Benefits from integration

Many companies report distinct benefits from such integration. Better company- wide effort is almost certain. Some companies report that, as a result of the various efforts to integrate, everybody in the company goes on the marketing team.
Other companies report that better planning is possible as more members of other departments get to understand the over-all company objective of profitable marketing. Easier cost control is also noted. And the mutual understanding of each other's problems brings about greater cooperation and, as a consequence, better over-all results.
One of the most important benefits listed by many companies which have made serious efforts at integration of marketing with other activities of the company is the growing awareness among employees of the necessity for profitable operations. Everyone on the team becomes profit-conscious. This helps materially, especially in recent years when many businesses witnessed a declining rate of profit, making the need for greater profit-consciousness among the employees all the more important.
Although most companies recognize the need for integration and the importance of having the various departments work together as a team, many companies still shy from the necessary steps to secure integration. In some companies, the problems that arise when they attempt to secure integration prove too great. In others, the realization that many of these problems may arise discourages management.
The first and most important problem involved in any attempt to integrate and coordinate the work of many different people is, naturally enough, the problem of handling people. People cannot be regimented like machines. They must be motivated to work together.
Lack of qualified personnel within the company often results in bringing in people from the outside. This further complicates the company picture. The very fact that different performers are all brought together under marketing means that we have to deal with different points of view. Conflicts are bound to arise unless the people involved are carefully handled.
Another problem is that of communications. Different specialists speak different languages. The marketing-research man speaks an entirely different language than the sales-promotion specialist. Most people want to cooperate, but it is often necessary to translate the language of one specialist into the language of another.
A third and often encountered difficulty is the fact that not all members of the company organization are sold on the emphasis given to marketing in modern business. This is understandable when we realize that the first sixty years of the twentieth century were almost entirely devoted to production and production problems.
Still another problem rises because duties and responsibilities are redelegated. In reorganized companies, the ideal is to have the decisions made as close to the scene of action as possible. This often means that a higher management official gives up to a subordinate previously held (and sometimes jealously guarded) authority. Not all managers are prepared to give up authority.