What do marketers really do? The functional roles of marketing.

Your laptop contains a computer with a built-in keyboard and display (among other parts). If your friend held out a keyboard and said "hey, look at my new laptop," you'd reply "that's not a laptop." A keyboard is part of a laptop, but it's not a laptop.

Although it's obvious that a keyboard is not a laptop, it's not so obvious to most people what marketing really is or isn't. I've met confessed professional marketers whose activities were limited to writing press releases or spending their days attending trade shows or answering customers' phone calls. Watch the movie "What Women Want" or television series like "Trust Me" and "Mad Men" and you will get a very sexy albeit limited picture of marketing. Go to Barnes & Nobles and you'll find dozens of books by marketing gurus with titles like "Pain Killer Marketing," "Guerilla Marketing" and "Punk Marketing." We see signs on benches and billboards that say "See this sign? Outdoor marketing works." All these are examples of parts of marketing, and none is really marketing. A keyboard is part of a laptop, but not a laptop. Advertising is part of marketing, but not marketing.

The word M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G in practice is sadly misused and over-used. Many business people call themselves professional marketers, when they are really only responsible for part of marketing. The marketing executive is really responsible for designing and managing the entire customer experience. Professional marketers

1. identify customer needs, preferences and expectations,
2. communicate to target customers,
3. manage the delivery of products to customers, and
4. support and manage customer relationships.

These roles are often departmentalized in four functional areas: research, advertising and promotions, sales and service, support and management.

1. The research department is constantly studying the industry and marketplace in order to understand customers' changing needs, expectations, and preferences and to identify the most profitable opportunities. The result of good research is a line of products that customers want.
2. The advertising department is responsible for communicating features and benefits to customers. The result of good advertising is demand for products and traffic.
3. The delivery team is tasked with helping customers to understand features and benefits, evaluate and purchase products. The result of successful delivery is revenue and customer delight.
4. The support team makes sure customers use products correctly and remain loyal patrons. The result of good customer management is low buyers remorse and frequent loyalty.

Coordinating all these tasks so that customers have consistent experiences with the company requires know-how, skill, resources, and time. Good marketers have an understanding of research, statistics, sociology, economics, psychology, design, pop culture, media, current affairs, communication, and technology.

In order to call yourself a marketer, you have to manage all 4 roles: research, advertising, service, and support. If you are involved in only part of the customer experience, then you are on one of four different marketing teams. Now that you know the full scope of a marketer's activities, you may understand why someone who calls himself a "telemarketer" is not really a marketer, but simply a member of the sales and service team. Someone who says they are a guerilla marketer is really a guerilla advertiser. And someone who says they are an event marketer is really a promoter.

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