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Marketing should be made cross-functional
The function that drives an organization is marketing. This is said so mainly because of its absolute closeness with the consumer. Just like other functions, marketing works as a separate department with its own objectives and goals, in line with those of the organization.
So, the question arises, can the philosophy of marketing be made cross-functional? The idea of marketing becoming inter-functional is related to the idea of customer orientation of an organization. In 1954, Peter Drucker had proposed that an organization in order to be customer-centric must adopt the marketing concept. One of the steps that will help in adopting the marketing concept is integration of functions. The key to achieve the goals of the organization consists of the company being more efficient than its competitors in creating, delivering and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets.
Marketing needs to be involved itself with other functions if customer satisfaction is the sole goal of the organization because marketing alone cannot be expected to meet it, the performance of other departments also plays a major role in bringing about customer satisfaction. However brilliant a marketing concept is, it is very hard to implement it. Only some few companies have been successful in doing so. Wolverine Controller company, an Indianapolis based producer of flow controllers is one such company which was successful in making marketing become a cross functional organization. This should serve as a model for an organization that is planning to take up the marketing concept and become cross functional in its approach.
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