HR we'd like to introduce you to Marketing. Marketing, meet HR.

 Photo Credit and Caption by Ep_jhu, Flickr and Crestock.com

As two of most valuable functions driving ROI for your company, we thought it was about time your paths crossed because we believe the time has come for you to explore the commonalities between your departments. We are certain that once you break down some barriers, you'll begin to see that both HR and marketing, in a collaborative effort, can drive business success. With all you have in common, your ability to work together may just hold the key to the future of your business.

So it's no surprise that marketing departments are beginning to shore up a lot of cash segmenting, analyzing and tracking trends around our behaviors to get better at engaging us, motivating us and ultimately getting us to buy more stuff.

Technology is absolutely advancing the brand managers' ability to understand exactly who we are, what our likes and dislikes are, what we want versus what we need, how we like/want to be communicated with and even where we are at this very moment - all to attract, recruit and retain us as long-term customers.

We're certainly seeing this unfold with social media. A weekly survey distributed earlier this year by the CMOClub, profiled also in BusinessWeek, shows that in 2010, CMO's are starting to put their money where the mouths are. They are beginning to allocate time, resources and precious branding dollars to win our affection.

It's become crystal clear that Marketing has finally caught on.

Sure they'll have their legal issues to deal with but the best will overcome this and many will make a great attempt at getting out of the gate. Some will do well, others will fail. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on 2010 to see what shakes out.

In the meantime, even as a firm believer in the customer first approach, there's one thing that continues to eat away at me:

Each and every day these same companies, spending billions on their external market, overlook the countless touch points with those who are just as critical as their customers: their employees.

You know, the people that wake up every day to "live the brand" spending more time with it than their own families. Then, after the day is done they talk about the experiences of their day: what was good, what sucked about it, whether or not they're on "the list".