Let’s get this on the table right now; the marketing department is NOT responsible for marketing.

Blasphemy! I know, right?!?

Well, it’s true. No department can market your company. It’s everyone’s job, from the janitorial staff to senior leadership.

While it’s everyone’s job, no one is more responsible for it than the head of a company. Besides setting strategy and watching the numbers, marketing is the CEO’s responsibility.

You may have heard the old adage that finance is king. Nope. Marketing is king. There is nothing more important for a company than surviving and thriving, and the only way to survive and thrive is to produce more business – a.k.a. marketing!

So, I have always been puzzled when the CEO steps out of the room when the topic comes up. All too often, this type of disengagement sends the message that marketing is a task, not the lifeblood of a business. The marketing department becomes the dumping ground for all of those chores and calls that no one wants to be bothered by.

What a waste, and what a mistake. Perhaps we need to reframe the Marketing Department. If marketing is king, then the that department is the king’s army.

The most effective marketing departments are those that have their CEO’s full attention. The CEO doesn’t drop in and out every once in a while. Their leaders are engaged, attentive and making sure that messaging, branding, promotion and sales are operating in concert and at full speed.

The department creates messaging, branding, promotional and sales tools so that every employee of a company can execute their jobs and promote the company.

That’s what makes the department so essential, and I don’t know about you, but that’s the last department I would make the dumping ground of anything.