I actually took a stab at how a marketing department might look like if it were community-based instead of traditional department-based (http://www.futureofcommunities.com/?p=17)

The best marketers build relationships. They connect with customers, suppliers, internal stakeholders and other key influencers (filters, facilitators, firecrackers and fanatics). I consider this a professional approach, if somewhat traditional.

And the tools they employ are varied. I call it Many-Levers Marketing: we push and pull on a number of levers — ranging from traditional to unconventional — to build and maintain these relationships.

The campaign approach may be valid in some cases; it is just one lever at our disposal. You and I might argue about its relative effectiveness — the Campaign isn’t quite dead yet methinks — but let’s not rule it out as an option.

I absolutely agree with you: we should harness the behaviour of our business ecosystem. It is a long-term investment, taking many forms, but it is one worth making. As I wrote in my previous post, the form and function of the Marketing Department is changing, the ‘disconnected’ team will cease to be relevant. Amen.

But we still need educated, trained marketers, those who can draft strategy and connect activities across a sea of collaborators, lifting the brand to fulfil its promise.

There is merit to some (not all) traditional marketing; I won’t dismiss the successes of my predecessors so callously. I suspect your beef is with the “conventional wisdom” approach, which is understandable. Let us, you and I, change this wisdom.

I am not sure that I fully agree with you though. Do we really need marketing as we have it now - as a separate department that is mostly disconnected from the rest of the market and in most cases disconnected from the rest of the company? True, some tasks like the campaign you describe are tedious and require hard work - but are they still worth the work? Are traditional campaigns still achieving their goals? Shouldn’t we be looking for radically new ways to reach prospects and customers alike?

I agree that this is probably a romantic notion - but I also believe that those who will find alternative ways to market and satisfy customers will reap game-changing rewards. This is not a level playing field…

Marketing is a discipline; we study and practice it as a craft. And though we use open source marketing techniques to enable and activate our customer communities, planning and strategy is still a necessary component to long-term success.

Of course all employees should be focused on delivering value for their customers and, in a sense, this is marketing.

He asks, “Imagine a church having a religion department?” It does have a religion department: those individuals who, by choice and discipline, give an expert, learned voice to the order. They have perspective and share their knowledge with their brothers and the world.

It seems superfluous to quote Smith, but some minds and skill sets are more efficiently put towards tackling the mechanics of marketing, the same way some minds have the discipline to enjoy cloistered, ecumenical study.

Mr. Hutcheson’s vision is romantic: it would be great if all our marketing was a free-flowing confluence of customer ideas and creative imagination. Yet some tasks are simply not glamorous: orchestrating a cross-media, multi-discipline, global campaign in many languages and cultures takes hard work, discipline and professional craftsmanship. It is not for the amateur.

I predict Ducati will reinstate its marketing department - albeit in a different format, to be sure. After all, brand building is risky if left to indiscriminate chance.