Why integrated marketing still eludes SMEs

Academics and industry have been calling for integrated management education for the longest time, with lively, and sometimes heated, discussions on how marketing and marketing communication should be taught and at which students.

But, so far, there has been no agreement on how BBA or MBA courses should be tailored. Some say integration should only be taught to graduate students because they must know the basics of marketing, promotion and communication before they can integrate them.

The others question why teach separately when integration is the goal? Teach it right the first time—to the bachelor of business administration (BBA) students. This is the group that may well meet the talent needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

In a university, an experiment is underway to integrate brand communication and valuation in a course. The thinking is that if they start with the brand–the important unifying element–integration of all functional communication and promotional elements would be much easier.

Brand integration will take away the internal difficulties of integration because if the marketing and communication managers focus on the brand, they would also focus on the customer. Sounds good—integrate the brand and you integrate the customer as well as marketing and communication activities.

Why the twain haven’t met

But the real world is a different beast. Marketing folks don't take to integration that easily and neither do the communication folks. I see this in SMEs as well.

Serious structural challenges have come about with the way marketing and marcom have evolved. A large part of the blame also lies with what is taught in the classroom and is practised.

When it comes to something like brand valuation, the focus is on what the brand brings to the company, how much will it be worth if sold and whether its value is captured in the balance sheet?

These are all good concepts but they have little to do with the value of the brand to the person who reaches for her purse and chooses one brand over another.

Trying to understand the brand from the view of the consumer will result in lasting relationships. If you consider the brand to be the relationship between the customer and the SME, then the fundamentals of customer relationship management (CRM) will all be relevant.

The problem with marketing is a lack of theory or a wrong theory. It seems like marketing has become a discipline based on the popular idea of 4Ps—product, price, promotion and place—which has little to do with customers, relationships, brands, or anything else inherent in the marketing concept.

Students are taught that marketing is about the allocation of resources to the 4Ps and that customers are pawns in the strategic use of those assets.

Customers, and not rivals, should drive strategy 

Most enterprises and academic institutions stick to the Porter model of strategy that has lost relevance in finding lasting competitive advantages.

Many of my clients—SMEs as well as MNCs—present humongous data on what their competitors do, comparative features and benefits of products, economies of scale, supplier advantages and so on. Yet they seem to know precious little about customers and the jobs to be done for them, especially in an era when competitive advantages don’t last for more than a year. Customers do not want perfect solutions always.

It seems as if competitors, not customers, drive the enterprise strategy. That is the roadblock to integrated marketing and communication approaches. The primary focus on the 4Ps has led to departments and functions for each P.

Marketing folks try to "out-manoeuvre" the competition all the time. They hardly allocate resources and talent to understand what customers want.

Integration works only when it has a positive impact on customers. When it is treated as a corporate initiative, marketing and strategy folks don’t see much value. The market seems to be treated like a game of chess instead of the Japanese game of Go, which is all about occupying more territory. Look at how the customers fit in the integrated marcom plan. Going by what is being practised, customers and their relationships with the SME are not important for most.

Who is willing to change marketing theory or science? And will someone change the way marketing is taught? The answer may not be obvious but a change is a must for the digital era—starting with the academia and then corporate honchos.

In the end, integration must be included in the curriculum first and SMEs must join hands with educators in driving the change or it will remain elusive, as it has been for a long time.