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The sales and marketing community in the North East is collectively driving forward a new initiative to help businesses better utilise marketing to unlock growth.

The ‘This is Marketing’ campaign, which is being spearheaded by Charlie Nettle, former North East England chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), is rallying the sales and marketing industry and the wider business community to join together behind a major research project to better define marketing and the value it delivers for organisations.

Charlie, who is also the commercial and marketing director at AV Dawson, which owns and operates Port of Middlesbrough, said: 

“As the country comes through Brexit and Covid, businesses are facing new challenges and many are having to adapt to survive in a new landscape. Now is the ideal time for businesses to better understand how marketing can enable them to do this, rather than it being undersold simply as a bunch of communications tools to sell a company’s products and services.

“This misunderstanding and lack of clarity around marketing is not only resulting in lost potential for our region’s businesses but it’s also affecting the confidence of many marketing professionals who have been in the industry for a number of years. This is reflected in recent research from the CIM which found that a third of marketers said they would struggle to explain their role to someone else.”

In addition to having the backing of North East mega brand and household name Greggs, a number of industry heavyweights are also supporting the project including CIM, North East England Chamber of Commerce, NEPIC, North East Automotive Alliance, NOF Energy, Entrepreneurs’ Forum and Institute of Directors North East. 

James Ramsbotham, North East England Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, said:

“Marketers are the champions of the customer and often have the broadest view of the business, its markets and customers.  We need more businesses to recognise the strategic role that marketers can play and the value they deliver.  There’s often a noticeable absence of marketers at the boardroom table when, in my view, they often have the potential to go right to the top and, as CEO’s, create highly successful marketing-led businesses.”

The region’s local enterprise partnerships and universities are also endorsing the campaign. Dr David Hart, Associate Professor in Marketing at Northumbria University said:

“This is an invaluable initiative for both the marketing profession and industry as a whole. We are supporting it not only as it will help us inspire our students to consider the profession but also to ensure they are best equipped to support our businesses when they come into the workplace.”

To find out more about the campaign visit www.thisismarketing.co.uk