I have long been involved in organisational redesign, particularly to make organisatons more market or customer-oriented. This has often involved some radical organisational surgery in the Marketing Department.
A recent post by Francois Goisseaux on the Future of Communities blog caught my eye. It describes how Ducati Motorcycles (surely, along with MV Agusta, an more iconic brand for the real motorcycle afficionado than even Harley Davidson) has closed its Marketing Department and replaced it with a Community Management Group. The role of the Community Management Group is to bring customers into the company to drive innovation and to take the Ducati magic out to the market through its raving fans. It seems to be working.
What do you think? Has the Marketing Department become obsolete? Or must it reinvent itself to keep pace with the times?
Post a comment and get the conversation going.
Graham Hill
