Marketers might be second only to bankers as the most out-of-work professionals in this GFC. The latter were almost certainly part of the problem, but why aren’t marketers considered part of the solution?

Marketer’s lack of board-level influence and the discretionary nature of marketing spend has long been bemoaned, imho, best by Kellogg Professor Sawhney in his manifesto on “what ails marketing?”. But the greater concern is how long this has been known – Prof. Sawhney wrote in 2004! Seems someone high up expects that by now we should have found Wanamaker’s “wasted half”. He died in 1922.

Marketing’s redemption surely must be hinged to a definition of its role in helping business weather this storm. So what is that role? I’ll have a guess:

Get with the program – COOs long ago got lean; CIOs are getting agile. If one thing is permanent from this recession it will be the call for “more from less”. We need our own version of marketing operations excellence if we are to meet it.

Get numerate – You know this, but effective marketing is a function of two things: branding and insight. The latter tends to come from either poets or mathematicians. My bet is on the mathematicians finding the informational advantage we need.

Get together – Let us not forget that marketing is but one part of a value chain whose purpose is to SELL. Assuming there are still only 5 Ps, my guess is marketers control less today than in Kotler’s 1950s. You may get them back, but in the meantime aligning all parts of your firm’s value chain in a customer oriented architecture would serve all well.

Our personal and collective exposure to the global financial crisis should make us concerned. But then again who isn’t? Our challenges have been with us much longer.