http://www.trinityp3.com/ The role of marketing is increasingly complex and diverse and will vary greatly from organisation to organisation. How marketing is positioned within an organisation will impact greatly on how it is structured. This is a range of different strategic positions for marketing and the considerations and structures. There are some basic positions for marketing within an organisation based on the role marketing is to play within that structure. These positions are detailed with the considerations and strengths and weaknesses.

1. Strategic Positions for Marketing
within an Organisation
Discussion Paper on Marketing Structure and Function
TrinityP3
March 31, 2011
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
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2. Overview
• The structure and function of marketing is an essential consideration for organisations
with a communication focus either internally, externally or both.
• The general discussions regarding marketing structure and positioning within the
organisation appear to focus on either choosing a centralised or decentralised model.
However, this approach is too simplistic in the consideration of the best marketing
structure and functional model for any organisation.
• A more significant consideration is defining the strategic role marketing is to play within
the organisation. This will be dependent on the strategy and positioning of the
organisation, the marketing and communication requirements and the size and growth
potential.
• This document outlines the four basic marketing structural and functional models for
consideration and explores the drivers, with an evaluation of the strengths and
weaknesses of each model.
• Discussions of each of these models with the relevant senior and marketing
management within the organisation can assist in selecting the best fit model for any
organisation.
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3. The Strategy Pyramid
Who is responsible for Determines business participation, business
setting and developing structure
Corporate Strategy corporate strategy? Level of marketing investment
Who is responsible for Determines business strategy
setting and driving Customer strategy
Business Strategy business strategy to
deliver the corporate Growth targets, retention and acquisition
strategy? objectives
Who is responsible for Brand strategy and brand positioning
setting the marketing Corporate sponsorship
Marketing Strategy strategy to drive the
business strategy and Manages budget allocation
Design
deliver the corporate Implements and manages protocols for budget
strategy? allocation and calendar management
Who designs and Develops recommendations for marketing
executes optimal solutions covering research, marketing mix,
Communications
delivery of the above? creative execution
Advertising Delivery
Manages external suppliers and end to end
execution of agreed solution
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4. Four Basic Models
• There are innumerable organisational models and structures, but in our experience
there are four basic models which strategically position marketing role and function
within the organisation. They are:
• Decentralised Supplier
• Centralised Supplier
• Marketing Partner
• Marketing Leadership
• Many of the variations of these models are usually driven by either:
• Trying to overcome weaknesses in the particular model chosen
• Designed to address unique strategic or cultural aspects of the organisation
• The first step is to strategically consider which marketing model is ideal for the
organisation. To do this, key stakeholders need to consider the role and responsibility of
marketing to the organisation and the individual parts.
• Once a model is chosen, the next stage is then to compare this to the current model and
determine the changes required to achieve the future state.
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5. Decentralised Supplier
• Marketing functions as a separate,
dedicated unit directly reporting to the
Business Unit, (BU).
• Common structure where BU owns PL
and budget and therefore exerts direct
control over marketing.
• Usually this model is business focused
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
rather than customer focused.
STRENGTHS
• Direct accountability to the BU.
• Primary focus on delivering BU results.
WEAKNESSES
• Results may be at expense of overall
marketing / business performance.
• No overall brand co-ordination.
Marketing
• Difficult to ensure executional excellence
across all marketing teams.
• Difficult to implement organisational
synergies.
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6. Decentralised Supplier Variant
• The most common variant to this model is
the Group Marketing role.
• Varying levels of responsibility depending
on the needs of the organisation, from
brand management to supplier synergies.
STRENGTHS
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
• Attempts to address the short comings of
the standard decentralised model.
• Has some co-ordination role.
WEAKNESSES
• Invariably has huge responsibilities and
accountability but no influence over the
actions of the other marketing teams.
• As a supplier to the Marketing Suppliers in
the BUs, the Group Marketing role is
usually funded by the BUs who hold the Marketing
PL and Budget and are therefore in
control.
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7. Centralised Supplier
• Realising the loss of synergies across
marketing within the organisation, some
choose a centralised Marketing Supplier
model.
• Marketing resources are centralised,
with dedicated resources aligned to the
requirements of the BUs.
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
• Requires clear definition of roles and
responsibilities and objectives and
expectations.
STRENGTH
• Allows consistent brand management.
• Dedicated teams delivering executional
excellence.
• Opportunity to deliver organisational
synergies. Marketing
WEAKNESS
• Marketing performance limited.
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8. Marketing Partner
• Rather than Marketing supplying
marketing communications services to
BUs, Marketing is positioned as a
partner to achieving the marketing
objectives of the BUs and the Corporate
objectives.
• This is the most common structure for
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
Business Unit
professional marketing organisations
such as FMCGs. Marketing
STRENGTHS
• All of the strengths of centralised
marketing, plus allows marketing to
operate as a high performance team.
WEAKNESSES
• Requires balancing role and objectives
of marketing, with role and objectives of
BUs.
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9. Marketing Leadership
• This model recognises the importance of
marketing in focusing the organisation and
driving the business and corporate
strategy with a customer focus. Marketing
• Organisations with this model include
strong, consumer focused companies
such as Nike, but the ideal structure for
service industry organisations.
• Requires marketing to be expressed in the
full sense of the discipline and not simply
• usiness Unit
• usiness Unit
• usiness Unit
• usiness Unit
marketing communications.
STRENGTH
• Marketing and the business is aligned to
B
B
B
B
the consumer / customer.
WEAKNESS
• Requires the organisation and marketing
to have detailed and comprehensive
understanding of the consumer /
customer.
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10. Next Steps
• The steps for determining the strategic positioning of marketing and developing a
appropriate model for marketing within the organisation are:
• Review the strategic requirements of the organisation and determine who is
responsible for developing the strategy and who has the role of implementing this
strategy within the organisation.
• Review the role of marketing, determining who is responsible for developing the
marketing and the communications strategy and who has the role of implementing
the strategy within the organisation.
• Key management stakeholders should discuss the strategic role and function of
marketing and specifically marketing communications and agree a strategic model
for the organisation.
• Determine and map the current structure and function (current or “As Is” state) of
the marketing and / or marketing communications with the organisation.
• Get agreement from all stakeholders on the current state.
• Compare the current state against the strategic model for marketing to determine
gaps in the current structure and function.
• Develop alternative future state models for marketing and marketing
communications and compare these against their delivery of the strategic agreed
model for marketing.
• Review the models with key stakeholders to get agreement on the preferred
model.
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11. For further information regarding
this process contact…
TrinityP3 Pty Ltd
Sydney
+612 8399 0922
Melbourne
+613 9682 6800
Hong Kong
+852 3589 3095
Singapore
+65 6884 9149
people@trinityp3.com
www.trinityp3.com
TrinityP3’s liability is limited as per our standard terms and condition as approved by the client prior to the project commencing
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