As most functions begin in smaller organizations, the marketing function can start with a single “player-leader.” This is a marketer who likely has prior industry and stage relevant experience (think “ecommerce marketer in a start-up stage business). And often, marketing ends up reporting to the sales function in smaller sized businesses. Or, the marketing title and responsibility is merged together, creating a title like VP Sales & Marketing. Other times, marketing responsibility is carried by a founder, or an outside marketing consultant. As mentioned earlier however, the marketing function can evolve to be quite complex as an organization grows & expands. At one extreme, when a business’s revenue is driven by a direct sales force, marketing often serves a parallel sibling role to the sales function, and may have a less complex set of responsibilities. However, in an ecommerce business for example, or any business that drives revenue via an intermediary—channel strategy, direct web/Internet selling and/or ecommerce, etc.— marketing becomes the fulcrum off of which all revenue is generated, and is therefore responsible for both marketing and sales, versus the more traditional responsibilities.
To go back to some of the first principles of marketing, it is the function that houses all brand responsibilities (brand marketing), along with all publicly facing content (written, audio, visual, video, etc.) However, depending upon the industry and stage of company any or all of these components may fall under the aegis of the marketing responsibility:
Including but not limited to some of the following marketing functional subcategories
Often is the case that the larger the potential buyer base, the more complex the marketing function. A good posterchild for this is Amazon, Google, or Facebook. With over 7 billion in global population, marketing their products, services & brand is geometrically more difficult than a business-to-business product with a small buyer population focused on a narrow application. Exemplified by industries like aerospace, military & defense, or car manufacturers where there are fewer than 100 worldwide.
Some of these marketing responsibilities are often procured and executed via a third party, with examples of external partners that include advertising agencies, branding firms, internet marketing agencies, or outside public relations firms.
Finally, marketing functions and their complexity vary significantly based on several macro influencers:
Is the business—
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