Marketers vs Engineers

If Engineers had to invent the wheel all over again we still wouldn’t have it; they would be trying to fine tune it, put additional features to and would never be happy with it. If marketing professional devised it, it would be square and they would convince you that it had a built in braking mechanism for no additional cost.

Both methods are equally wrong

Let’s face it; the two don’t play nicely together.

In the world of engineering, marketing is a place where people make subjective decisions. Usually they work, but sometimes, they don’t. And because there doesn’t appear to be any scientific cause and /effect relationship you just can’t trust marketing. It is not a real discipline but more of a confidence trick.

Marketers on the other hand, don’t help the situation. Engineers are the enemy! They slow the whole process of ‘quick to the market’ down to a grind; they put obstacles in their way. Engineers don’t get the big picture; they keep talking about the minutiae. And that is tedious.

The harsh reality is that marketers need engineers and engineers need marketers.

Engineers need to realize that marketing is a discipline. Markets are financial systems and the true role of marketing is to help the transfer of money from the market into the company by ensuring that the company is delivering something of value. There is a balance to this that obeys the laws of equilibrium. If either side of the system lacks what the other needs, the exchange doesn’t happen. If the right product, the right message and the right timing happens, then the trade is made. Marketing manages, defines and tracks this system providing a constant loop for future development and refinement.

The point is that marketing is a science and that engineers shouldn’t feel threatened or irritated by them. They are closer to each other than they like to think. When the two disciplines get together they can make a huge difference to a company’s success for now and the future.