The end of Spastic Marketing

The End of Spastic Marketing
Market Experts, OCT, 2007 by PETER LAW
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the importance of the marketing function skyrocketed within the technology industry. The industry was no longer driven by merely "inventing" new products, as more companies relied on industry standard components or systems, making products far more similar. Marketing came to the fore as becoming "customer centric" and "building your brand" were seen as the key differentiators for technology companies.
This fundamental change to a more substantial and "real" marketing function was a major sea change in the technology industry. While this certainly created new opportunities for marketing professionals and new ways to add value to the organization, there was downside as well. As the activities within the marketing function grew, an insidious trend moved forward as well. That trend was the dis-integration of a cohesive marketing function into many diverse and uncoordinated marketing activities. It was the rise of "spastic" marketing.
The fact that marketing teams were not in lock step, and the notion of "integrated marketing programs" was as foreign as in-house ad agencies. Yet, this negative situation had little impact as a period of insatiable customer demand created success for nearly every technology company, regardless of any marketing faux pas. And while that worked in the go-go years of the late '90s, the reality is that in these more austere times, we don't have that luxury anymore.