Zoran,

Please rest assured that Mark has nothing against the Balkans, or their people. The term has gained a meaning in English which is defined online in several places.
We are sorry if the use of the term offends you. And we will try to find better terms to use in the future.

MerriamWebster Online Dictionary:
1 : to break up (as a region or group) into smaller and often hostile units
2 : DIVIDE, COMPARTMENTALIZE balkanized; it is full of niches, with different groups watching and playing their own things — Richard Corliss>

or here:

Wikipedia:
Balkanization is a geopolitical term originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region into smaller regions that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other^[1][2]. The term has arisen from the conflicts in the 20th century Balkans. The first balkanization was embodied in the Balkan Wars, and the term was reaffirmed in the Yugoslav wars.

Sincerely,

Chris Kieff,
Unconventional Thinking Producer

Another pearl of wisdom! Thanks for saying out loud what many of us have been thinking all along. It’s a shame that 95% of the decision-makers in business today gag at the prospect of letting their marketing department operate outside their silo - and it’s their loss. *Winning* business - as you’ve affirmed and confirmed time and time again - treats marketing as the art and science of growing business. Unfortunately, most companies focus their marketing efforts on making pretty pictures, spinning logos, and lofty, egregious statements about their leadership efforts (and how many times have all of us marketeers been forced into doing just that, or risk losing our jobs?).

I couldn’t agree more with your assessment about how marketing fails to focus on key goals! I’ve worked as a high-tech product marketer for years, and have encountered more than my fair share of misguided ideas about Marketing.

In January 2007, I published an article entitled, “Navigating Uncharted Territory: How we developed a strategic product marketing role” in Pragmatic Marketing’s monthly magazine. Echoing your sentiment, here are a couple excerpts from it:

“Compared to positions like Sales or Engineering, Marketing is an odd bird. As a way to prove just how different we are from our cubicle counterparts, here is a simple yet effective test: Ask anyone (and I mean anyone) in your company the following two questions about Sales and/or Engineering:

(1) What is the [Sales or Engineering] team responsible for delivering?
(2) How are they are measured?

The responses will be relatively uniform. You’ll hear things like, “Software developers write and test code, and are measured by the quality and timeliness of their delivery.” And, “Sales people are responsible for calling on prospects, closing deals, and attaining or beating their quota.”)

However, ask those same two questions about Marketing, and you’ll find a wide range of answers. “Marketing is … *pause* … well, they write content for our website”, “They generate our leads”, “They’re great on customer calls”, “They plan our trade shows”, or my favorite, “The golf shirt and coffee mug department!”

Granted, Marketing may perform these activities. But do any of them capture the true and complete essence of the role? What is our real purpose? Why is the company spending so much money on this stuff?

The trouble with the outbound role of product marketing is that we have an identity crisis on our hands – we’re misunderstood, misguided, and misaligned – and as a result, great products are either failing altogether or missing their potential. Executives and other members of management have wide-ranging expectations of product marketing that are almost never focused on strategy or the bottom line. Thus, we are usually confined to a tactical role supporting Sales and others, expending enormous resources on too many urgent tactics that are never measured and rarely appreciated. Uncertain about where our “turf” is located, we work in a state of reaction and firefighting, unable to contribute in a way that is meaningful to our companies or our careers. It is time for product marketers to push the “reset button” on our activities and expectations.”

Keep up the GREAT work, Mark!

Sincerely,

Dave Morse