You and your colleagues are sitting around that same conference table as you were last issue, discussing the latest challenge to your market leadership, and the boss turns to your marketing director and says: "why can't you sell the products I can make?" If the marketing director (just promoted from top product guy/gal) doesn't have a good answer, his/her days are numbered - and the boss will be asking the same question of a new marketing director. (The average tenure of a chief marketing officer in the big corporate world is 23 months, according to a recent study.)

The fact is there are too many companies, both in our industry and elsewhere, that don't understand what marketing really is, and what the real power of marketing can do for them.

So - what really is marketing? "Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function . . . it is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view." This definition is from Peter Drucker, and it rings true! Marketing and everything we do should be focused on our customers. The reality of marketing is, as Jay L. Abraham has said for years - it's all about them, not us. It's all about our customers and clients and their wants and needs, not what we can make, or what we want to sell them!

Our industry isn't the only group that is having trouble defining and leveraging the power of marketing. The 94 th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers was held this month in Naples, Florida. The theme was "Masters of Marketing" but according to an article in the New York Times by Stuart Elliott, it should have been "more bluntly, and more accurately, summarized as Change or Die."

The global marketing officer for the world's largest advertiser, Procter & Gamble said, "We are taking the reinvention of marketing very seriously" because the "traditional marketing model we all grew up with is obsolete." What's going on here?

The strategic answer is that cost cutting and re-engineering organizations has rung-out the last drop of possible profit it can produce - and the whole of the global business community is now turning its focus on revenue growth. This makes marketing a significant competitive advantage, and as Jay L. Abraham is fond of saying: "In your marketing you have the greatest upside leverage environment imaginable!" Abraham also pounds hard on the theme that: "It's all about them, not you!"

What has also happened is the realization on the part of companies and brands that thinking about consumers and their wants and needs is the key to effective marketing, just the way Peter Drucker defined it decades ago.

"Adjusting To The Reality Of A Consumer-Controlled Market" is the title of an October 18, 2004 article by Scott Donaton, editor of Advertising Age. Donaton attended the Association of National Advertisers annual meeting, and he refers to responding to the reality of surviving in a "consumer-centric world" as a marketing revolution: "Make no mistake; it's nothing short of a revolution. Those who don't embrace it - and resistance to change remains disappointingly strong - will be crushed by it."

What is also happening is the startling realization that the consumer is now in charge, and according to Ad Age's Donaton: "This consumer empowerment is at the heart of everything. End users are now in control of how, whether and where they consume information and entertainment. Whatever they don't want to interact with is gone. That upends the intrusive model the advertising business has been sustained by for decades."

A great example of changing in response to the reality of the consumer-controlled market is McDonald's Corporation. McDonald's needed something new to stop its financial decline, and after challenging its agencies, and listening to its customers a new theme was developed - "I'm lovin' it!" Larry Light, executive vice president and global chief marketing officer for McDonald's put it this way: "We had to change our voice and let the customers speak for themselves." He added, "We took our eye off the consumer and we lost consumer relevance." The result? After years of declines, the marketing campaign crafted around the new customer focused theme - generated 16 consecutive months of global sales gains for McDonald's, with a resulting 27.1% increase in their share price!

The bottom line for you and your company is the vital importance of leveraging your marketing by finding out what your customers, and potential customers want and need, and continually asking them what they expect from you - and than crafting both the products or services, and unique selling propositions and compelling, risk free offers for the products or services that your customers helped you design. It just so happens that I can direct you to a research consultancy that can customize consumer and customer research to your specific marketing needs!