A fundamental aim of the newly set up Chartered Institute of Marketing Members Group Malta is to get marketing recognised as an integral part of a successful business, according to Chris Daly, the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing Director of Membership.
Mr Daly was in Malta for the launch of the local branch of the CIM, which was held under the patronage of the British High Commissioner, Louise Stanton, at her private residence in Naxxar.
Interviewed by The Times Business, Mr Daly points out that marketing is no longer about T-shirts and brochures.
"It's moving away from the T-shirts and brochure producing practice. By putting the customer at the centre of your business, identifying their needs through professional research, and understanding how businesses function, you help to meet the customers' requirements and help generate profit, both ethically and legally. The Malta branch will help give a Maltese flavour to the activities of professional marketers," he says.
The Malta branch of the CIM, he says, will join other CHI branches in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ghana and Kenya.
"So it's really about expanding the international front because the CIM's remit is to represent and develop the profession of marketing and its practitioners wherever they may be. We are the only organisation able to recognise chartered marketers based on their membership of the CIM programme. So we are formalising the support of those chartered marketers in Malta."
He says the CIM will support the Malta branch by trying to identify its needs but he adds: "We very much believe it's a bottom up approach. In other words we will rely on the Maltese to identify their needs."
Mr Daly explains that membership of the CIM requires both academic qualifications and practical experience.
"We are not looking at people who are very good at passing exams but have never done the job for real. In a way we are quite unique. For example in the accountancy profession one passes his accountancy exams and then he is a chartered accountant. To be a chartered marketer you have to be continually up-skilling your knowledge, because the whole environment of marketing is continually changing."
Membership of the CIM, he says, depends on having a certain level of education as well as three years of work experience in marketing, including one year in management.
"That is assessed by an up to date cv which has to be countersigned by a relevant referee. We also look for an organisational chart which shows that you are doing the job you claim to be doing."
Mr Daly says that the word "marketing" often gives the wrong connotations, is often misunderstood and is probably its own worst enemy. He also believes marketing people should be represented in the boardroom and stresses the importance for companies to have qualified marketing executives among their staff.
"We would suggest that in the same way as you wouldn't allow an unqualified brain surgeon to operate on you. To give a marketing budget worth tens of thousands of pounds to an unqualified, unprofessional marketer is very high risk. Employing a CIM member to oversee your marketing budget will hopefully lead to a better return on investment."
He says that during these difficult economic times the needs of the customer are really paramount and it is also important for business' best customers to be identified.
"It's about moving away from a product-led relationship to a proper business relationship. In other words people prefer to do business with people they enjoy doing business with. These are all parts of marketing and there's no real difference between a business strategic plan and a marketing strategic plan."
He mentions the example of how Ryanair dealt with the economic crisis pointing out that when all other airlines were cutting their marketing spend the low cost airline maintained theirs, which paid off.
Mr Daly explains that professional marketers need to keep abreast of developments in the market they operate in.
"In the UK a lot of legislation has been passed which directly affects how a marketer operates. For example can you send an email to anyone, should there be a disclaimer clause, what about data protection?"
He says it is wrong to cut marketing budgets when the economy is not performing well.
"Usually the first budgets to suffer in such situations are either the training or marketing budgets. However, by cutting your marketing budget you are destroying the one process that is capable of making money for you. You can't cut your marketing budget and keep your sales budget - the two go hand in hand. The salesman drives the car, he'll close the deal, but the marketing man is navigating - looking ahead - what are next year's trends? What is the youth market going to be like?"
"In the 1930s it was Coca Cola which decided to invest in their marketing spend and the rest is history. One must always try and maintain an element of the marketing budget," he says.