The “New” Complete Marketer: 7 Take-Aways

In this quarter’s edition of Booz Allen’s Strategy & Competition, Gregor Harter, Edward Landry and Andrew Tipping summarize findings of their interviews with 15 top Chief Marketing Officers. There are six themes that emerge, no one of which will be particularly startling to anyone engaged in the marketing trade. (In fact, the “new” marketer feels surprisingly like the “old” marketer to me. Read on.) The sense of the authors, however, is that Marketing continues to take on a more significant, integrated and strategic role in growth companies.

The ongoing study demonstrates that growth in revenue and profitability is strongest among those companies that elevate marketing’s role to the strategic level.

[I suppose we might apply a little "halo effect," analysis, since it's not clear the authors interviewed anyone from a company that would not be considered "growth."]

Here are the six themes, along with a few other take-aways:

1. Put the customer at the heart of marketing. The twist here, I suppose, is that all of the usual and traditional market research still needs to be done, but must then be supplemented by more face-to-face visits, lab work, and information pulled from newer media, like consumer web sites. (See P&G’s Vocal Point for ideas.)

Pushing the information gathered to senior managers and across the organization has also become more of a priority, so everybody learns together. Google in particular emphasizes the user perspective: Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development says, “Because we operate in real time. . .we took a different approach. Let’s not do traditional marketing. . .Let’s put a lot of our services out and then innovate at a rapid pace.”

John Hayes, the CMO of American Express, adds,

In the [20th century], we did monologue marketing. We did most—if not all—of the talking. And we expected the consumer to listen. Now, in the 21st century, we’ve moved to a dialogue. Consumers want to be heard. In fact, they will not tolerate not being heard.

If you haven’t seen the "you're not listening" video, make sure you click here.

2. Make Marketing accountable. Of course: let’s measure Marketing! That’s a splendid idea. And, you won’t be surprised to find that 90% of marketers across nine industries find that the single greatest pressure point from senior management is to find improved ways to measure marketing’s effectiveness. The article suggests three stages: evaluate what is being measure and how it is being measured; condense scores to a few useful ones; create analytics and a core report.

See how easy it is? Next: How to play the flute.

3. Embrace the challenges of the new media. Marketers used to find great stability and comfort in mass media, but this is changing—though more slowly than you might expect. 80 to 90% of spending at consumer companies remains focused on traditional advertising, and specifically, the 30-second television spot. Still, there is no longer a captive market watching that spot, and tracking this audience to their new work and playgrounds is a full-time, mission critical job. Yahoo’s CMO says, “To be a great marketer, you must be a great student. . .Number one on my list [for a new marketer] is intellectual curiosity.”

4. Recognize the new organizational imperative. The point, I think, is that Marketing must be both intuitive and analytical, though I’m not sure how new this is, or how this differs from functions and folks in the rest of the organization. The other part of the new organizational imperative that feels awfully old is that Marketing must work well with other functions rather than be an island focused on splashy advertising and promotions.

You heard it here first.

5. Live a new agency paradigm. (Sorry about that paradigm thing.) “There is only one indicator that really counts,” argues Olaf Gottgens, vice president of brand communications at Mercedes-Benz. “The amount of money spent on marketing for each car purchased.”

I’ll let you supply the sarcastic response to this “new” finding.

The reason I hung in on the article at this point is that the general reminders about Marketing are good, and there were a few diamonds.

6. Remain adaptable. Enough said here.

7. Five critical trends are worth particular attention in the new landscape of the “growth champion” marketer:

• The consumer is not an idiot; he or she is your boss. That consumers have near-total control of communication channels is now the principal underpinning of companies’ marketing strategies. [Ed Note: "Customers are not being rational" is the reddest of the red flags you will hear.]

• The “purchase funnel” has Web feet. Marketers now put interactive media at the center of their strategy to influence the consumer decision-making process.

• Marketing experimentation is accelerating, along with the need for new metrics, as communications cost barriers continue to plunge.

• Marketers’ arsenals are expanding. The definition of “advertising” is changing to include multi-platform campaigns, marketer in-sourced infotainment, user-generated content, complex CRM programs, and other activities that are rarely associated with traditional advertising.

• There is a race for new capabilities among media, agencies, and marketers as the marketing media value chain grows more tangled and competitive.

My major take-away is that great old marketers and great new marketers have essentially the same skill set, though mass media is yielding to some interesting and powerful new opportunities built around the pervasive web and digitization of information. Great marketers have always had open dialogues with their customers, have always communicated well within the organization and across functions, have always been analytical and intuitive, and have always been adaptable—and more to the point, excited and ready to embrace new media and tools.

A wise researcher once told me: “We can train just about anything in Marketing except Ego and Self-Assurance. If you don’t have a head of Marketing willing to stick his or her head out, or who isn’t in your office every week throwing new ideas out and lobbying for budget, or who isn’t facing off regularly against other senior managers to get his or her programs adopted, you need a new head of Marketing. When I hire, self-assurance and courage are the first things I look for.”

That’s not new or old. That’s just great Marketing.

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

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