What Part of Marketing Can Be Outsourced, Really?

Brian OjiCEO Inversion Ideas

Can You outsource your marketing?

Hold on, what Exactly is marketing?

And how is it different from; Advertising, Promotion, Media Placement and Public Relations?

Marketing is all the activities by a company to generate revenues; from creating a product to closing a sale

The goal of marketing is revenue generation

And the chief marketing officer of any company is the one at the strategy helm; usually the CEO.

What Is Marketing?

Marketing entails a great deal of activities but can all be broadly distilled for understanding into the 4 Ps. (Or 7Ps depending on the books you have read). Product, Pricing, Placement, Promotion (you can add; Packaging, Positioning and People)

So everything that goes into Product development, everything that goes into product Pricing, everything that goes into product Placement and everything that goes into product Promotion…is all Marketing.

So can marketing as a whole be outsourced to consultants? No. To do that is to hand over your entire company to the consultant to run and then it is no more your company. Simple.

Remember those 4Ps?

There are special services that help you do ‘Marketing’ as we have described it better.

These are activities that help you; for instance make a better product that responds to a clear demand in a real market.

Oftentimes a bright idea for a new product is not enough; so your company needs to take a step further in establishing clear demand in the market that you serve (or intend to serve). For this you would require Research.

Usually, your company may know little or nothing about research so, you Outsource! This is called: Market Research.

But What Can You Outsource

The same research can help you with the next marketing activity: Pricing (if you decide to take them in that order).

So what is your pricing in relation to competitors, if there is a variance; why? Who are their suppliers? What machinery do they use? What advantages do you have in relation to them and vice versa (could be proximity to market/resources, goodwill etc).

These are questions that come up in the board room when you sit to determine your ‘Marketing’ within a period of time. For this you may need to invite a consultant to help. This is Competitor/ Industry Research.

…and Pricing Too

Still on research (research seems like its one of the most important marketing tools, yet many overlook it and latch on to the more glossy aspects of marketing, which we would get to in a moment.) So, you may also want to know; which markets serve you best in relation to your customers and the times in which we live?

Sometimes the answer to this jumps right at you. E.g: Sell exercise books close to a school, build fast food restaurants in business districts. However if where to place your product is not as obvious as these or you seem not to be getting as much sales from your point of sale locations, you may want to invite a consultant to do: Distribution Planning/Placement Research for you.

Or if you are to busy to manage your product distribution (which is very possible), you can hire a consultant to help you make deals with retail outlets and online malls (for instance). So this is an aspect you can outsource. However, ensure that you remain profitable and the margins and price points for each product is clear between you and consultant.

How About Placement?

This is where the glamour begins. Advertising, Promotion, Media Placement and Public Relations, Events, Digital, Campaign Development…all come under here. Neither nor all of these should be mistaken for Marketing.

As we have already seen Marketing is way more that these. But here is the place that every business almost always needs some kind of consultant. Here is the domain of Marketing Communications. Note that there is a difference between Marketing and Marketing Communications.

I am sure that it is obvious. But then Let me explain again: Marketing is all the activities by a company to generate revenues; from creating a product to closing a sale. Marketing communications is the strategic announcement of your product to your target market usually through several mediums.

Then…there is Promotion

Usually companies outsource the writing of their Advert copy (advert text/message). They outsource graphics designs, video production, app development etc. and any other form of communication they decide to utilise.

The activities under Promotion include: Campaign/Concept Development, Design, Media Planning/Buying, PR, Events Management, Printing and Audio Visual Production.

Most probably you are not an expert in all these, so when you get to this point, you can proceed to outsource.

Some companies are actually called Marketing Communications companies and they handle everything (probably have different departments that handle each aspect), so with them, outsourcing is made easy. Interestingly, some of them do research. But then…look out specifically for research experience/competence before you outsource your research.

Outsource, Outsource, Outsource!

Okay, maybe they are not so new, but then not as old as the first 4.

Packaging, Positioning and People are the ‘new’ additions to the marketing mix and sometimes to do them right, consultants may come in handy. Take Packaging for example. Packaging refers to all the visual elements of your business encountered by your customers. So from the way your colours go, the way your staff look, the way your office looks, the way your website is, business cards, memorabilia, letters, envelopes everything; even up to the intonation with which your company name is called (yea, try mentioning the name Zappos with the stress on the second syllable and you have quite a different sound).

So all these ‘niceties’ could be determined by you and your team at a board retreat or you could decide to invite a Brand Consultant. Now remember even though packaging has to do with visuals, many external things are controlled by internal programming; especially when it comes the way your people look and communicate your company brand. So you could hire a good branding consultant to help properly define and articulate all the aspects of your company’s Packaging. If you hire a Brand Consultant though, remember to ask her for an empirical justification for the branding suggestions she is making. For example, if she says; ‘the company colour should henceforth be red and the male staff should wear shorts to work on Tuesdays” Reply calmly with the timeless question: “Why?”

Yeah…and about those three (new) Ps

The next is positioning. This is about the perception of your brand in the minds of your consumers. Usually this is positive or negative to varying degrees.

Companies usually hire consultants to talk to their customers and ascertain if this perception is negative or positive. Of course, when it is negative you want to work hard at changing this, but first you want to know why.

Usually the customers would provide further information on the reason for their perception; (depending on the direction of questioning sometimes though).

Sometimes your feedback would necessitate that you adjust your entire product, change your price, rework your points of sale or just change the message of your promotion; these are conclusions you can reach just from analysing the data from customers’ feedback. To get this; both data and analysis, in view of making informed upgrades, you may want to hire a Consumer Research Consultant and therefore outsource that bit.

A Position on Positioning

The last P is People. Remember as you map out your ‘Marketing’ it is people that would perform each role. This people need to be told exactly what you require of them.

Sometimes they need motivation, training, breaks, remuneration, bonuses and so many other things to keep them at optimum. Usually, if you have a small company, the CEO can handle these functions conveniently and maybe invite a friend to speak to the staff from time to time.

However as the company expands and to ensure that productivity is continuous; some of these thing need to be properly scheduled and completely outsourced. This is where a Human Resource Consultant Comes in handy.

Note however, Human Resource is a very vast field and there are several things involved in some of the individual activities listed above. You want to be clear on what you want as well as hire a consultant that has worked with businesses at your level.

People…?

We have established that Marketing cannot be outsourced; but there are several aspects and tools you use to ensure your ‘Marketing’ is effective (i.e generating revenue optimally). These tools you can outsource, if you do not have core competence in them.

The table in the next page provides a summary.

So…

When You are Handling This…

You Can Outsource This…

Product Development Market Research

Pricing Competitor/Industry Research

Placement Retail/Outlets Negotiations and Planning

Promotions Marketing Communications Activities

Packaging Brand Consulting

Positioning Customer Research

People Human Resource Consulting

Summarily Saying…

I am Brian Oji, CEO of Marketing Communications Firm, Inversion Ideas.

It has been a joy sharing these thoughts with you:

We can stay connected on my Social Media pages:

LinkedIn: /Brian Oji

Facebook: /Brian Oji

Twitter: @Brianoji

For more resources, you can visit our website at www.inversionideas.com.

Cheers!

About Me