
The lost art of Marketing
by
Richard
on Tue 24 Apr 2007 21:16 BST
Conversations that I have been having in connection with my search for work have reminded me of my interest, and skill, in strategic marketing.
Marketing is defined as matching the resources of the organisation with the needs (or "wants") of the customer. This is what I had practised in my industrial career, and the question of how to match organisational resources and customer needs is foundational to business strategy.
What puzzles me is that in the charitable sector marketing seems to be used in a much-diminished way: not referring to business strategy but to particular communication activities such as "marketing campaigns" (which the industrialist would probably call advertising, or publicity, or mail-shots).
I think, sadly, that such misuse of the word marketing contributes - in some not-for-profit organisations - to a real lack of strategic thinking about how to match creatively the resources of the organisation, which include its supporters, with the needs of its beneficiaries.