Market Orientation: Where Is the Problem?

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department alone. (David Packard)

Intro

This time, I have to interrupt the series of articles on Marketing Models and Management Science (which you can still find on my LinkedIn profile). I believe it’s urgent to reflect—or rather, raise an alarm—about the critical need to recognize the TRUE role of marketing and stop postponing the strategic and organizational decisions it entails.

Why Is This So Urgent?

This alarm comes after reading insights from two authoritative sources, which I thank for their frequent and valuable stimuli:

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the date of this McKinsey article (Connecting for Growth: A Makeover for Your Marketing Operating Model, authored by about ten contributors).

Almost simultaneously, I came across the latest article by Bernard Marr, one of the world’s leading experts in marketing and artificial intelligence: The 6 Most Powerful AI Marketing Trends That Will Transform Your Business in 2025.

At first glance, I thought the McKinsey article dated back to the late Middle Ages and that its authors had unearthed it to start a series on marketing history. But no—it’s from October of last year!

The Findings

Here are some key findings from the McKinsey article, summarizing research conducted in Europe and North America with 104 marketing executives from companies of various sizes.

The ironic part (if we can call it that) is that these companies all operate in consumer and retail sectors, which have relatively direct contact with the market. Imagine the results if the research extended to B2B sectors!

The most striking fact, in my opinion, is that only a minority of the executives interviewed oversee essential tools for a genuinely market-oriented company, such as pricing, sales, and e-commerce.

Don’t even get me started on other areas like innovation, research and development, and AI management—the very subject of the second article.

Fewer than one-fifth of McKinsey respondents believe they have adequate resources or the ability to influence major business decisions. And less than one-tenth have a say in promoting and managing AI adoption in marketing activities!

The Consequences

How can companies capitalize on AI’s vast potential in market orientation if marketing is treated as just another department and not THE central function of any organization aiming to create value for itself and the market?

In my small way, along with friends and colleagues from the Italian Marketing Development Association, I’ve supported UNI in developing the first Reference Practice on Market Orientation for Organizations (UNI/PdR 133:2022), which can be downloaded for free from UNI’s website. However, our contribution seems like a drop in the ocean of the persistent perception of marketing as just one of many corporate functions, with narrowly defined responsibilities and often limited to communication activities alone.

A Diagnosis?

Since it’s hard to believe that intelligent, skilled leaders of successful companies fail to see the need and urgency of taking on a leadership role in market orientation, structuring their organizations accordingly, we must ask: Where is the problem?

In all honesty, I haven’t yet found a plausible answer, though I suspect several contributing factors, some cultural and unlikely to change quickly.

Needless to say, your input would be greatly appreciated.