Why Marketing Drives IT Crazy

I have been in Marketing nearly my whole career, but in a past life, I am certain that I suffered in IT because I definitely have a soft spot for those “1s and 0s” guys.

In most organizations, Marketing approaches projects like a letter to Santa. “I want this and that and oooo, one of those too.” “And I want it black, no blue, no red.” “And can you add a racing stripe?” “I don’t care how it works, just make it fly…and sail…and run…and swim.” Unfortunately IT does not have an uber-efficient magical workshop filled with elves and free from any time and budget limitations.

This is where I tend to enter the scene. For the fourth consecutive company, I am the go-between for Marketing and IT. I try (to varying degrees of success) to prioritize the massive number of requests coming into IT in a logical, reasonable (and revenue generating) order. And, in doing so, I endear myself to IT and become viewed as a roadblock in Marketing. But I am okay with that and I will tell you why.

In the absence of someone like me, one of two things usually happens - Someone has to prioritize so if the business users don’t do it, IT will. And they may not prioritize using the same criteria that the business would – Operational Efficiency projects move up, Brand projects move down and if there is a cool technology that a developer is dying to play with, that trumps all. Mind you, they are not trying to slow progress, quite to the contrary. But in the absence of direction, people will work on what they want to work on.

The second scenario that occurs when IT is provided no prioritization is that lots of things get done but only half way. Suzi needs a micro-site, throw that up. Bill wants an e-commerce application, just link to an open source app and move on. Jim wants lead qualification software, just turn it up but don’t integrate it. So you end up with boxes marked ‘complete’ on a flow chart but nothing works together and your infrastructure is a patchwork of point activities that cannot be stitched together.

Sound familiar? We Marketers love to dream and we want our great ideas implemented tomorrow. That’s who we are and we shouldn’t be ashamed. Just like all good sales people have a bit of ADD, all Marketers should dream and dream big. Just make sure you assign an elf that looks at the wish list before you enter the workshop. We do not want to create anything that end up in the land of misfit toys.