Fewer boundaries between marketing and communication in companies

There are campaigns that leave their mark, indeed their footprint. Extending the social reach of brands. This is what happened in New York with a hundred elephants scattered across the heart of the Big Apple. The installation Great Elephant Migration shows life-sized pachyderms made from an invasive plant that damages local habitats. The Coexistence Collective's creations raise awareness about the restoration of ecosystems and the coexistence of humans with wildlife. Standing up for the environment one paw at a time, staying in metaphor. After all, this is what contemporary marketing does, sometimes taking a stand on big issues and becoming a social catalyst. Today, the fences of the past that saw impenetrable walls in organisations between inside and outside and between different business functions are falling under the weight of a contemporaneity that is knocking loudly at the door. Thus, the formerly well-defined and divided marketing and communication areas become a unicum centred on the narrative capital of companies, which becomes primarily reputational capital. Barriers jump and silos are broken down in the direction of an integrated and strategic function. As a result, weights and counterweights change in companies, with roles and organisation charts adapting, affecting the top functions that drive the business. The marketing and communication pair thus rises to a more strategic role, thanks to a political expendability that redefines its perimeter.

"In recent years, we have witnessed the consolidation of the social legitimisation process of marketing. Society has accepted its functional value not only as a technique, but also as a cultural approach and collective posture. Marketing has widened and lengthened its presence in many spheres, starting with politics and institutions. This awareness has given it a new and more incisive social relevance,' says Francesco Giorgino, professor of communication and marketing, director of the master's degree in political and institutional communication and marketing at Luiss University and author of 'Manuale di comunicazione e marketing' for Luiss University Press, now in bookshops. From the transactional value between buyer and seller we move towards the relational value between brand and citizen. "Marketing must come to terms with the fact that the need for something or someone is no longer the sole driver for purchases of goods and services. There is a clear manifestation of social action within markets that have become places of conversation between brands and citizens. If we equate politics with the activity of public deliberation and evaluation of decision-making effects on the community, hence with policy, it is easy to see that companies become protagonists of the mediated public sphere. Postmodernity amplifies their role, elevates them to the rank of policy makers, places them in a broader, systemic, projective dimension,' argues Giorgino, who is also director of Rai Ufficio Studi and host of the programme XXI Secolo on Raiuno.

"Today, the company not only makes policy, but responds to social challenges by positioning itself with respect to purpose. It looks at what is happening outside, it questions welfare systems, it positions itself as a social actor. A strong awareness emerges: organisations are no longer just places for the transformation of financial value, but accompany society in its social challenges. It is stakeholder capitalism that drives investors to take an activist role, taking a stand on the issues of the moment. We are in a transitional phase and the role of companies can no longer be confined to mere financial action,' says Paolo Boccardelli, Rector of Luiss University and one of the leading experts in business economics and management. From the organisation to those who lead it. "At stake is the redefinition of a new leadership role that questions what happens outside the confines of the company and makes sense of it. Communicating becomes a strategic competence in all realities and is not only linked to products and services, but also to the function of those company leaders who need to start a clear storytelling process, expressing defined values and positions. Certainly, styles and intonations change, but by now they all enter into the merits of political issues, linking themselves to the events of the time and trying to make a greater impact,' Boccardelli points out.

This is how marketing becomes something else, evolving in the direction of an internal hybridisation that questions what is happening externally. Decoding this complexity is indispensable. "It was the realisation of the centrality of brand activism that pushed managers towards the contamination of content and strategic solutions between communication and marketing. If the latter continues to turn into a political tool in the broadest sense of the term, then it becomes necessary to take a different path from the past, also from the point of view of managerial skills. The most far-sighted realities must urgently address the problem of the creation within their companies of a real and concrete coordination of the marketing and communications function with a logic of unification and co-management of the dynamics of value creation and monitoring. Consumers must be helped to find the meaning of their actions and to consolidate orientations, beliefs, aspirations. But it is one thing to seek hype for commercial reasons, quite another to do so out of conviction and attitude,' concludes Giorgino. The difference is all here: in the time of authenticity, the distinction between success or failure comes down to the degree of awareness gained by the organisation. It is a question of consistency, as well as courage.