Why marketing doesn't run businesses in Russia
In how many companies does the marketing director sit on the board? How much do marketing decisions affect other parts of the business? My take on the problem.
6 reasons why things turned out this way
- Historical. A young market with niches, still in the era of production and sales. If you could make it, someone would buy it. That is starting to stop working, but the market is far from saturated.
- Economic. Low competition in the consumer sector. The main high-margin money is in raw materials and monopolies, where marketing isn't needed.
- Managerial. Managers, including marketing managers, often lack training. The production-first school dates back to Soviet times, and the marketing pyramid was borrowed from somewhere.
- Professional. A weak professional community. Marketers are often each other's enemies. They fought each other instead of fighting for professional standards.
- Track record. There are no high-profile marketing-driven success stories. VkusVill as a model of marketing? "They just have the right financial model," the owner will say.
- Linguistic. The word "marketing" has been taken over by promo agencies and digital promotion people. A company hires a marketing director, and the job turns out to be running the corporate social media.
There is a kind of marketing in Russia that has succeeded: it is called product management. But it doesn't work in every sector.