Brand is a recognised source of competitive advantage for firms of all sizes (Young 2005). By looking at what is at the centre of a firm’s activity, management is actually setting the scene for what the company is about. ‘Core competency’ is often so obvious, that people overlook it as a given thing. In our consultancy experience we often find SME’s that offer a service or product which is perceived as the most important task of the firm; money, expertise and resources are dedicated to it.
However, somehow in the midst of ‘doing’, firms often can’t define or emphasise their competency in such ways that it would give them competitive advantage in the market. To improve the competitive advantage, we suggest to clients to look into three areas of strategic planning. The firms’ core competencies need to be identified, Market trends to be scouted for and competitor intelligence need to gathered to arrive at meaningful strategic planning outcomes.
This is where we ask- who is doing it? In smaller firms, marketing is often understaffed or not at all present. Increasing organisational capability is becoming vital if any firm wants to grow or expand. How would you know that your invested dollars are giving you return? The role of marketing in your organisation needs to be seen clearly. We encounter very different types of marketing personnel in organisations, not always with the set of skills required to identify competitive advantage for the company. In our upcoming posts, we will discuss some of the different ‘marketer types’ we think of.
Marketer Profiles for SME’s (PART 1)
Earlier on we discussed that marketers profile should support the firm’s intent, life circle stage and further its competitive advantage.
PROFILE: Senior Marketer, Corporate
In a larger organisation, the marketing department consists of a team of marketers who have complimentary administrative and strategic skills. Senior marketers are often strategic planners who are guiding the company.
Under their leadership, junior staff are collecting market research, research competitors and execute and administer the marketing plan. Brand development and advertising in most cases is outsourced. Corporate Marketing’s overarching objective is stewardship of the brand.
PROFILE: Senior Marketer, SME
In SME’s this is usually a combined skill set resting within one person. This person should have both, administrative and strategic skills. This is very difficult to find, as the marketing field requires a large set of skills and people tend to specialise in one of the areas of marketing expertise as typically required by larger organisations. Often SME senior marketers have a stake in the company and spearhead their investment.
Senior marketers are on board either from the early start-up phase or when the company hits the financial glass ceiling where further growth is only possible with customer relation management, positioning strategy and regular budgeting. SME owners have to identify whether the marketer has the right skill set to transit from strategic to administrative task set and back.
We commonly see job ads asking one marketer ‘to design ads’, ‘create brochures’ write marketing plans’, ‘liaise with sales teams’, ‘conduct research’ and ‘manage events’. The ‘on a shoestring, one size fits all, versatile and exciting busy role’ approach is asking for the amalgamation of ‘Graphic Designer’, ‘Marketing Manager’, ‘Marketing Analyst’ and ‘Events Coordinator’ in one person.
Would you trust the effective and timely delivery of your service order from one single person attempting to explore, survey, mine, quote and sell gold from the mine you own? In the next part we discuss more on the profile of SME marketers.