can we get this straight?
My real interest lies in how to operationalize marketing. This is a semi-fancy way of how to do marketing better. (And, full disclosure, I am more of a student at this than a teacher.)
In fact, my pursuit often seems Quixote-esque, as different companies do marketing so differently that it’s hard to draw any meaningful and portable conclusions.
What’s Wrong?
What is clear to me is that there is a huge opportunity to do marketing better, and to do better marketing. It sure looks like what’s out there that people call marketing is not very good. I offer as anecdotal evidence this year’s Super Bowl commercials, roundly criticized en masse, not for being particularly bad, but for being consistently uninspired.
(It is important to me to distinguish between marketing and advertising – - advertising is a tactic used by marketers to achieve a certain objective, namely awareness. It has an indirect impact on the P&L, sometimes that indirect impact is negligible, and sometimes it’s fantastic. This impact is based on how well the tactic is developed and deployed. To belabor the point, let me offer up eBay as an example – their ad campaign for a long time has been very ‘celebratory’ and anthemic – see “Shop Victoriously” – but to what end? eBay has 90% awareness. What eBay lacks is a connection between their brand, which people know and like, and actual usage. The brand is much better known than it is used. Is advertising the right tactic to solve this problem?)
I can also point to recent tours through shopping malls – again uninspired marketing and merchandising. The Sunday coupons, the radio on my commute, the latest People magazine ads…. Where is the inspiration?
My friends at IMI Research have relentlessly studied marketing programs and have also concluded that most are ineffective or sub-optimized.
I could go on here. But arguing against marketing these days is like arguing for gravity – my point is proven inductively and deductively.
How Does It Look/Feel?
If your R&D department continued to design products that people didn’t want, or your Operations group turned out products out of spec, or your Product Supply group opened warehouses far away from traffic, or your Finance group miscalculated project IRRs or cash flows, or your Sales department called on clients that weren’t buying… well, you’d likely call them into the “how come room” for a little powerpoint and chat.
Here Is The Diagnosis:
There are five main operational problems with today’s marketing. They are:
1. marketing is out of touch with what people want/need
2. marketing is out of sync with the companies they work for
3. marketing is not integrated with the business plan
4. the building blocks of marketing are scattered around and don’t build to anything
5. too much marketing is based on spreading the message too thinly, and not enough on focusing… cast your bread upon the waters… hope…’broadcast’… shout…
An Aside
Just a quick story to illustrate- I love Triumphs and have had a few. My last, a 1976 TR6 (with overdrive), needed some work. So I took it to my favorite mechanic, who suggested that he start with the exhaust system. He’s a genius, really. We agreed. I came back three weeks later, and he had rebuilt the car’s suspension. What happened? He didn’t do what I wanted; he didn’t do what I needed; he didn’t do what was on the priority/punch list. He did what he wanted, and he did a really good job. He spent my money in a way that was satisfying to him, but not to me. He had changed strategies without telling me. He threw away the plan and went ad hoc. How many marketers do this? What he did was good work, but not what I wanted or expected or needed. He didn’t follow the plan. He was out of touch with his customer. I found a new mechanic.
So, Let’s Get A Grip
First, thing, get in touch. This is work. It isn’t reading research reports or trade mags or sitting behind one-way mirrors. Getting in touch is personal, visceral, emotional, up close, physical, messy, time consuming, inefficient, frustrating, confusing, and, in the end immensely rewarding.
You have heard this all before – go out and visit with your customers in their homes, offices, parks, airline terminals…. Go with a mission to learn, discover, be non-judgmental.
There’s a great urban myth that circulated around the beer industry recently about how August Busch III, the patriarch of Anheuser-Busch and ex-CEO and Chairman, went out to talk to legally-aged 20-somethings about their drinking habits. He was worried about the emergence of the ‘cocktail culture’ and ‘beverage cycling’ (beer, then red bull and vodka, then shots, then beer, then… you get it, no brand or even segment stick-to-it-ness). So he did his own focus groups – brilliant! But, so the story goes, he didn’t like what he was hearing, so he began lecturing the focus group participants on why they ought to just stick to beer. Nice try. If the story is true, he probably didn’t learn much. When you know all the answers, your questions tend to not be so good.
How do you figure out what people want/need? You can read research, delegate to R&D, find a patent to license, do what you did last year, redesign your package, add a line extension with a new flavor, hire a new CMO or agency or consultant, do focus groups…. Do any of these really help?
Are you your company’s expert on your customers? Do you have deep, meaningful, intimate relationships with your consumers? Are you your company’s go-to person for all things consumer-oriented?
Are you insatiably curious?
Now, Let’s Get Engaged
Second, marketing has drifted away from the real line management at most companies. All too often, it’s cosmetic. Sales support. Kinko’s-like. Subservient. The folks who produce the stuff that no one pays attention to. I’ve seen a startling trend where the marketing departments are moved to an out-building on the corporate campus. Physically moved out. Yikes. If the marketing department isn’t core to driving business results (top and bottom line on the P&L, shareholder equity on the balance sheet), then there are more budget cuts and layoffs in your future. Got to get your groove back.
I love the simplest definition of business – ‘to make customers’. If your marketing isn’t doing that, you might want to put in for a transfer to the tax department.
Think about this- 75% of marketing departments have reorganized in the past two years. Why?
And think about this – less than 15% of CMOs have control over all four P’s (product, place, price, promotion)
And, Get Plugged In
Here’s a simple chart for your examination. Print it out and fill it in. There are four pretty obvious questions to answer: 1) what are your company’s business goals and are they clear? 2) what are your key marketing initiatives and how well do they connect to the business goals? 3) do those initiatives translate into a plan? And 4) what are you executing, improving, and innovating in your plan?
Stack Up The Blocks
Do you know where your marketing is? Scattered around? Hanging out in seedy places, out past curfew? One idea to get started is to gather up ALL of your marketing materials and put them up in one place. Sales materials. Customer service scripts. Photos of your lobby. Photos of your stores. Your business cards. Radio ads. Direct mail pieces. Yellow pages listings. The list goes on and on, and you need to gather them all up and look at them.
Fish Where The Fish Are
Do you know where your customers are? Or are you a broadcaster? Great fishing advice is to fish where the fish are, but that’s much easier said than done, of course. You have to think like a fish – - we use a little tool like the one here. It helps focus.
Conclusion
So, there are lots of reasons why marketing is disconnected from the business, why it doesn’t get respect, why it is superficial and cosmetic and expendable. Some are real, some are self-inflicted, but all can be overcome. Marketing must be operationalized. It’s the only way to be effective, productive and irreplaceable.
Much much more to come on this.