Marketing issues are often of concern—whether warranted or not—to boards and individual directors.

Marketing is often at the top of the list of operational tasks that become part of the discussion at meetings of the board of directors. Topics can range from the quality of the marketing to the board feeling it’s not plugged in enough when engaging with owners through marketing channels. Marketing issues are often of concern—whether warranted or not—to boards and individual directors.

Retail grocery general managers typically lead a team with diverse skills and expertise—IT, finance, human resources. Of all of these specialties, marketing often gets scrutinized and opined upon the most. This makes sense: Marketing is, after all, the professional field dedicated to catering to and connecting with the opinions of others. Surely, board members may think, those other opinions include ours!

Marketing touches everyone in the organization. However, perhaps because of marketing’s ubiquity, it is common in retail grocery co-ops to see a lack of appreciation for the work that marketing professionals do. Great marketing is data-informed, but it is also highly creative. It’s an art and a science—just like any other professional role at the co-op—yet marketing is often treated as if creativity alone is its driving force. This would be the tail wagging the dog; in actuality, the data drives the creativity in the sector.

Marketing 101

Sometimes general managers find themselves in the position of having to “defend” their marketing department to their board—because sales may be off the mark (or for any number of reasons). It’s critical for directors to understand that marketing does not work in a vacuum, but rather within the universe of the co-op: operations, human resources, and other departments also play crucial roles in the co-op’s success. The most comprehensive marketing plan needs to operate within a healthy, well-oiled ecosystem in which customer service, product mix, parking, location, and consistency (amongst other factors) are all working favorably toward a positive shopper experience.

At other times there is incongruity and misunderstanding about marketing because the board may not have a true picture of the varied tasks of the department. It’s crucial for boards to understand the depth of marketing’s role. Marketing departments are sometimes only one to two people and are stretched thin, often handling outreach, events, and membership duties in addition to traditional grocery promotions and co-op standards such as assisting with monitoring reports and running elections. They also plan and schedule social media (which eats up time to create content and manage comments), monitor Yelp pages, and create graphics (another task which requires an abundance of time); they may arrange ad buys, write articles, send out e-news, create weekly flyers, update and maintain the website, and stay in touch with buyers.

There is a lot to juggle, and a good marketing manager knows how to prioritize these tasks. A general manager should be able to recognize that they may not make everyone happy (i.e., do what everyone wants), but they are able to know which tasks help bring the co-op closer to its goals.

General managers should know the fundamentals of marketing, so they can identify what’s going well or what may be off the mark and, if need be, have a comfortable conversation with the board about it. Having the basics in their pocket about the segments being targeted and the strategies being deployed will go a long way toward creating assurances, as well as help the general manager be a better judge of the work product as a whole.

Equally important for the board of directors: education about the basics of marketing in the retail grocery environment should be a part of its annual calendar.

“We should do this, we should do that!”

At its core, marketing is about using the limited resources that you have to target the people whose problems your services can solve. We must use our limited resources in the most judicious way to maximize their impact on our target audience. While this seems obvious, sometimes the idea gets lost in the excitement of a “we should do this and we should do that” phenomenon that tends to come from all corners of the co-op. In acknowledgement of that phenomenon, generating ideas and bringing them forward means there’s excitement towards marketing; it becomes a matter of picking and choosing ideas that help you achieve your goals.

When board members complain about the marketing department, what they could be saying is that you aren’t marketing to me. Be prepared to have an educated response to that comment. Board members need to keep in mind that they, in fact, might not be part of the co-op’s primary audience—and that’s okay!

These days, many directors articulate the need for more engagement with owners and marketing’s responsibility for helping make that happen. Quite often, the remedy for that is already there, literally, on the calendar. General managers should encourage board directors to participate in events and campaigns already in the marketing plan that touch many different participant levels—non-owners, too! Tabling at a fair, mingling at a mixer, attending a cooking class, or simply sharing a post on social media are all ways to connect with the co-op community, help bring the co-op’s values forward, and personalize the board.

Despite all of the reasons to be skeptical when board members raise concerns about marketing, there is a flip side to this. Sometimes board members do point out things that need attention. For example, at one co-op there was a board member who was passionate about getting a digital help desk going on the website. Sure enough, when that suggestion was implemented, it tremendously improved communication with members, increasing satisfaction measures across the board.

In sum: Occasionally there is a gem of an idea when the board cries, “bad marketing.” This alone is a reason both the board and general manager need to become literate around the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects of the marketing field. In order to be open and ready to give and receive good feedback, you have to know how to filter it.