There are two things that an organization must get right in order to succeed: marketing and product design. While some people believe the key factor in organizational success is employee morale and performance, this is simply not the case. Firstly, an organization must have a product or service that gains enough public attention that it is able to generate revenue. Without this revenue, the organization would have no way of paying its employees in the first place. In order to gain more attention to its product or service, an organization must have an effective marketing campaign.
As I mentioned above, a common counter argument for marketing and product design being the foundation of a successful organization, is that hiring the right people (recruitment) is more important. This is argued because employee turnover is very expensive and has a negative effect on an organization’s morale. This is not something an organization should have to worry about if they have a great product and marketing strategy. This is because a strong built organization will attract the right employees. If the employee turnover rate is high, it should be able to easily cover the costs of hiring potentially better, more committed people.
When an organization prioritizes its marketing and product design, it creates a stable base for the organization to operate off of. If the public does not hear about its product, then there have not been enough resources allocated to marketing. If people are not happy with the product, then there is a problem with its product design. The way in which an organization generates revenue is by people buying the product or service it offers. If they do not have significant product, there will not be enough revenue to cover its costs, including payroll.
3 replies on “The Case for Marketing and Product Design”
I said things that are similar in my blog post. Although selection is very important, the public still needs to know about the product and marketing and other aspects of the business are very important. The counter to this is that you may get better results initially rather than having to pour more money into the sector of the business.
Your first paragraph is well said in the sense that the only way to succeed initially is having a good product and good awareness of the product. Then comes the need for a proper recruitment process.
I think you make a really good argument for investing more in the products over the people. It really depends on the culture the company wants to create, so if they want more focus on the products, it will attract the kind of people that want that too without having to sink a bunch of money into finding them. I think that can go too far and result in a workplace where no one connects with each other and so there is nothing to keep employees there, but you make a good argument for how the company could overcome that. Good post!
I think you did a really good job illustrating why it is important for companies to have a strong product and marketing presence. Though this is certainly not the extent of what a company needs to be successful it is a key part. You brought up a good point that the companies need to attract people to buy their products in order to be able to employ people to work for them in the first place. I think it also depends largely on the company type and structure. Some companies may be able to get away with just having a good product, but others need to rely on solid personnel. The company’s strategy plays a large role in what they need in order to be successful.