Total Integrated Marketing: Breaking the Bounds of the Function

Visit this site or read below for the Denver Post Review: http://namme.geekier.com/features/book_reviews/031130_integratedMarketing: It's a Way of LifeBy Judith Lynn HowardThe Denver Post Total Integrated Marketing: breaking the bounds of the function by James Mac Hulbert, Noel Capon and Nigel F. Piercy (Free Press, $28) A paradigm shift will be required for some managers when they read this book: "Total Integrated Marketing Companies cannot achieve superior performance by placing marketing in a functional silo," the authors write. " World-class companies do not behave this way. Marketing must have a coordinated cross-functional, cross-boundary, cross-interest external focus that links together all parts of an organization and its external partners." What does this mean? Instead of dumping marketing activities on five people who work on the company's seventh floor, the authors suggest that companies take a holistic approach to marketing and get everyone involved. The authors provide meaty segments on how everyone - from the CEO to accountant - can contribute to the company's marketing activities. They also discuss strategy in an business era where customers and competitors and environments constantly change. Strategy is not the only objective, however. "The intellectual capability to develop a sound strategy plan may be a necessary condition for success in a competitive environment, but it is not sufficient. Success cannot be achieved unless organizational units work together to deliver the benefits of the core strategy to customers. Without Total Integrated Marketing, the entire effort will come to naught; in the competitive markets of the twenty-first century everyone must market." By the end of the book, the authors underscore how marketing must be a way of life for a company. In fact, the authors say, Total Integrated Marketing is not exactly new. In fact, "it is what marketing set out to be in the first place, but generally failed to achieve," the authors write. "The real challenge is implementation." And what does it take to be a leader who understands the Total Integrated Marketing philosophy? Leaders who are "responsive yet show initiative, learn new behaviors but not forget important lessons, understand human resources yet demand high performance, be customer-sensitive but remain competitive, create shareholder value yet not be shortsighted. To reconcile these pressures demands a high caliber of creativity and leadership." Expect this book to hit the right notes for veteran marketing executives and those leaders new to marketing, but eager to nurture a competitive advantage for their companies.

Total Integrated Marketing provides a perspective of marketing that is rarely addressed in the business literature: marketing within the organization, not outside the organization. While the strength of marketing is its primary and frequently unique concern with the external environment - customers and competition - the authors teach us that to be effective, marketing must "break the bounds" of marketing by working effectively with all other functions within the company, including finance, operations, sales, research and development, customer service, human resources and the CEO. Taking each in turn, the book identifies the activities and vocabulary that marketers must learn and use to produce business results. The authors argue convincingly that the information explosion driven by technology makes this more important now than ever before. Marketing is no longer the owner of business-critical data. Customer relationship management (CRM) information is a by-product of operations, IT (Information Technology) controls the instantaneous communications with customers and prospects through the web site, supply chain partners provide intermediary feedback, and sales teams have direct results of satisfaction among key accounts. Therefore, if the "brand" of the marketing function -- its unique promise of value to the organization -- is its understanding of customers, marketing must work closely with other departments to fulfill its promise. Frequently marketers see themselves as the Rodney Dangerfield of business -- getting no respect in the organization. By applying the lessons and tools in this important new book, all marketers in all organizations can win stature and influence for the marketing function.