What is a "Hybrid" Marketing Department?
By Gregory Johnson
The “hybrid” marketing department is characteristic of smaller firms that grow too fast and larger companies concerned with cost-cutting. It is a department of staff members who come together to consider ideas, work on sales and prepare for trade shows, etc. One staff member may write copy, another communicates with the media while someone else writes a plan. Though a design studio may be involved, hybrid staffing is a makeshift arrangement. Hybrids do not enmesh every day to execute programs. Their other daily responsibilities take the focus off marketing. For this reason you should consider it only if you can afford to de-emphasize your marketing program. After all, you may be growing just fine as is or have no desire to accelerate the pace. You may be lucky—in the right place at the right time— with a few key customers.
However, most growth companies aggressively attack the marketplace. In almost every industry, real players emphasize marketing. For example, one successful Chicago CEO makes it a rule to evaluate the “Three M’s” (Marketing, Manufacturing, Money) when searching for acquisition targets. The capital “M” for marketing is no mistake. He knows that healthy companies with strong potential will have effective marketing programs.
Think about it. Do you ever see this makeshift arrangement in engineering or manufacturing departments? Unfortunately, “hybrid” marketing frequently falls into this halfway effort. A little “m” associated with poor execution and strategy. If you believe marketing is important to your future (see our lead story), perhaps you should put this all- important function into capital formation.
