This makes no sense...
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Just check the thread on Meeting and Event Planners. One group of employees that was detested even by those in Marketing
Marketing folks are highly compensated for mediocre work. They are often a bit condescending to front line folks even though most of them have never worked on those roles or ever worked with a customer, yet they are the experts. Use too much jargon which they think makes them sound smart, but in reality shows how fake they are and how little they know. They create brochures and content that no one will ever read. They are manipulative.
Should I go on?
In my past I have been on both sides of 2 different LOBs for Meeting & Events.
WF Securities, IBCM and CIB was a well oil, organized machine. Their in-house dedicated Events Team and all related meetings and events were solely based on M&A, actual financial deals between WFS and a Client/Company. Those were called Road Shows and Deals. Not a penny spared, and all recouped after an IPO or managed M&A between 2 entities. I worked in NYC in WFS and was directly involved with that team based on deals and book of future business for our group in Consumer, Healthcare and Gaming. No spouses unless the deal involved a spouse who was a C level executive or on the BOD for that deal from that company that was part of the M&A. NDA’s were signed by all parties. Even Vendors and Contractors behind the scenes were required to sign NDA’s. (Hotels, audiovisual, catering, etc.) Every penny spent was tracked by a deal code and an associated client code as well as a meeting ID. Costs could be tracked and broken down to a penny for audits and internal financial reviews at the push of a button. Everything was reviewed and approved by Legal and Risk.
Now let’s talk about the sh!t show WF Enterprise Marketing was for Meetings and Events. I posted and accepted a position to be transferred from NYC to Charlotte to be closer to family, parents retired in the South. I accepted a lateral role in Enterprise Marketing in 2012.
Enterprise Marketing under Moldafsky was bloated and spending like a drunken sailor. Unnecessary expenses, technology was always an afterthought and the Meetings and Events team was a mosh pit of caddy women who would be better off planning wedding receptions or baby showers. No value or substance to these Meeting and Events. All sizzle and no substance as one LOB Executive put it. A majority of these meeting and events, 90% were all internal meetings for other LOBs, managed by EM Meeting & Events.
Last minute and day of changes to speakers/presenters, paid speakers with astronomical fees and demands with VIP level demands of hotel suites and green room setups for them and their entourage as if they were Beyoncé or some famous Hollywood Star. They were not. Let’s just say the M&E team was more star struck to cater to these external presenters. Mind you, I witnessed the same treatment when Carrie Tolelstedt was a featured guest speaker, all the while she was running a crime syndicate of fake accounts. I was not star struck or impressed meeting her. She was cold and abrasive.
Last minute printing of meeting packets, agendas, pitch books, attendee and conference materials. Boxes and boxes of WF Branded Swag. Just junk. From expensive pens to cookie jars to whatever had a WF logo imprinted on it.
When one persons corporate card went over their max, expenses would be put on another employees card. Signing of contracts by employees without legal or risk review, because they had a “risk person” embedded on the team. There was no tracking of any of these costs or financials by project code or project/meeting name. You never had a full picture of what was spent and there was never a budget set to begin with.
By 2015 an opportunity and posting for a position came about and I went back to WFS/IBCM. I couldn’t take being in Enterprise Marketing any longer. Worst experience in my professional life.
I thoroughly understand why Enterprise Marketing is loathed and their Meeting and Events team is a waste of resources and salaries. I had first hand experience and witnessed the malfunction and dysfunction in the entire LOB and all Business Units in Enterprise Marketing.
Nailed it!
In my experience they can't ever define clear requirements either.
Everybody everywhere hates marketing. It's not a unique experience at WF. Marketing overpromises, spends like drunken sailors on leave, and make unrealistic requests and timelines. I've hated marketing my entire working career.
Jamie made marketing the worst group. She was only consistent with her bloated ego. Rude is her go to attitude. She leaves this week, normally a leader that level with this much notice helps her EA move to another leader who can save the poor slob, but of course not Jamie, she laid of her EA! That is literally unheard of and selfish! Look at her hires Micheal L he is arrogant as Trump, Gary K he’s gone last day was Friday but he is still a jerk. 98%of the team have the manager title but no one to manage so talk about spans n layers... Here to hoping Charlie destroys that entire group and rebuilds it with good honest polite people.
@xcl+1737hAlI I see this from all parts of the company not just marketing. I won't name names but operations execs, product managers, etc... they go speak at conferences as industry "experts" - and pre-COVID these involved travel as well... lots of time not actually doing your job but self-promotion... it's hard to believe that anyone wants to hear from WF anymore but apparently so...
The group is toxic. You think you know dysfunction? Join Wells Fargo marketing. I've never experienced such cut-throat politics, backstabbing and brown-nosing, while simultaneously posturing about how they are all SO BUSY. A group of them spend at least 25% of their time promoting themselves on marketing panels, as if our campaigns and social media set the standard for the industry. Hardly.
Look at any marketing conference, especially the free ones in San Francisco. There's a rotating group of WF marketers on each agenda. I stopped attending because it was embarrassing to watch, and wear the same name tag. No matter, I still get to live it, relive it, and relive it again on LinkedIn and Twitter, as they share "highlights". There's still bloat there, no question.
You must not have to work with them. The hours I’ve spent watching endless presentations with no point except to “prove” how smart marketing is is time I’ll never get back
Everyone I know in marketing hates marketing, so I've been taking their word for it.
If you are in IT, Ops or Finance, 2+2 is always 4.
When I transfered to Marketing I quickly learned that 2+2 is subject to interpretation, there are shades of gray, there are creative and altenative ways of looking at 2+2 and things can be adjusted so the result fits into whatever outcome we'd like.
So this behavior causes many groups to see Marketing as just 'different' and 'not likeble'.
I know one person in marketing who I considered to be a very intelligent and talented person.
A lot of the rest of Marketing is people who play internal politics all day, get nothing done, waste gobs of money, and foist things on the business that are often unethical. I’ve observed Marketing people lie to senior business leaders in writing, and I learned very quickly that there is a lot of eye rolling about Marketing by anyone who has had to deal with them more than once.
Also, I don’t know who approves the TV ads, but they are pretty bad.