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Marketers Need to Work Smarter, Not Harder
By Niall Budds
Vice President, Marketing Resource Management
Times are tough for marketers right now, and are only likely to get tougher. Pressure has been growing steadily over the past few years for Marketing to be more efficient and to be directly accountable for the performance of its investments. However that pressure has received additional impetus this year as the economy teeters on the brink of recession. Now more than ever, Marketing is being asked to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of its investments, its initiatives and its people.
That is not necessarily an easy thing for a lot of marketing organizations to do. In Quaero’s experience marketing processes are often ad-hoc, inflexible and not well supported by technology. In addition Marketing’s alignment with key internal stakeholders and business partners is often weak and an impediment to smooth planning and execution.
Marketing’s measurement capabilities are also often not adequate for understanding the impact of marketing investments and ensuring the right adjustments are made to the marketing mix, on an ongoing basis. So in the face of increasing pressure to shorten time to market and react more quickly to market and consumer trends, it is often not possible to simply “turn the dial” and generate more and better output from the same (or fewer) marketing resources.
We have found that the key to addressing these challenges is to focus in three primary areas where we now see many of our clients investing heavily, in some cases for the first time in many years:
Marketing Processes
Process change is never glamorous nor is it easy to do because of the inertia and active resistance to change which often exists in large organizations. However it is also an increasingly critical area for Marketing. Without fail when we work with clients who are unhappy with the impact of their marketing investments, the lack of maturity and consistency of their processes surfaces as a key impediment to change and growth.
Apart from the efficiency savings that can be achieved by standardizing and streamlining marketing processes, we have observed that staff morale improves as the work of marketing becomes less labor-intensive. Most important of all, increasing the efficiency of a Marketing organization enables staff to shift their time and focus from time-consuming tactical execution to the formulation and implementation of the right marketing strategies. The end result is increased productivity through greater efficiency. Our work in this area has helped clients identify and implement solutions which can deliver cost savings of upwards of 10% of their annual marketing budgets.
Marketing Automation
There are a wide variety of tools in the marketplace which are designed to support specific parts of the Marketing process. However until recently there have not been mature tools to help automate and re-enforce the end-to-end marketing process; from strategy through tactical campaign planning through execution and learning.
However a category of tools called “Marketing Resource Management (“MRM”) has emerged to support the end-to-end marketing process which, having evolved for several years, finally provides a mature and robust process automation solution.
We have implemented MRM solutions for clients who are finally equipped to consistently execute lean and standardized process with smooth workflows and fewer handoffs. In addition they can begin to combine planning and execution data with financial information to ensure that each campaign investment is aligned with strategic goals and that performance can be tracked and measured.
Marketing Alignment
This is perhaps one of the least talked about but most frequent causes of marketing under-performance. For a variety of reasons, Marketing is all too often not well connected with the business partners it needs to effectively plan and execute its programs. That kind of disconnect can be a source of ongoing employee frustration and typically results in continued challenges to the role and value-add of the Marketing function. Typical symptoms of this kind of misalignment include an over-extended campaign approval processes, poor hand-offs and bad communication, coupled with the unwillingness of key partners, such as IT, to align their schedules and priorities with the dates and targets that Marketing has to hit in order for the overall business to be successful.
Paradoxically such situations are often accompanied by good intentions all around. We see situations where business partners interpret “doing their best” to further the interests of the overall business as being free to second guessing Marketing strategy and questioning marketing mix. Not surprisingly this results in inefficient processes and lack of productivity.
We have found that solutions often get traction only when recommended by an objective third party, which has Marketing expertise and can deftly navigate organizational politics. Commonly, companies such as Quaero play a key role in defining roles and responsibilities, recommending appropriate decision-making and prioritization mechanisms, and providing a framework for development of a clear Marketing strategy around which all business partners can unite and execute in concert.
Building Marketing Capabilities for Growth
We agree with our clients that these are critical short-term focus areas and an appropriate response in a challenging economic environment. However we also believe that they are the key to longer-term growth and represent a key investment in the future of Marketing. Without efficient Marketing processes, improved organizational alignment and use of available automation tools along with other core “capabilities”, Marketing will continue to be operating in a defensive mode, continually reacting to internal and external pressures, as opposed to leading the organization’s efforts to acquire and build lasting customer relationships. Now more than ever is the time to invest in “working smarter, not harder”.
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