Goodness, this will be one huge marketing war!

About two weeks ago, McDonalds announced they would be adding gourmet coffees to their menu by building new coffee bars in their restaurants. They presented this like a natural expansion of their coffee business which they have been trying to improve for several years.

Of course, Starbucks has been selling breakfast bakery items for several years but recently has been expanding into cooked egg items and luncheon items. And they announced about a week ago that they would begin selling regular coffee for a buck -- with free refills.

Take that, McDonalds!

Now Dunkin Donuts has joined the fray. They're redecorating stores, investing heavily in new locations, expanding existing ones, expanding their breakfast and lunch menu and spotlighting their espresso beverages.

Take that, Starbucks!

It appears that the three will meet somewhere, perhaps out in a rural field or under a viaduct in a back-of-the-yards neighborhood, to slug it out, lit only by the headlights of the cars they arrived in.

Should be fun to watch. Although with that much caffeine we may be up all night.

The disconnect is larger than the author thinks

A prominent author writing in a journal published by a well-known consulting company wrote:

"There is often a fundamental
disconnect between marketing and sales. Marketers,
both a company’s own marketing department and the
agencies it works with, don’t pay enough attention to
the point where their efforts should hit home, the
moment of purchase decision. That is where sales support
is absolutely crucial. But by ignoring the motivations
and interactions with a company that drive
customers to choose one product over another, marketers
are missing the opportunity to uncover critical
insights that can dramatically affect results."

They are right, there is a disconnect. But the disconnect is with their knowledge of marketing.

First, they are focused on transactions. Marketing is about creating and nurturing customer relationships. As soon as you focus on transactions you turn into a sales-focused company.

The authors then go on to suggest that marketing deliver the tools and support that the sale person needs to close the sale.

At this point, the transaction becomes a zero-sum game and any pretense of marketing is lost. As great sales people know, relationships are critical and what they as sales people do between sales is more important than their actions during the actual purchase. If they have built a solid relationship based on serving the customer's needs, they'll get the order.

That's the basis of the relationship.

But articles like this just hinder the growth of real marketing and continue to give marketing and marketers a bad name.

A failure of marketing.