In preparing a short presentation on marketing, I was reminded of how important internal marketing[1] is in the overall marketing effort.
An organisation can have the best external campaigns in both the traditional and digital media space and great products and or services at competitive prices, yet fail to achieve market its objectives. The reason is possibly poor internal marketing.
Internal marketing is exactly what it says. It’s a specific, well resourced and ongoing marketing effort focused on the organisation to ensure that all the employees know about and are passionate about the organisations brand/s, product/s and services, and even more importantly, the customers of the organisation.
This is easier said than done. It needs the inter-functional cooperation and support from all levels of management.
A vital area of inter-functional cooperation is with the talent [human resources] management team. Time needs to be set aside to align the marketing goals and objectives with the talent’s goals and objectives. Recruiting talent that will get energised about the organisations brand/s, product/s and services is a good place to start… Developing a reward system that reinforce passion for the client is also critically important. The CMO [leader(s) of the marketing team] also needs to engage the CFO, CIO, COO in a similar fashion.
Developing, implementing and sustaining effective internal marketing is a process. Start small, show quick wins and grow understanding and sooner than you may have anticipated, you will have gained all the support and resources needed to implement internal marketing.
For more insight into internal marketing contact john@arnesenandassociates.co.za
[1] Kotler and Keller (2006). Internal marketing requires that everyone in the organisation buy into the concepts and goals of marketing and engage in choosing, providing and communicating customer value.
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