The theme of tinkering around the edges can also be applied to today’s marketers.  Look at the mirage that is e-marketing.  Sure, some works – and Linked-in communities provide a very good example of that.  Yet time after time, we find companies saving pennies on print and going totally online.  It just doesn’t work.  There is a substantial proportion of the business community – at least half by our reckoning – who say that they NEVER respond to online or email marketing pieces.  What utter twit would therefore save a couple of thousand on print and mail, in order to studiously ignore half their target market who might represent a potential market of several millions?  It just doesn’t make sense.

In business and in politics, it’s the people who can see the wood for the tress who succeed.

In fact, there are two issues that the successful party or coalition must address immediately and seriously.  First is the economic black hole of the UK public deficit (expected to be around £70bn once the temporary bank prop-up allowance is removed).  The other is giving small and medium-sized businesses proper recognition and a strong representation to government.

I believe that the existing small business organisations are frankly ineffective in forcefully carrying the SME lobby to parliament.  There is plenty of wooing of large firms by political parties, but only token recognition really being given to the 1.5 million firms that produce half the country’s revenues.  The Conservatives have pledged that 25% of government contracts would be awarded to small businesses.  The LibDems say they will force banks to lend more to small businesses.  Labour says it will provide £4bn in new venture capital for growth businesses.

All this is very well, but what pressure group is going to scrutinise government and lobby for real delivery on these promises?  In my personal view, certainly not the feeble organisations that currently claim to represent SME interests.

So with a new government, we need a new representative organisation to drive through SME issues.  Any volunteers?

One sobering thought though.  Our survey also found that over 50% of the business population felt none of the political parties could be trusted to manage economic recovery.  Politicians of all colours need to get re-engaged with the UK’s wealth creation community, whoever wins on May 6th.

Our sector seems to have an extraordinary propensity for internicine squabbles, and a highly developed talent for being unable to see the wood for the trees.  Part of the issue has to be that our trade bodies are hugely fragmented into a series of subcategories – sales promotion, advertising, direct marketing, digital marketing, live events, and so on.  These are all largely the result of a yesteryear situation where different media were competing for the same above-the-line media spend.  Yet are we not now living in a converged world? The majority of campaigns and customer management strategies are now conceived – media-wise – as multi-channel.   So the old  negotiating position, pitting media against one another in a largely false  ‘either/or’ fight, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Therefore, a fragmented set of trade associations makes no sense, even from a practical point of view.

It’s time the marketing industry had a single body to represent its interests.  None currently exists.  There would be no point in an existing body like the IPA or the DMA taking over the whole marketing scene – their single issue past (and frankly flabby track-record on effective lobbying), would not help present a holistic image.  So a new group is needed, possibly a federated concern of which existing associations make up the subgroups.

Getting agreement that such a body should exist is probably not going to be too difficult.  Getting co-operation between the egoistic heads of trade associations may be a little more challenging.

If we keep the analysis of the marketing industry’s health focused on traditional silos, then we will learn nothing.  What does the category of direct marketing now mean?  Is a DM campaign that drives web traffic categorised as direct marketing, or online?  How do we compartmentalise an online campaign that is designed to pull people into an event?

The task is not an easy one.  The various traditional marketing techniques are being combined in many interesting and productive ways.  Few of which fit neatly into Bellwether categories.  Does that mean that Bellwether’s measurement is redundant?  No.  But the barometer of our industry needs to morph with the times, at least with some covering notes about these imaginative media combinations.

In truth, marketing and sales are the recognisable big categories that are coming together.  Indeed, a PR campaign now may be the principal driver of a sales initiative.  Too long have silos of technique determined how we are measured.  And this does not help professional buyers understand how they can really be benefiting from our services.

Over the last 15 years, supported by his senior colleagues, Paul has steered the transformation of the company towards a multi-discipline marketing organisation that is firmly focused on delivering hard, measurable results for its clients.  Paul leads the company, but plays a directorial and advisory role in each client account.  He also leads the company’s activities in market research, strategic consultancy and digital marketing.