Rutendo Nyeve, [email protected]
THE marketing profession must shed its image as a support department and take centre stage in corporate strategy if businesses are to grow and contribute meaningfully to national economic development, industry leaders have said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the recent 18th Annual Marketers Convention in Victoria Falls, Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) chief executive officer Dr Gillian Rusike said this year had been an amazing year for the marketing fraternity, with training programmes increasingly moving into artificial intelligence and digital marketing.
He said the impact of this capacity-building was now visible across the corporate world, with parastatals and para-government organisations coming in their numbers to upskill their marketing professionals.
“There is a realisation that marketing needs to stand out and needs to play a pivotal role in strategy development, even in the growth of the economy, because when you talk of marketing, really, it is the engine of business strategy,” Dr Rusike said.
“There is no organisation that can grow or develop if its marketing is still acting as a department.”
The convention, which focused on pushing marketing from the periphery to the centre of organisational decision-making, produced resolutions challenging marketers to claim their space at the boardroom table rather than waiting to be invited.
“The conversations that have been taking place, particularly today, have been on how we can push marketing to a level where it takes centre stage in organisations,” Dr Rusike said.
“We’re coming from a common position: that it’s us marketers who actually need to take the centre stage in making sure that marketing in organisations is understood.
“You should not wait, as a marketer, to be recognised in your organisation or to be given a seat elsewhere. You need to take that front-foot step forward to claim that position.”
Ms Rumbidzai Hondora who delivered the keynote address challenged marketers to pursue competitive growth undertaken through innovation, inclusive markets and sustainable value.
“The key part of my message was that anyone can deliver growth, but competitive growth leads to sustainability, because competitive growth ensures that any player has a distinct edge over the next player — hence they will always be sustainable going into the future,” she said.
Ms Hondora stressed that innovation must be purposeful.
“Innovation shouldn’t be just innovation for the sake of innovation. It needs to address gaps, pain points and opportunities that exist in the market,” she said, urging marketers to leverage consumer insight to identify those opportunities.
She described growth as inclusive, whether through increasing consumption among existing customers or accessing new customers who can contribute to the bottom line and insisted it must be sustainable.
“The future of business is being profitable and sustainable today,” she said.
However, Ms Hondora warned that marketers must earn their place in decision-making by demonstrating measurable value.
“Marketers have a role to play in the business, and they need a seat at the table when it comes to business decisions being made. But for them to do this, they also need to know how to position their service, and they need to be able to link their campaigns to return on investment and to the bottom
line for the business,” she said.
“If you focus on just a campaign, without what needs to be achieved and what the benefit to the business is, it becomes a hard sell. They need to take a seat at the table, but they also need to know how to earn their space so that they can deliver for the company.”
The resolutions come as Zimbabwe’s business sector faces mounting pressure to innovate, compete and contribute to national development goals, with marketers positioning themselves as central to that agenda.
Dr Rusike said MAZ would carry the momentum into corporate planning cycles, ensuring marketers participate fully in the development and growth of their companies.
