Take someone like JP Morgan or Citibank and I'm guessing their staffing numbers are the opposite of ours.
I'll end by saying that if I were starting up a company, I think I would want my deepest bench in marketing (this coming from a certified accountant). Reason being that my accounting should be pretty straight forward - I have accounts payable & receivable for the most part. Yeah, there will be some out of the norm items to potentially deal with like depreciation & amortization, but you will most likely not be dealing with writing down intangible assets or trying to assess fair value to less-than-temporarily impaired securities which are accounting related topics you would encounter w/ a large multi-national. Now, if I could take my company global or even make it large in the US, then I most definitely need more accountants.
I disagree with Greg. Marketing isn't just about fluff, it's about how you position your product, who your target consumer is, and how you get the message out there to those targets.
If Greg had argued the product vs marketing, it'd be a little closer... accounting really is a supporting function. It's definitely important, especially to big companies. But if you don't have any money coming in that marketing drives, you've got nothing to account for.
Hmmm... I have to agree with Jen and Jim. They are equally important, but depend on the company. In my line of work, accounting is essential because of our funders. But marketing is how we get the funding and things we are doing out there in the community. They go hand in hand.
Personally, if you don't have good accounting you aren't going to have good marketing. Therefore, you shouldn't be in business.
and neither would have a job without R&D - someone to develop the products.
I couldn't resist. :)
Agreed:
1) I agree with you first, because I live with Greg and I like a little competition in our house. If he likes Team A (even though they might be my fav team) I nautrally root for Teab B. HEH!
2) I grew up in a marketing family. I believe. This is like a cult.
3) Greg likes to be argumentative and superior to all those around him. I call him "Math Man". "Oh help me Math Man I am being eaten by a giant spider!! AHHHH" LOL.
4) Last, we win. The end.
So just to clarify, I'm not saying that marketing is useless (well at least not out loud) but rather it may not be the most important thing. With that being said, I'll also agree that Finance or Accounting are also not the most important thing in the world. I won't even go as far as to say that Accounting/Finance is more important than marketing. We are just merely the people that keep the marketing dept (as well as all other depts) in check on their spending.
So then I wonder, what is the most important thing to a business? Well if you ask my marketing teacher (or Karen), then there is really only one logical answer: Marketing. As much as I hate to burst both my teacher and Karen's bubble, marketing is not the answer to all life's problems. The solution isn't always to invest more money in marketing. If you have internal problems, marketing will not solve those. If you are in the technology industry, marketing will help increase sales but the ultimate goal is ALWAYS innovation (engineers).
So I guess my new question to all you marketing folks is: Name me an industry where marketing is the most important asset to a company? The only area that I can semi see this would be in the entertainment industry.
Take sports for example... You need capital to start a team. The accounting/finance people keep tabs on that and allow that team to bring in the players that they can afford while still keeping in mind that marketing efforts need to go out to sell the seats to bring in the revenue. It's important but even then, is marketing the MOST important??
Karen is thinking to herself: "well you need marketing to bring in those players initially." True, however, majority of professional athletes are selfish and would prefer to have the biggest contract instead of taking a paycut to play for a team that can win the Super Bowl.
Now on the other hand you may wonder about the same question with Accounting and Finance. My response to this is insurance. You can't have a successful insurance company without good underwriters (no matter how much marketing money you put in). Companies that write risky insurance lines for millions (or billions if you are a good marketer like K-Betty ;-P) of people WILL fail. My proof: the economy!
K-Betty, feel free to post this as another blog. I'm curious what all your other fellow marketing supporters have to say in response to this...
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