“IN TIMES OF CRISIS, PRODUCT INNOVATION STOPS, WHICH IS THE FUEL FOR THIS FUNCTION, AND IN COMPANIES, THE HISTORICALLY RIVAL SECTOR, THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR, TAKES THE TOP OF THE WAY”
Andrea Rustichelli
Rome There is no more time for too many words and refined strategies, all eyes are now on sales. The marketing manager is under pressure in these months of crisis: his intellectual supremacy risks melting under the torrid pragmatism of languishing numbers and receipts. The mission impossible is now to preserve his role as a strategist, avoiding being flattened on the "sales" sector. «In times of crisis, product innovation stops, which is the fuel for marketing. And in companies, in fact, the historically rival sector, the commercial sector, takes over: selling becomes the absolute imperative », explains Alberto Mattiacci, professor of Marketing at Sapienza University and at the Luiss University in Rome and general secretary of the Italian Marketing Society. «In Italy, then, there is a further conditioning, dictated by the specificity of our productive fabric: we are very strong in production, but still weak in professional marketing, which requires a structured organization, absent in micro-enterprises. These find it hard to understand: production without marketing is a loser. It is no coincidence that the virtuous models, which set the pace on a global level, are Apple and Nespresso: here the product is entirely shaped by a marketing project. This is also how we defeat the crisis ». For companies specializing in recruitment, marketing has become a crucial area, in recent months under the lens of client companies. "Between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, the requests for professionals, from junior employees to middle management, increased in particular in the dermo-cosmetic and food sectors, with increases of 60% and 30% respectively", explains Francesca Contardi, director delegate of Page Personnel. And a certain interest, transversal to all sectors, is collected by the figure of the marketing analyst. "Today, companies have a particular need to monitor the performance of strategies: based on what the analyst has found, management defines the characteristics of the product and the methods of sale". Also significant is the thinning, noted by other recruiters, of the walls that separate marketing from the neighboring offices. «The practice of having mixed sales&marketing careers has been consolidated for some time now», says Fabio Ciarapica, senior partner of the Praxi company. «In terms of demand and shifts, especially for top management, there is a tendency to increase resources from within. For middle man profiles
