In 2010, Instagram launched a photo‐sharing platform that focused on offering photo‐based social media networks. Two months later, it could boast of 1 million downloads.

At its core, Instagram is a fast‐moving platform that takes advantage of the latest trends by adding new features, including short‐lived content (stories) and short videos (reels). In a crowded social media platform market, the company has taken a leading position with a current focus on four elements: creator, video, shopping, and messaging. In 2022, Instagram's value stood at US$100 million, making the platform Facebook's highest‐performing investment with a return on investment more than 100 times.

What can be gleaned from the story of Instagram? Perhaps a good starting point lies in the chance to see that in very dynamic conditions, it's not enough to rely on an overly procedural approach to obtain the desired results. The business environment changes rapidly and companies that want to perform highly will be ready to pivot—often and swiftly. Instagram followed this strategy and on execution developed into a behemoth figure that dominates its industry.

A facile mindset tends to contradict the professional approach that so frequently prevails in the marketing segment. In the past, the marketing department might have set up a plan, outlined the steps to follow, and moved forward. This approach may have seemed appropriate at one time, especially before the internet and technologies took off and created an interconnected, fluid space.

In today's world, the professional method of marketing faces several key risks. First and perhaps foremost, it may not be ready to move with the changes in demand. It might not have the capability to keep up with an agile and changing market. When the tides turn, a marketing department that continues to march down the same path will likely fall short of its goals.

This contradiction in marketing—namely, the “professional” approach versus the entrepreneurial mindset that Instagram exemplified—is precisely what we'll look at in this chapter. Let's explore what's behind each of these marketing methods. In doing so, we'll see that there is value in each. At the same time, companies need to know which method (or combination of the two) is appropriate for their situation and how they can best be used to propel growth and expansion in the years to come.

Understanding Professional Marketing

When we use the term professional to describe marketing, it's often to refer to tendencies toward procedures and bureaucracy. In an established organization with clear‐cut responsibilities, we typically expect each team member to carry out a specific role within a particular function. In this scenario, executing cross‐functional activities can take several routes to gain approval.¹ As such, it can be natural for departments, including marketing, to work in a mindset of “following the procedures.” There may be little crossover, and there might be few—or no—attempts to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously.

This approach comes with several notable benefits and drawbacks. Let's start by sifting through the positives that stem from the professional approach of marketing. Then we'll look at a few of the key downsides.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Professional Marketing

In the history of marketing, there is a long line of successful companies that have followed a professional mindset. The following describes some of the main perks that professional marketing brings to the table:

• Understanding business models. The professional team sees the value proposition of the product or brand. It can identify where the company's revenue stream is coming from, master the calculation of various costs incurred, and ensure smooth cash inflow. For example, Netflix developed an effective business model to accumulate 220 million paid subscribers in 2021 and generate US$7.7 billion in revenue in 2022.²
• Ability to manage resources. The professional marketing approach determines which resources and capabilities are required. The objective is to ensure that there can be an exchange of value with customers.
• Capacity to coordinate activities. The professional team understands the interrelationships and interdependencies between the different functions of the company. It organizes procedures so that activities, when carried out, are well coordinated and synchronized with the set direction.
• Ability to manage collaboration. The professional team formalizes all forms of cooperating with clear terms and conditions. Tasks follow an established protocol and avoid overlapping or conflicting with other activities.
• Knowing how to communicate. The professional team can effectively and efficiently carry out internal and external marketing. They are able to generate strong awareness and appeal as an essential starting point for penetrating the market.
• Ability to answer questions. The professional team comprehends the product at a detailed level, including its features, benefits, the buying process, and how it is delivered. Marketers also know how to explain the use of their products so that they can be used optimally by customers.
• Ability to provide customer support. The professional team provides support services, including handling customer complaints, repeat purchases, cross‐ or upsell services, consulting, managing customer loyalty and advocacy, and maintaining a sustainable relationship.

In addition to these skill sets, there are additional advantages that surface when professional marketers have the right attitude. Following are some of these best practices:

• Avoiding bias. All thinking and decision‐making are free from personal biases such as political views, gender, and social and cultural background. All analysis is fact‐based. There isn't prejudice or a personal interest portrayed.
• Respecting others. Successful professional marketers appreciate coworkers' opinions, including those of superiors, peers, and subordinates, according to existing boundaries. They treat customers humanely and are aware that these individuals support the company's livelihood. They comply with company regulations, including established company values.
• Demonstrating accountability. The professional team is consistently responsible for all the thoughts, words, and actions they carry out according to the scope of the assignment given. They take ownership for the decisions made, along with their repercussions, both on individual and team levels.
• Showing integrity. Professional marketers fulfill their responsibilities correctly and adequately, upholding honesty internally among colleagues and externally with customers and business partners.
• Focusing on the task. Professional marketers demonstrate discipline in completing tasks according to a predetermined schedule. They use working hours for productive purposes and do not mix personal matters with business.

Although there are certainly significant advantages that result from a professional mindset, it's important for our balanced discussion to observe several common drawbacks:

• Slow to change. There can be a tendency to keep leaders and leadership styles in place, even as times change. If executives unfit for their roles remain in place, it can hinder the company's overall progress. It may also dampen company culture and the spirit of employees.³
• Grand planning. Spending ample time laying out procedures and processes often leads to slow implementation. When the world around us changes quickly, it can be difficult to keep up.
• Becoming stagnant. Organizations that focus on procedures may not spot upcoming opportunities and risk not being ready to pivot when needed.
• A nine‐to‐five attitude. Professional marketers may perceive that their work in the company must take place during set hours. It can be challenging to ask employees to remain for extra hours outside of this time frame.
• Inability to adjust priorities. When following procedures and maintaining the bureaucratic status quo, it is often challenging for marketing teams to think and act outside of the box. Even if an opportunity is identified, they might be hesitant to change their priorities and move in a different direction. This hesitancy can put a company at risk of falling behind competitors who are shifting strategies and meeting market demand.⁴
• Being reactive. Marketing teams might respond to changes they see over time and follow others instead of leading the way into new markets and segments.

The Entrepreneurial Approach

Now let's open our minds and consider a different mindset to marketing, one that perhaps aligns with Instagram's approach. Because the term entrepreneur has long been associated with start‐ups and disruptors, along with high successes (and potential for failure), it's worth starting out this section with a review of the definition. After looking at what it encompasses, we'll apply the term to marketing.

For decades, visionaries have leveraged opportunities, regardless of how small those opportunities might be. When moving forward, someone with an entrepreneurial spirit is fully aware of the risks they will face. At the same time, they have the courage and optimism to give their plans a trial run.

Those who apply an entrepreneurial approach know how to identify the gaps, dare to make decisions, face the consequences of their actions, and collaborate with multiple parties. From this explanation, there are at least three very prominent capabilities related to entrepreneurship, namely, the attitude and ability to see opportunities (opportunity seeker), a mindset that dares to take risks (risk‐taker), and the ability to cooperate with other parties (network collaborator). Let's look more closely at each one.

The Entrepreneurship Model for Marketing

Drawing from our description of entrepreneurship, we can turn the discussion to observing how it applies to marketing. Marketing starts with foresight in seeing opportunities and then undergoes a creative and innovative process to come up with a solution that can be offered to customers. We must position our branded solution clearly to the relevant customer segment. This includes framing the solution by showing its point of differentiation and reasons to believe in it, supported by several competitive advantages.

Marketers must be able to convert solutions into value, which can take on different forms. For the company, it will typically mean higher profits. Investors will be looking for a higher market value of the company, along with an increase in dividends. For customers, the value will be in our products that can solve their problems.

The attitude of daring to take risks, namely, choosing a path that we or others have never tried, shows that marketers aim to be different, and not mainstream. One caveat: although differentiation is essential, we have to ensure that the market will appreciate such an option. It must be consistently realized in marketing campaigns and supported by sales efforts both offline and online.

The sales team needs to understand the characteristics of the targeted segment and how to position an offering (including the brand) relative to competitors. The team will want to grasp the product differentiation and support services offered. They will also need to be careful to ensure efforts are made to maintain the brand's character.

Through solid collaboration, we have a better chance of overcoming challenges. For example, Target and Starbucks connected to deliver a complete shopping experience.⁶ Target began to sell Starbucks products, and Starbucks established shops within the Target stores, enabling customers to grab a coffee on their way in or out. As a result, Target received greater brand recognition from loyal Starbucks customers, and vice versa.

From this discussion, we can observe that entrepreneurship in marketing has three main factors: positioning, differentiation, and brand. These components are linked together and will drive decisions. The model shown in Figure 2.1 can help us see these traits and how they are interrelated.

Individuals with entrepreneurial skills may have a specific focus. Opportunity seekers will relate to positioning, which is more broadly part of customer management. Risk‐takers will be involved with differentiation and more broadly with product management. Meanwhile, network collaborators will focus on brand development, which is part of brand management.

Comparing Professional and Entrepreneurial Marketing

Now that we've studied some of the main characteristics of these two approaches, which is best? The answer isn't simple. There may be times when entrepreneurial efforts should be prioritized, and other moments when professionalism is key. Let's delve into how these approaches tend to stand out, and how they can be blended for optimal results.

Start‐ups often have a high entrepreneurial spirit at the beginning of their establishment. At a certain point, however, they can find it difficult to grow. One of the reasons behind this is that it can be challenging for start‐ups to build their professional capabilities. Start‐ups are often very slow to embed this professional capability. The idea of Pretty Young Professionals―a start‐up founded by colleagues at McKinsey who shared the same vision to help women entrepreneurs find resources to run their businesses―attracted several potential investors. However, the friendships could not help them take a solid, professional role in running that company. After 11 months of operations, the company shut down due to an internal dispute.⁷

We often find some companies can exist only for a short time because they do not have these two capabilities. This condition is frequently encountered in small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). It is one of the factors why the percentage of failed SMEs is high.

Figure 2.2 can help us decipher how companies of different sizes can be affected by their level of marketing capabilities.

There can be great potential when we blend entrepreneurial elements into a professional environment. For instance, Google encouraged its employees to spend 20% of their working hours doing things they think can best benefit Google. This strategy resulted in employees coming up with some successful ideas, including Gmail, Google Maps, and AdSense.⁸

The application of entrepreneurship in a professional setup is often called corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. The arrangement enables the correct procedures to be followed. At the same time, there is some room for flexibility. The accounting consulting firm PwC has been giving some freedom to their employees, allowing them to focus on their talents. They found that flexibility in work can help the company retain and attract valuable talents.⁹

According to the Harvard Business Review, almost every company today has made leaps of faith and major innovations instead of continuous improvement.¹⁰ If we rely solely on professionalism, we will be locked in only to productivity figures and incremental improvements, as we tend to measure success only by financial achievements. This play‐safe attitude cannot support increasing the company's market value in the long term because without an innovative breakthrough, the company's future will be bleak. This market value is also important for investors as they place their funds in a company.

However, the entrepreneurial spirit is closely related to seeing the various opportunities outside and learning how to take advantage of them. In addition, creativity and innovation are often attached to the entrepreneurial spirit. A healthy amount of bureaucracy is essential to provide governance in everyday duty. Leaders face constant challenges in putting bureaucracy in the right place. Referring to a survey by Harvard Business Review, 7,000 respondents experienced a growing bureaucracy during the year before 2017. However, leaders should minimize multilayer approval to make room for innovations.¹¹

Hence, we need to try to bring together the two extremes on the professional and the entrepreneurial continuum. Professionals who usually tend to play it safe with a play‐by‐the‐book approach must have the nerve to take calculated risks like entrepreneurs. In essence, a professional will need to apply the entrepreneurial spirit in various value‐creation processes in a company. An intrapreneurial culture enables employees to practice and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills, resulting in more efficient brand management.¹²

Therefore, a company must provide a conducive environment that can support creativity. A company should also be able to carefully see technically feasible creative ideas, choose the best idea, and convert them into an innovative solution that will create value for customers and, in turn, for the company. Curtis Carlson, for example, created the “Champion” program, which encourages his team to submit innovative thinking based on a need, approach, benefits relative to costs, and competition value proposition. This arrangement has had successful results, including the development of technologies such as HDTV and Siri.¹³

No one can rely solely on a professional approach anymore in this highly dynamic business environment. We need strategic flexibility within the company, and one way to make this possible is to have the board of directors and management adopt an entrepreneurial approach. Management plays a role in maintaining various routine processes needed so that the company's day‐to‐day operations can run smoothly, but if there is a change or even transformation, management must accommodate and adapt to these changes quickly and make them part of the new routine process. In this way, the company can exist sustainably in the long term.

As imperative as it is to incorporate both professional and entrepreneur elements into marketing campaigns, it's important to note that it's not enough to survive. To fully thrive in this changing world, companies need to be able to integrate these marketing approaches into other departments as well. When all areas are connected, the possibilities will broaden even more. We'll look at this next phase in Chapter 3.

Key Takeaways

• Professional marketing focuses on procedures and a step‐by‐step approach.
• Some benefits of professional marketing include understanding business models, managing resources, coordinating activities, managing collaboration, communicating well, answering questions, and providing customer support. Its best practices consist of avoiding bias, respecting others, showing accountability, showing integrity, and focusing on the task.
• Drawbacks related to professional marketing involve being slow to change, grand planning, becoming stagnant, a nine‐to‐five attitude, an inability to adjust resources, and being reactive instead of proactive.
• Entrepreneurial marketing encompasses knowing how to identify gaps, make decisions, face consequences, and collaborate with multiple practices.
• Companies will do well to find a balance of professional and entrepreneurial marketing that best serves their needs.