In defence of marketing

I’ve been asked whether my previous blog was an attack on the marketing functions within consulting firms: the answer is an unequivocal “no”.

Anyone who has heard me speak about the critical factors which will determine success or failure in the next couple of years – years that we all have to assume will be quite tough for consultants – will know that one of the things I put most emphasis on is differentiation. Although, as consultants we’d like to believe otherwise, many clients still struggle to tell firms apart, especially those within the same segment. That would be a problem in any environment, but it’s doubly so in a shrinking market where everyone is fighting for market share. If you’re not absolutely clear what you stand for, then the chances are you’ll lose ground to firms that are. If anything, consulting firms need to invest more in marketing, not less.

And yet many consulting firms persist in describing themselves in the most generic terms.... At the risk of incurring the wrath of a different audience, I’d say the problem here is the consultants themselves. Too close to the services they provide and too busy trying to provide them, the marketing material consultants write often relies on three Cs:

• Characteristics (why talk about the benefits to clients when you can describe the wizardry of your approach?)
• Complexity (when in doubt, dazzle people with diagrams and jargon)
• Cliche (marketing always looks greener on the other side of the fence, so why not steal from your competitors’ material?)

Marketing people have the rather thankless task of trying to change these ingrained habits. And it’s an uphill battle.  There are still consultants out there that think that marketing consists of a brochure and a few client lunches, but where’s the differentiation in that? Nurturing relationships is, of course, important and it’s something that consultants do very well.  But it’s complementary to marketing – finding innovative and effective ways of building awareness among clients who have never heard of you and creating distance between yourself and your competitors.