Guest Post by Marian Hurducaș, Marketing and Strategy Consultant
What happens when you cut marketing and, in the best-case scenario, put it on the bench
A few days ago, I suffered an accident. A minor one, nothing serious, but enough to make me feel the effects even today, 3 days later, and, I predict, I will still feel them for at least 3 more.
The long story, short, is that I have three dogs and a considerable yard. Because the space is generous, cats, hedgehogs, and birds of all kinds frequent it. It is so well guarded by the Paw Patrol that not even the airspace above the domain can be flown over without the coast guard self-reporting.
On Sunday evening, they cornered a cat. All three of them. I pulled it out from among them; it is safe, but not before the frightened cat stapled one of my fingers.
In that turmoil, the victim became the attacker and transformed the savior into another victim. Now we had two victims.
Affected: the index finger of my left hand. The wound: exactly where the finger flexes. The result: many small things I did daily became extremely complicated. Two punctures—a cat’s teeth are literally pinheads—even put me on the bench, so I couldn’t go to strength training. Even today, I can’t hold anything properly with my left hand!
Alright, what does marketing have to do with my medical problem? Bear with me, it makes sense.
A Company, an Organism
A company is exactly like a human body—a living organism that has its own evolution.
Just like in medicine, when we are healthy, we are healthy in the same way, but when we are sick, we are sick differently, even though the diagnosis might be the same.
Every department, every person, every asset has a well-defined role. Of course, like a body, the company assimilates and carries things it doesn’t necessarily need, and here I am thinking of adipose tissue that can even be harmful if in excess.
In situations like the one we are experiencing today, which put pressure on the company from all sides, C-level tends to cut, not optimize, especially in industries that are maturing and fighting their last battles on the field of the Almighty Price. The fight on price, as an aside, and you can write this down somewhere you often see it, is a bayonet fight and leads to certain death. To avoid this, you need added value. I know you’ve heard this so many times it means nothing to you anymore. But it makes sense, and I wouldn’t use a buzz word if it weren’t absolutely necessary—I hate buzz words.
The other day, I was looking at a report that hasn’t been made public yet.
I know the respective market, I’ve worked with it for years, I’ve conducted hundreds of quantitative and qualitative interviews with stakeholders from all corners of Romania and, occasionally, beyond its borders, so I know how this segment has evolved in recent years. To keep you in suspense no longer, until recently, price mattered. Price, price, price! As if Kotler, the father of modern marketing, was referring to this when he came up with the theory of the 4Ps.
Well, gradually, price disappeared from the discourse—and from the report!—and other needs emerged which, in turn, bring up the need for differentiation.
Why?
Because market players know there is a lower limit to how far you can pull the price, and then it stops working, because if everyone keeps pulling the same rubber band, when it snaps, it will hit them directly in the face.
Differentiate or Die!
I didn’t say it; someone smarter than me did, Jack Trout, if I’m not mistaken. Look, I won’t even search; I’ll let you correct me, if necessary. If I am right and it is him, you must read his book with the same name. Then move on to Seth Godin, Purple Cow.
Differentiate or Diecan be the text on a t-shirt, because it looks good, it’s an intelligent message, but it can also be your company’s mantra.
You differentiate by identifying needs, anticipating trends, finding ideas for new revenue streams. You differentiate through well-executed branding and positioning, through well-implemented marketing strategies that serve the organization’s goals: the well-being of the organism.
Marketing, if viewed as an appendix, will be surgically removed at the first symptoms.
If it is pushed aside, its function is, in the best-case scenario, taken over by other organs. In the worst-case scenario, the organism is left without it, and may God help us! If others could do it, so can you.
However, there is a colossal difference between a company that has understood that there is a truly symbiotic relationship between all departments and that marketing is an organ that must be maintained and protected. You don’t make a body more efficient by eliminating parts, but by optimizing it. This can mean many things, from giving up bad habits to supporting it with supplements or drug treatment if it doesn’t feel well. Of course, treatment is taken according to the doctor’s prescription after the consultation, not by searching online on your own.
The First Aid Kit
The analogy with my finger is simple.
The cat is the crisis, the two punctures are the bites into the company budget, the finger is marketing, and the effects I feel even today make me unable to perform as I did three days ago.
Did I cut off my finger? No way. Did the bite hurt? I thought my finger was going to fall off! But not only did I not cut it, I immediately used disinfectant, took an anti-inflammatory, applied antibiotic powder to stop the bleeding, and put on a plaster. I consulted a doctor beforehand.
I took all this from the first aid kit.
Each of us should have one, even if you don’t need it more often than once a year or every few years. Ideally, you should have it and never use it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a useless investment.
In business, the “disinfectant” and “anti-inflammatory” often mean rapid pivoting—that is, not cutting the budget, but reallocating it where it hurts the most, empathetic communication, the bandage that maintains the relationship with customers during crisis periods, and data analysis, which here would be the antibiotic that prevents panic-based decisions. This is a simplistic way of looking at things, but I used these analogies to make a point.
It is not for nothing that the road code considers it mandatory in a car, along with the fire extinguisher and the reflective triangle.
It is interesting how such a small wound can incapacitate a body of 175cm and 84kg, largely made up of muscle mass trained over a period of more than 10 years, isn’t it?
When you cut marketing, you are not just eliminating an expense; you are cutting the nerve endings through which the company senses the market and the voice through which it communicates with it.
The result?
An organism that can survive in the short term but will always have a handicap against the competition.
Marian Hurducaș has a degree in journalism and a master’s in media production (FPAC, UBB Cluj). He has over 18 years of experience in media, communication, and digital marketing, a good part of which was spent in radio as a journalist.
He became an entrepreneur and founded Necktie Agency in Cluj-Napoca, then moved to Bucharest and started over in the role of communication and marketing strategy consultant, including in crisis communication projects.
He coordinated and implemented digital communication strategies for major brands, events, and festivals. In parallel, he was involved in content creation, where he created HURDUcast and was the strategist behind Murdar, the first fiction podcast in Romania.
He served as a communication advisor to the Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization and has a constant interest in tech & digital culture, entrepreneurship, and marcomm.
He talks a lot—sometimes on the microphone, as a moderator or radio producer. He reads even more.
Some say Marian is too direct. He says that after so many years in the industry, he has simply run out of patience for things done superficially.
We say he has interesting things to say. So, we gave him the microphone. Virtually, for now.