Gap Analysis. Using functional roles to identify and resolve marketing dilemmas.

In a prior post titled "What do marketers really do? The functional roles of marketing" I outlined the 4 functional and strategic roles of marketing. You will see that every organization's success is dependent on the satisfactory execution of all four roles. In addition to using these roles to understand the differences between a real marketer and a guerilla marketer or a telemarketer, we use these roles to guide our daily activities, and we also use these roles to understand the reasons for missed opportunities or customer dissatisfaction. The practical application of the 4 functional roles of marketing is called Gap Analysis. There are several gaps, some are simply academic, but the three basic marketing gaps are defined as

• Gap 1. A disconnect between research and advertising.
• Gap 2. A disconnect between advertising and delivery.
• Gap 3. A disconnect between delivery and support.

Because a gap is always a disconnect between 2 functional roles, this means there are always 2 probable causes of every missed opportunity or customer dissatisfaction and, therefore, at least 2 solutions for these, too. Let's look at some examples of each gap.

Pretend you work for Starbucks and you just received a memo from the corporate office: "Our store in Louisville has been open 4 months and we haven't broken even yet. As a matter of fact, our daily traffic is sometimes single-digit. What's wrong there?" When traffic is the problem, then it's a Gap 1 scenario, which means something was wrong with research or advertising. Research may have wrongly indicated that the consumers in the area could afford Starbucks, that competition was weak, that the prices were acceptable, or that consumers didn't have adverse opinions about corporate chain stores. Maybe the wrong consumers were interviewed. Is it possible no one conducted research and someone just assumed Starbucks would succeed on very corner? In any case, you are promoting something that customers may not want. As you can see, a lot can go wrong with research. The marketer has to review the research methodology to see if the data is valid or if false conclusions were made. On the other hand, research may be solid, but advertising was not executed well. You may have something customers really want, they just don't know that you have it. Maybe the outdoor signs haven't been installed yet, were installed improperly, are too small, or are always being stolen. Maybe the logo is offensive to locals. Maybe the advertisements are in the wrong magazines, in the wrong language, or have the wrong address on them. A lot can go wrong with advertising, too. A seemingly simple case of low traffic can have many causes and also many solutions.

Pretend you work for an online retailer and you are standing behind one your webmaster viewing site logs that show incredible traffic to your website. At first you're giddy about the number of page views and unique visitors, but then you notice that the number of orders is flat and sales are stagnant. When traffic is not the problem, but orders and revenue are, then you are dealing with a Gap 2 scenario, which means something is wrong with advertising and/or delivery. This advertising issue is different than the one described in the Starbucks example above, because customers are responding to your advertisements which indicates they probably understand your message and want your product. When traffic is not the problem, but sales are, it could be that your advertisements promise something customers want, but you don't have. The marketer has to review the advertisements to make sure that what is being promised matches with what can be delivered. On the other hand, your advertisements may reflect accurately what you're supposed to have, but customers may have a hard time finding the product they seek, the product may be sold out, your site may have too many errors, the online shopping experience may be confusing, the price may be wrong, you may not accept a certain credit card type, or you may not provide enough product information to help customers feel comfortable about making a final purchasing decision. The marketer has to review the experience to identify and resolve the reason(s) customers are exiting. Again, you see that a simple problem of traffic but little or no revenue can have 2 causes and 2 or more solutions.

Pretend you work for Ford. Like all automakers, service accounts for more than 30% of your profit. You are reviewing a report from the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) that shows more than 50% of new Ford owners do not have their cars serviced by the Ford dealer where they bought their new car. Instead, they are bringing their new Ford to a local mechanic. This is a bad trend, but no mystery. You are an experienced marketer and you know that when traffic or sales are not the problem and frequency is, then you're dealing with a Gap 3 scenario. Something is wrong with delivery or management. Something may have happened during delivery, i.e. during the the customer's purchasing experience. Maybe an employee was not nice or your dealership was not clean, but the price was right so the customer purchased his new car vowing never to return. Maybe the sales person forgot to tell the customer about your professionally-staffed service bay. Maybe the customer visited your service bay and your mechanics were slovenly, misbehaving, or confrontational with another customer. Much can go wrong during the delivery phase that impacts a customers attitudes about your company. The marketer needs to assess the customer experience and resolve the issues that may lead to lost sales. On the other hand, everything can go perfectly during the sales process, but you can misstep on the customer management side. Maybe you simply forgot to thank the customer for being a new customer, maybe you forgot to send the customer a service reminder, or maybe you sent a service reminder but the phone number was wrong or busy and the customer couldn't make an appointment. Maybe the customer wanted to make an appointment, but you don't offer a free courtesy car and a competitor does. Again, much can go wrong post-purchase that the marketer has to address in order to appease the customer and maximize revenue.

In each of the examples above, we showed how lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction are linked to a disconnect between 2 functional marketing roles. There are always 2 probable reasons for a marketing dilemma and, therefore, always at least 2 solutions.

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Where's the marketer? The organizational role of marketing.

Check out the management team of any publicly traded corporation on Yahoo Finance and you'll see that every corporation has a team of executives that typically includes a CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, EVP of HR, and a General Counsel. These executives manage the corporation's assets.

• CFO manages capital
• COO manages facilities
• CTO manages technology
• HR manages people
• GC manages intellectual property and contracts
• CIO manages data

Where's the marketing executive? Only seven Fortune 100 companies have a CMO on their executive teams because marketers manage customer relationships and most companies have not yet recognized customers as an asset (they only recently recognized data as an asset).

Although marketers have not yet broken into the C-Level ranks yet, the role of marketing is absolutely critical to the success of every organization. The marketer is responsible for understanding what is taking place outside the organization, identifying profitable opportunities, and providing the Chiefs listed above with information that helps them to align the company's resources to capture those opportunities. Marketing is, therefore strategic (marketing activities that erroneously include the word marketing like telemarketing, guerilla marketing, and punk marketing are tactical).

The Chiefs seldom have to leave their offices. Without a marketer, the CFO would not know what type of financing customers expect or prefer, the COO would not know what to manufacture, what to procure, how many of a product to make or where to ship them, the CTO would not know what kind of systems are required to service and support customers, and HR would not know what kind of skills employees need to have.

Companies like Apple grow during a recession because they have a strong marketing function that understands the marketplace and provides the Chiefs with timely and accurate information that helps them to optimize the alignment of the corporations resources with profitable opportunities. Companies like GM fail because they have a weak marketing function that is not connected with the customer. Instead of building more electric cars, GM scrapped the EV-1 to launch Hummer, a gas guzzling SUV that it sold off in 2009 to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company of China.

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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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