Marketing is often thought as a sharp tool to drive customer to purchase products or services and mission accomplished. However marketing should be thought as a constant effort for potential costumers and current customers. Great CMO’s should understand that every time a customer uses the companies product or service there is marketing conversation occurring. For example I have Time Warner cable and when I use the service I am constantly reminded by their poor user interface that their product sucks and that they don’t really care about me as a customer. After trying to scroll through menu systems that have no “back” feature I give up trying to get Bill Mahr on HBO on demand. Time Warner spends millions marketing their service and once they sign a customer up they abandoned all formal marketing efforts and let the customer drift.
Customer service is marketing as well. If you call a company or service and receive inadequate support; this is basically negative marketing. Companies do this all the time. Customer service can be used as a perfect feedback loop for product development and an excellent market research opportunity. Every customer call is a conversation where company and customer can build loyalty and respect.
Marketing and product development are not separate functions. Data collected from customer support/care can be used by marketing teams to drive product requirements and to better respond to customers as they call for support.
Marketing is a conversation with your customer and it happens every time they use your products and services. Marketing is a constant and not just a pre sales exercise.