Marketing and Supply Chain Management: Best Friends and Worst Enemies

Marketers worldwide look towards their companies’ production, efficiency and quality as a north star for their marketing platforms. Marketing is a whole lot easier when the brand that one is marketing is serving up a marketable product or service.

A recent article by Forbes Magazine, delves into the correlation between efficiency in marketing and efficiency in supply chain management.

The dichotomy is an interesting one when you take a second and think about it. 

If a brand isn’t marketed correctly then there can become stagnation in supply chain productivity, but if a supply chain isn’t managed correctly than it can become every marketers greatest PR nightmare.

“Take Tesla, for example, and its recent problems with supply chain management. A CNBC article notes that the automaker has experienced production bottlenecks as it has struggled to make the move from small to large-scale production. Orders are now piling up, making customers unhappy and giving the lie to the great experience marketing promised them” (Olenski 2017)

So, what happens to Tesla’s brand value during a lapse in supply chain management of this scale?

Deficiency in supply chain management activities and depreciation of brand value bear a direct correlation. Regardless of how many ill-advised collaborations with 3rd party actors it took to create a piling up of orders, Tesla’s name is the one that’s printed in the papers.

Recent advancements in the DSN (Digital Supply Chain Network) has curbed some of the PR mishaps that have been haunting marketing teams for years. Forecasting of oversights, and problems, in supply chain production is made more transparent with the growing implementation of digital solutions. On the other hand, this kind of supply chain visibility can allow a marketing team to prepare for a supply chain triumph, such as excelling performance or sustainability goals. 

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