Blog: marketing strategy
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Cool or Critical? A Reflection on the Forrester ML & CI Forums
4/25/12Continue ReadingI loved the theme of the Forrester Marketing Leadership & Customer Intelligence Forums last week in LA and believe the Forrester team delivered. With a packed agenda of case studies to help marketers put all the parts together to deliver a single, personal brand experience to each customer, the sessions were tailored to a variety of marketing perspectives.
It’s not an easy job for Forrester, and more importantly not an easy job for a marketer given the competing demands within an organization, the lack of unlimited funds, and the ever changing landscape of channels and technology.
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Moving Toward Integrated Marketing: Considerations Beyond Campaigns
4/10/12Continue ReadingSkim through any current collection of marketing best practices and marketing integration is
sure to be a central theme. So while the concept of a cohesive multi-channel marketing strategy is hardly new, many if not most organizations have yet to fully adopt this best practice. Newer companies have the advantage of building their internal processes to fit the post-digital landscape, but for most firms, integration is a massive undertaking requiring complex transformation across multiple layers. The deepest challenges include siloed organizational structures both inside and outside marketing; conflicting objectives across business units; and the absence of the right tools and data to effectively integrate campaigns. -
When Firing the CEO is Not an Option
3/1/12Continue Reading
I have been participating in an interesting dialogue on LinkedIn lately about what happens when, as the new head of marketing, your CEO asks you to assess and “fix” marketing within a notional 30-day period. The range of posts and reactions has been very interesting and, in some cases, worrying. What concerns me the most are the folks - they look mostly like very traditional brand marketers - who argue that the CEO should somehow be “fired” or that you, as head of marketing, should quit in response to a patently “impossible” request that shows how little the CEO understands and appreciates the art of marketing. I characterize that kind of thinking as “head in the sand” and say in response “wake up people!” because, whether they realize it or not, most senior marketers (and marketing itself) are being continuously assessed in terms of their contribution to the bottom line. The difficulty in measuring the return on many marketing investments only exacerbates this problem. So while a notional 30-day deadline is tough, I do feel that making an impact quickly by optimizing your marketing investments is expected of all new heads of marketing, especially because they will also be saddled with the many unrealized expectations the CEO had of their predecessors. -
Loyalty Marketing Insights - Three Essential Links
6/26/09Continue Reading- There is no "P" in loyalty (Bill Hanifin) -- Bill Hanifin stresses the importance of understanding that loyal customers are not necessarily profitable customers. In other words, starting a loyalty program without having an understanding of customer profitability could hurt your bottom line.
- State of the Loyalty Industry (Michael Hemsey - PDF) -- Key quote: "Loyalty programs are an investment, not a cost center, and they should generate a positive return."
- Analyzing Customers, Best Buy Decides Not All Are Welcome (WSJ) -- Best Buy found out back in 2004 that many of its most loyal customers were hurting its profits. Understanding the relationship between loyalty and profitability led Best Buy to roll out a controversial "angel-devil" strategy. One can only wonder if a similar strategy could have saved Circuit City.
