R&D vs. Marketing

 

This Wall Street Journal article by renowned management guru Philip Kotler and two colleagues discusses the conflict that often exists in organizations between R&D and marketing.

Among the authors' remedies is to listen to the voice of the consumer.  Of course, that is precisely what ZMET is designed to help our clients do.  

The authors state that in companies where these kinds of conflicts occur, R&D and marketing tend to speak different languages.  This probably is literally true.  A ZMET study comparing an R&D team with a marketing team likely would reveal two distinct sets of metaphors that structure how these groups frame their own jobs and the role of the company's products in consumers' lives.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204830304574133242651502088.html