THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
2017: the public / private rivalry is over by Carol Magill, The Chartered Institute of Marketing( CIM) Ireland
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here you work no longer matters – marketers in every sector face mounting challenges and need to stay on top of their game, together.
As a public sector marketer it can sometimes seem harder to change what your brand delivers, or your brand promise.
But that doesn’ t mean you’ ve got it tougher than anyone else.
It’ s often argued that marketers in the public sector have a more difficult time than their colleagues in private industry. After all, people who work for a company have greater influence on their situation, don’ t they?
Often public sector marketers find themselves working in large machines with big policy and service delivery mechanics. It can seem difficult in a Health Trust or Council for marketers to truly impact service delivery.
The promises they make to the customers can seem fixed and the quality of service they are able to deliver is affected by a number of complex factors
In the private sector it frequently seems easier to shift one lever or the other to bring brand promise in line with customer reality. That’ s the argument, at least. But it’ s no reason for public sector people to shrug and say: " There’ s nothing I can do, I’ ve been dealt a bad hand …”
The truth is, they don’ t have it tougher – perhaps in the past, but not anymore. There are no constants in marketing today. Everything changes.
For example, how public might the public sector be in 2017?
We are seeing more partnerships across all sectors. Public / private partnerships have sprung up like mushrooms across many areas of the UK.
Partnership and collaboration is the name of the game as community planning now means that councils and central government, in particular, have a commitment to engage in an ongoing dialogue with their customers and to listen to their views.
This new approach, alongside the Northern Ireland Executive’ s ongoing obligation to carry out consultations, offers marketers working within government additional opportunities to tap into their customer’ s views and alter the landscape if required.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of private organisations that still see marketing as an adjunct to real business – a department tasked with putting a good spin on the company’ s activities, rather than the wellspring of brand philosophy and behaviour.
With the blurring of lines between public and private, we should acknowledge that there’ s no binary split between‘ kinds’ of marketer.
That’ s not just a result of every role – public, private or third sector – coming with its own set of challenges.
It’ s also because there’ s something we all have in common as marketers: we live in an era of enormous change, and we all have to run to keep up.
It is increasingly clear that flexibility is now a key trait for success in the industry, wherever you choose to work.
So it’ s time to stop splitting hairs about who has a more difficult job, and learn the best ways to tackle what’ s just around the corner from marketers of all stripes – because the future is the biggest challenge for each and every one of us.
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