The role of Marketing within an organization can sometimes be limited.  Despite academic definitions and best-selling books by guru marketers, many times Marketing continues to be defined by the broader business by the tactics that are executed; advertising, events, sales tools.  Unless you’re a consumer packaged goods company with institutional mechanisms to measure purchase behavior, many of these tactics are only measurable by activity versus results.  It’s easy to measure how many people attend an event, use a tool or visit a website.  It’s hard to measure what impact these individual marketing tactics have on the financial metrics of an organization.  The inability to prove out Marketing as an investment that drives financial results versus an expense that drains quarterly budgets continues to challenge most Marketing departments. 

The evolution of digital marketing and the ability to tie online and offline customer behavior to sales force automation and financial systems continues to close the gap between investment and expense, but in the meantime, Marketing as a function needs to show its relevance to an organization in strategic areas which don’t have visible ties to short-term business results. 

A strategic area that is receiving attention lately is the idea of organizational purpose – the need to create a clear sense of internal value within an organization as a driving force behind organization, investment, behavior, and long-term relationships with employees and customers.  A great summary of this idea accompanied by case studies of organizations that have embraced the idea and thrived as a consequence is the book It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For  by Roy M. Spence Jr. 

Defining organizational purpose leverages the core strengths of Marketing.  It’s an exercise in developing a unique, clear and credible value proposition based upon the strengths of your organization, your culture and belief system, and where you can make money.  It’s an exercise in targeting a message against a core audience segment (and a surprising number of sub-segments) which is often times not paid its due in the marketing mix:  the internal constituents of an organization.  It’s an exercise in redefining the marketing mix to include vehicles that aren’t typically considered such as recruiting, performance management, rewards and training platforms.  It’s an exercise in complex and cascading communication that combines rational and emotional cues. 

Making Marketing relevant at a strategic level is a worthy aspiration within any organization.  Organizational Purpose may provide the path toward that relevance.