Why IT and marketing are diametrically opposed

Forget the usual stereotypes of IT and marketing. Start with the assumption that all marketers and all IT people are smart, talented, enthusiastic, and dedicated to the success of the company, above personal preferences or departmental jockeying. They’re each very good at what they do.

So why is there such legendary frustration at the intersection of the two?

The Problem

The gap that is the marketing/IT divide is, in my opinion, not a matter of personality — as often humorously portrayed — but rather the result of structural differences in their organizational missions.

For most IT managers, their top priorities are:

• stability, reliability (redundancy, disaster recovery)
• security — don’t be the dolt who left the barn door open
• ongoing support, maintenance — who takes care of it?
• standardization — the key to interoperability
• data integrity
• strategic management of infrastructure
• capital cost efficiency

IT has a relatively conservative agenda. Indeed, these are legitimate priorities for IT — the issues they should be concerned about — for which they have significant expertise. Rapidly tinkering with new and potentially unstable ideas, on a let’s-see-what-happens basis, is generally not encouraged. For most of its projects (and budget), IT favors solid architecture over loose experimentation.

That’s not to say that innovation isn’t also important to IT — it is. It’s just often not as important as these other responsibilities.

Marketing, on the other hand, particularly digital marketing, has a very different agenda:

• acquiring more customers quickly, cost-effectively
• differentiation in the marketplace
• speed to market of new ideas
• agility to change course quickly based on feedback
• brand and brand experience (user experience)
• embracing disruptive innovation

Continues @ http://www.chiefmartec.com