Fighting Frustrations As A Manufacturing Marketing Leader

An exciting trend we’re seeing in the manufacturing industry is that retaining top marketing talent is becoming a priority.

And for many companies, it is leading to more sophisticated and effective marketing strategies that are increasing brand awareness and driving sales.

But, what if you are top talent that has landed at a company that doesn’t quite know how to best leverage your capabilities (yet)?

If you’re in this situation, you’re going to have to educate your leadership on what you need to be able to achieve the best return on their investment.

Fighting the Status Quo

The previous marketing department was likely doing a decent job maintaining existing marketing strategies, but now they have you!

With you comes an expectation to spin up and transform not just the marketing department, but the company’s perception and participation in marketing.

It’s easy to become disapointed when you realize leadership doesn’t really recognize what really needs to be done or even what’s possible. They assume you will just improve on all of the marketing they’ve done over the years rather than redesign the whole enchilada.

Suddenly, it’s your job to somehow tactfully explain that the same old same old, polished up a bit, is not how this works. It won’t get them the results they want! The status quo no longer cuts it.

In the interim you’ll need to battle through the frustration and fire drills.

Your first marketing initiative may need to be a campaign to market your strategy to leadership. If you are a marketing leader in a manufacturing organization, this almost certainly will be one of the challenges you face.

You are Not Alone!

I wanted to acknowledge that the frustration you are feeling is real and you are not alone. It comes from being attracted to a set of expectations that are well intentioned but difficult to realize.

Remember, in leadership’s mind, getting you there was supposed to be the biggest challenge! Few leaders realize the changes their organization will need to go through to take on the body of work that lies ahead.

I wrote about this body of work in a previous post, “What Lies Beneath.” It helps wrap scale around how much work it really takes to make these type of changes. It also touches on how suited your company is to change as well as what is at stake should you decide not to.

Leadership may try to distract you away from what your instincts are telling you.

Hang tight!

It’s going to take some time and effort on your part to drive change.

Our white paper titled, “Convincing Leaders to Change” covers some of the most common excuses for not moving forward and provides some guidance and suggestions on things you can do to move your initiative forward.

Change Can be Slow, But it is Also Fruitful.

Becoming the vehicle of change as a marketing leader within a manufacturer is exciting!

There are tons of opportunities, but there are also a unique set of challenges that you’ll have to overcome.

To do this, you’ll have to reset expectations and shake up how the rest of leadership sees marketing.

Understanding these challenges, and more importantly quickly overcoming them will lead to your marketing success.

At Crafted, we’ve spent years consulting with the company leadership and marketing to help create an alignment for change that positively impacts their success for years to come.

Interested in seeing how we can help your manufacturing organization align and grow? Let us know!