The Pitch: Profession must raise its status

By KEITH NORRIS

In the recent Readers Digest annual survey of Most Trusted Brands and Professions, marketers rated behind trade unionists and just ahead of car salesmen, scoring 4.3 out of 10.

The recent EMA Salary Survey showed general managers' salaries are up 8.7 per cent and directors of medium-sized companies up 11.3 per cent, but had marketing managers down 3 per cent.

So marketers don't seem to be trusted by the general public and are losing value in the commercial world. How can this be?

Today's professional marketer is generally young and intelligent. He - or more typically these days, she - is worldly, upwardly mobile and socially adept.

She is most certainly trustworthy, so why does the public appear to see the opposite? She is also a valuable member of the management team, so why is her salary package not keeping pace?

It's a matter of perception, and perception, as marketers know, is reality.

The public really don't know what marketing is and see it as an extension of advertising.

The truth is marketers may have done an excellent job in promoting their brands, but they've been absolutely appalling at marketing their professional standing.

Senior marketing people often have a great deal of input into corporate strategy, certainly more than senior financial or IT people. Yet they are often regarded as a tier below on the management ladder.

The marketing department is almost exclusively responsible for revenue in the annual accounts and marketers look through the corporate windscreen to try to anticipate what's ahead, while others spend most of their time concentrating on the rear-view mirror and analysing what has already happened.

Are marketers under-valued? If we are, it's probably justified because as a group we have done little to establish marketing as a profession.

Other professionals, such as accountants and lawyers, have set their own status by creating professional bodies and have done a good job of marketing their professionalism. Isn't it time marketers committed to similar ongoing training requirements and professional structure?

If we want to be taken seriously and be seen as professionals, it's time we got off our backsides and did something to demonstrate that we are worthy of a higher ranking.

* Keith Norris is chief executive of the Direct Marketing Association.

* keith@dma.co.nz


* Contributions to the Pitch are welcome and can be sent to Irene Chapple