[Org structure] Marketing focused on Product, Lifecycle or segment : examples & pros/cons

In my experience marketing should always be focused on the customer. So, all other supporting functions should be aligned with that premise. Taking into consideration budget, most experienced people should be responsible for marketing budget plan and execution.

Dear Ignacio
My experience shows that marketing in Telco should concentrate on the value add, the offered solution or service or bundle will deliver to the customer (customer group, customer segment etc.)
Typically, marketing is pretty much close to sales and business development in support to position the defined portfolio.
PLC is the domain and separate responsibility of Product Management. Even if you call in Product Marketing, its more portfolio centric and defining new solutions and services, ensure this offering is compliant with regulation, technical standards and competitive in terms of pricing and features. In addition, PM/PMM manage the backyards namely portfolio innovation, R&D, production and technical partnerships etc.
In addition, it makes sense to separate PM from Sales and marketing as the PM or PMM is the “watchdog” of the profitability / bottom line growth while Sales and Marketing is in charge for revenues and Top-line growth. This healthy internal competition will ensure best balance of revenue growth and reasonable profitability for the operator / service provider.
Typically, corresponding KPIs and incentive structures will support these diverse responsibilities.
Since 3-4 years, leading Telcos and services providers (incumbent as well as alternative operators) concentrate more on selling its brand and strong marketing rather than “just” selling its own infrastructures and generated services. In partnership with more dedicated solution and service vendors they just give them the “platform” and ensure the user centric value preposition will work together, contribute to the Telco growth.
In front of this strategy, the marketing role is even more different and UX / UI oriented than the classical marketing-
Long stories short, I propose to demerge from the all-in-one responsibility, encourage or re-invent the PM/PMM and train the marketing on agile and multi-channel UX and Sales / Business Development support.

Ignacio, not being in the TELCO Business, I can give you my view from a Electronics, Mechanical Engineered products where I had experience. For us, Product Marketing is closer to PM, Manufacturing and engineering and they are the necessary interface between complicated specs, technical products and the markets. Being a necessary function, I wouldn´t position them as “marketing” activity. That being said, communication and teamwork are mandatory and I would definitely will establish processes and systems to make sure that communication between marketing function and Product Marketing really exists.

That being said, I always have separated Branding, high level strategies and operational channel and operational marketing activities, but you need both, each of them focused on their responsibilities and not excluding or subordinating any of them to the other. In my case, channel Marketing ( a more sophisticated trade marketing ) was necessary to take the products and the “marketing” raw materials coming from Product marketing, together with all the brand materials and combining them in a customized way to be offered to different segments. In my case, segments was so diverse, ranging from individual end users ( with all the variations possible ) to channel partners, distributors, prescriptors, national accounts or medium end users. Is there where I establish the need to dig into life cycle and customer journeys, being very different from one segment to another. I have seen examples where organizing in segments or product life cycles as separate departments only brought internal power fights.

I attached you an slide on how we organized the Global Marketing function when I arrived to Global Hitachi. As you see, Product Marketing is a separate entity closer to PM and engineers, while brand is a high level activity and Channel Marketing was about getting to the ground dealing with customers, segments, journeys, drivers and touchpoints.

You also can see Digital as a separate entity inside Marketing division, and inside “general marketing” and branding. I considered them as a high level strategy division and after their outputs, Channel Marketing was customizing accordingly in the delivery to the market.

In any way, trying to be in your shoes, the most important thing for me would be to establish the right systems, procedures and culture to make sure that all the areas really teamwork. That is the essence of success. Maybe a light version of a “matrix cooperation” system such as Agile would help but successful multifunctional communication and teamwork in key and way much more important that the pure organization itself.

Hope it helps, Regards!

Marketing_Global_Organization.pptx