Christian Homburg, Ove Jensen, & Harley Krohmer
Executive Summary
The role and status of marketing and sales vary considerably between firms. This study empirically investigates the marketing and sales interfaces of 337 European Union–based companies in seven industries: financial services, consumer packaged goods, utilities, chemical/pharmaceutical, automotive, machinery, and electronics. Specifically, the authors discuss five areas of marketing and sales characteristics: information sharing, structural linkages (e.g., joint planning, task forces), power (e.g., influence on pricing, product management, strategy), orientations (short-term versus long-term orientation, customer versus product orientation), and knowledge (market knowledge, product knowledge). On the basis on these characteristics, the authors identify five typical configurations of marketing and sales in practice. The results show that the role and characteristics of marketing and sales vary a great deal. In “Ivory Tower” configurations, marketing is an isolated caller for customer orientation faced with an operative, product-driven sales force. In “Brand-Focused Professionals” configurations, marketing is the expert in a leading role, and sales is a congenial counterpart of marketing. In “Sales Rules” configurations, sales is the dominant product expert, and marketing is merely an operative support. In “Marketing-Driven Devil’s Advocacy” configurations, marketing has the long-term-oriented and product-oriented voice, whereas sales has the operative and customer-oriented voice. In “Sales-Driven Symbiosis” configurations, marketing is the market expert, and sales is the dominant product expert. The article also explores the performance of the five configurations. Brand-Focused Professionals and Sales-Driven Symbiosis perform better than the rest. The two superior configurations foster structural linkages such as team work and joint planning. They also ensure a high level of market knowledge within marketing. This can be achieved by job rotation policies and joint customer visits of sales and marketing and by obliging executives to serve in the frontline from time to time. Finally, Brand-Focused Professionals, the most successful configuration, are characterized by a fairly strong marketing function. Thus, the findings challenge the doubts about the necessity of a marketing department that are sometimes uttered in managerial practice.
Biography
Christian Homburg holds a Diploma in Mathematics and Business Administration (1986) and a doctorate in Business Administration (1988) from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Between 1989 and 1992, he worked for one of Germany’s largest machinery companies, serving as a director of strategic planning, marketing, and management accounting. After receiving his habilitation degree from the University of Mainz in 1995, he became Professor of Marketing at WHU Koblenz. He joined the University of Mannheim in 1999. Christian Homburg is currently serving as chairman of the Marketing Department, director of the Institute for Market-Oriented Management, and president of Mannheim Business School. His research interests include market-oriented management, customer relationship management, and sales management. He has published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and International Journal of Research in Marketing. Professor Homburg is also founder and chair of the advisory board of Professor Homburg & Partners, a consulting firm specialized in marketing and sales management.
Ove Jensen is Professor of Marketing and holds the Chair for Business-to-Business Marketing at WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany. Before joining WHU, he was Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Mannheim. Before his academic career, he worked as a marketing and sales consultant and eventually as managing director of the consulting firm Professor Homburg & Partners. He holds a diploma in business administration from WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management and a PhD from the University of Mannheim. His research interests include business-to-business marketing, sales management, and marketing implementation. His international publications include articles in Journal of Marketing and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. One article was distinguished by the Jagdish N. Sheth Award as the best article of 2000 in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
After studying business administration in Koblenz (Germany), Bath (England), and Aix-en-Provence (France), Harley Krohmer completed his dissertation at the Koblenz School of Corporate Management (WHU Koblenz). Subsequently, he completed his habilitation at the University of Mannheim. After his postdoctoral work, Professor Krohmer worked as chairman of the Marketing Department at the University of Cologne. Since 2004, Professor Krohmer has been the director of the Institute of Marketing and Management and chairman of the Marketing Department at the University of Berne in Switzerland. Professor Krohmer's research interests include marketing strategy, market-orientated management, brand management, marketing and sales organization, sales management, and international marketing. He is author of the textbook Marketing Management (together with Christian Homburg) and of numerous articles in leading international scientific journals, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Strategic Management Journal.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 72, No. 2, March 2008
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