Marketing Company news South Africa

Marketers can enhance corporate boards

Having just been appointed non-executive chairman of the board of a financial services company, I am both delighted and excited at the prospect and even more enthusiastic as ever about what marketers can add to corporate boards.

Having worked at that level for BMW SA as well as having been chairman of Bizcommunity.com and The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Limited, I never thought I would see the day that marketing came into its own.

I say this because, marketing, particularly through its often naughty child, advertising, manages to shoot itself in the foot with ill-considered strategies costing billions a year and the disdain of the business community.

Nowadays, marketers are taking their rightful place on boards and making valuable contributions. It doesn't seem all that long that Colin Adcock, one of South Africa's most acclaimed marketers, was appointed MD of Toyota SA - the first marketer to be given change of a big company.

I am finding that with social media having grown into so powerful a business tool, I am being called on to not only unravel its mysteries for board members who want to know more about it, but also to improve measurement, reduce risk and cut down on advertising wastage.

Exciting times are ahead for those marketers who have their feet on the ground and who see it as a process and not some sort of mystical witchcraft.

About Chris Moerdyk

Apart from being a corporate marketing analyst, advisor and media commentator, Chris Moerdyk is a former chairman of Bizcommunity. He was head of strategic planning and public affairs for BMW South Africa and spent 16 years in the creative and client service departments of ad agencies, ending up as resident director of Lindsay Smithers-FCB in KwaZulu-Natal. Email Chris on moc.liamg@ckydreom and follow him on Twitter at @chrismoerdyk.
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