Updated; 14-06-2018, 14:52

Following the development of marketing agencies and media industry in Albania after the 2000s, many businesses changed their marketing mentality. For several years, one of the most important decision-making issues of businesses is their marketing choice: internal or external marketing.    

Some companies decide to internally manage marketing and hire highly qualified staff with excellent design and communication skills in order to fulfill business needs. This staff is familiar with the company culture, vision and practices. However, despite the advantages of such choice, usually these people are not experts of the field because they are not sufficiently exposed to the marketing industry, and in spite of being well-paid by the company they are never the best staff possible. The companies that choose this management way are usually very traditional and have a conservative internal culture, and believe that if they worked with other agencies, they would not be able to control the marketing sector. Some companies even choose to establish a genuine design and marketing agency within the corporation.

Before long, the same people turn to "bureaucrats" in the company due to running out of the same ideas for the same products and the same vision. One of the reasons why they make this choice is the budget because one of the most sensitive issues in decision-making is planning an annual budget for marketing. Many companies, especially in Albania, still do not prepare the marketing budget along with the other company plans, but solve this issue when the need arises. Thus, they use their internal staff to meet the marketing needs.     

Nevertheless, other businesses choose to subcontract specialized services for their marketing needs because they know that they do not have sufficient expertise to manage such sector themselves. They cannot update or invest on the marketing industry innovations and cannot keep up with the age we are living in, while battling everyday in the industry they operate. They are aware of the fact that another agency may have worked with other businesses in the same industry, which will help them applying the latest trends.

Moreover, an agency concurrently works in several industries, giving them the opportunity to acquire knowledge, gain inspiration, and find efficient multidimensional marketing solutions. The right agency continuously proposes new concepts and develops creativity, which is a must in order for a business to be successful. Even though at first sight the subcontracting of these services seems more expensive than in case of internal marketing management, it is the most favorable choice. It ensures expertise, success, quality and speed as compared to a usually lower performance as with internal marketing. After years of collaborating with agencies, various clients decide to manage marketing themselves, however, very soon they return to the agency viewing it as more trustworthy than ever before.  

In order to maximize profits, many businesses choose to combine internal and external marketing, assigning tasks and services. Even in this particular case, there are often communication and administration issues or responsibility overlapping, hence hindering management and proper message transmission to the consumers.

Nowadays, it is hard to say which the right path to follow is. Depending on the needs and opportunities of the company, more often than not the internal staff is able to cover all marketing tasks. However, such tasks may be perfectly accomplished and their value may be added with the help of the agency. Agency’s expertise, creativity and innovations help companies’ managers in having one less problem to stress about. The work of the agency allows them to focus more on other dynamic challenges of the business at present days.   

Errors in marketing decision-making are mainly caused by the misunderstanding of the actual business and market, or the choice of proper service or agency. Increased competition, thriving technology, new market ways development and awareness on the importance of image and marketing are visibly leading to subcontracting specialized agencies.   

Referring to one of Evolution Theories, we can say that in this case "the survivor is neither the most intelligent nor the strongest species, but the one that can adapt and familiarize itself with the environment". If businesses adapt to the way they are presented with the challenges of the present days, not only will they survive, but they will also be successful for a long time.