Marketing, Interrupted

by Dave Sutton

  Solving for capacity starts with visibility. By creating a clear view of your teams’ capacity, you are enabled to shift resources internally to meet changing demands. Also by creating a clear view, you are able to

  understand where there may be any potential skill gaps. This can be very helpful when you are trying to accurately determine which tasks need to be outsourced. Many companies are exploring the benefits of “Marketing-as-a-Service” to meet the ever-growing needs of sales, mar- keting and innovation.

  “We had to balance the needs of innovating for the future while run- ning a current profitable business. Establishing BOLT, using an agile approach and securing a marketing-as-a-service partner was critical to our success.”

  —Jim Brady, President Brady Services

  With customers moving fast and technology moving faster (there are now more than 5,000 marketing technology solutions), it is critical for CMOs to adopt an agile mindset and inspire their teams to be innovative, risk- takers, authentic, inclusive, and athletic because, often, needed functions have yet to be designed.

  Define your key performance indicators (KPIs) based on business objectives

  In order to stay focused on the KPIs that tie back to strategic business goals, marketing teams must identify and track leading indicators and out- come-oriented measurements that matter. All marketing spend on media and asset creation should be visible. If campaign outcomes are unclear, your team needs to have a framework in place for making trade-offs. There should never be any “black holes” in your budget.

  “Be clear about what business outcomes you are driving during transition. Don’t just spend more; that’s why CMOs get fired. Only sign up for budget if you can deliver revenue for it.”

  — Kristin Lemkau, CMO, JP Morgan Chase

  Get aligned internally and break down marketing silos

  Authenticity starts with your brand story and mission, and change is driven

  from the inside out. Therefore, marketing must first get aligned internally. By having an aligned team and a more transparent structure, organizations can eliminate duplicate tasks and reinvest the time, money, and effort in activities that drive the most ROI.

  “Everything from the way we market and the way we interact internally and with our stakeholders to the way we innovate and the talent we develop and find must be connected to those core values to become the brand we aspired to be. Otherwise, the authenticity

  is just not there, and that will completely undermine credibility.”

  — Rob Lynch, CMO, Arby’s

  Don’t forget, alignment of stakeholders is key to implementing a new mar- keting technology — do not under-estimate the power of a decision-maker who gets left out of the planning process.

  Don’t get caught up in the marketing transformation mayhem

  While you may not have spaghetti plot charts revealing where the mar- keting mayhem will come from this week, you can feel confident that it’s headed your way. In order to navigate the unruly waters of marketing transformation, you’ll have to proactively develop a strategic playbook and ensure the conditions of success are in place.

  By having the conditions for success in place, your team can successfully run transformational plays and navigate the pitfalls. If you recognize the common signs of marketing mayhem, you can take proactive measures to prevent the chaos from getting out of control. If you’re looking for more information about managing through transformational mayhem, read on! We’ll go into far greater detail the next section of the book!

  The Brady story teaches us that making innovation real requires a new mind- set and a different blend of skills. It begins with a deep and specific understanding of the customer, i.e., what the customer wants and needs at every stage of their decision-making journey.

  Transformative leaders like Jim Brady invest in understanding the entire cus- tomer experience much better than their peers. They also have much better pro- cesses for capturing insights about customers and applying these insights to their marketing programs.

  As we have noted in previous chapters, instead of focusing on the greatness of a company’s products and services, an innovative brand makes their cus- tomer the hero. Real innovation comes when you interrupt marketing as usual and formulate a compelling strategy to tell a simple, clear and aligned brand story to the right person, at the right time, through the proper channel.

  Chapter 14

  Aligning Marketing Systems to Execute Strategy

  isney and Starbucks… What do these two companies have in common?

  Despite operating in different industries, their business models have many similarities: laser-focus on customer needs and wants; personalization of offers and messages; rigorous measurement and optimization of marketing. All of these brands consider service excellence as a critical enabler of their growth strat- egy, and accordingly, they have mastered the art and science of customer experi- ence management.

  Starbucks’s move to put Systems at the heart of the brand is paying off as revenues grew dramatically in 2016, up over 18 percent in the fourth quarter alone to $4.9 billion. The brand has aggressive plans to roll out even more innovative digital features in the near future like “mobile order and pay” which

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  has been a huge hit with customers and has streamlined their coffee drinking experience.

  “We’ve added this capability that provides significant convenience to the consumer, but we’ve done it in a way that does not take away from or prevent the full Starbucks experience. And thus far, I think we’re seeing great results, great reception, and we’re very confident

  that we’re on the right path”

  — Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks

  Likewise, Disney has rolled out innovative, new technology to enable fun, relaxing, or inspiring experiences. The new “Magic Bands” are wearable devices that provide over 30 million guests a “friction free” and personalized experience at their Orlando theme parks, hotels, and resorts.

  Of course, Disney and Starbucks are not the only companies that focus on cre- ating compelling customer experiences (CX). In 2017, 89% of marketers expected customer experience to be their primary differentiator. Despite perceiving cus- tomer experience as a critical factor to generate sustainable growth and expecting it to become their differentiator, researchers have shown that less than 25% of companies excel on generating memorable experiences.

  Many companies’ definitions of customer experience are incomplete and they don’t have the necessary tools in place to approach, design, and manage the full customer experience. Moreover, many marketers still confuse the con- cepts of customer experience and customer service. The reality is that the scope of customer experience extends far beyond the traditional definition of customer service—that is, the transactional moments when employees are providing direct service to customers.

  So, what’s going on?

  You’ve got a great brand story—a simple, yet remarkable story.

  You’ve formulated your go-to-market strategy—a clear path to reaching your target customers with the right message, through the right channel, at just the right time to get them to act.

  Now, all that’s missing to transform your marketing is the alignment of the needed Systems to scale and deliver measurable business results. Marketing

  Systems enable you to flawlessly execute your strategy and measure the return on your marketing investment.

  To be clear here, when we say “Systems” it means much more than just tech- nology. Systems include the business processes, measurement systems, and orga- nizational capabilities required to deliver, track, and manage the customer expe- rience across every customer touchpoint: from the earliest stages of the BuyWay through to the empowerment of advocates and brand evangelists.

  The best strategies are only as effective as their tactical execution. TopRight defines and aligns your business processes, organizational structure, perfor- mance measures, marketing technology and change management required
to efficiently operationalize the strategy, flawlessly deliver the customer experience and consistently measure the business results.

  From a business process perspective in many companies, marketing still func- tions in a silo, separate from nearly every other financial decision made in the company. Company leaders—who agonize over whether to build a factory to fill additional capacity, whether to make that next technology upgrade, or even whether to acquire another company—routinely make marketing decisions that appear as if they’ve left their spreadsheets at home. Marketing is an investment, pure and simple, not an optional expense or a luxury. The processes that sur- round executing and tracking a marketing program should mirror the same

  processes that are put in place to ensure that every investment earns the neces- sary return.

  This level of discipline doesn’t exist in most marketing departments today. Many marketers claim that measuring results on tactics—from an advertising campaign to sponsoring an event—is too difficult or not worth the effort, as if this were akin to learning a foreign language. It’s not surprising that marketing has earned a reputation as big spenders who take no financial responsibility.

  Customer insights drive brand decision-making and marketing investments. The term “investment”—rather than expense—connotes the way marketing should function. Just as you should think twice before you pour your 401(k) funds into high-risk tech stocks or your neighbor’s latest startup idea, so, too, should you think carefully before you gamble your marketing budget on a risky bet, especially when you likely have better options.

  Creatively minded marketers shouldn’t let all this “science” and “investment” talk overwhelm them. The art of marketing is now more important than ever. The creative genius that drives brilliant marketing remains a critical part of every- thing that a marketer does. But the left-brain aspects of marketing—investment management and other fact-based processes—can be enabled and strengthened by marketing technology. Furthermore, new marketing technology (MarTech) applications can give marketers the freedom to focus on brilliant creative ideas to deliver on strategy. The marketing investment approach, combined with creative drive, gives marketers an even greater ability to build their brand and drive value for their company. This is the Systems part of Transformational Marketing.

  The brand and its Story stand at the center of everything that marketing does.

  The TopRight transformational approach to marketing indicates that the way to evaluate a brand is based on how much it sells, not on the kind of finger-to-the- wind approach that might show up on the front page of Ad Age. Brands are only valuable as long as they sell—ask Smith-Corona what they think of the value of branding in and of itself.

  Microsoft is a great brand, not because of some intrinsic value, but because Microsoft sells an awful lot of software.

  Everyone’s favorite example, Apple, is a great brand that excels at telling a great story, starting with, and being true to, its “why.” And, it’s the most profitable company in the world.

  Customer insights that drive decision-making must be both relevant and timely.

  Compiling such information is an enormous burden for nearly every company on the planet, but it’s a necessary one.

  In addition to poor internal processes and measurement systems, marketing also faces obstacles in the form of departmental silos. These enterprise constructs force companies to think about actions from the standpoint of operations or sales, rather than from the standpoint of the customer.

  The construct of a functional silo is completely counter to the TopRight prin- ciples of simplicity, clarity and alignment. Silos create complexity for customers as the onus is on them to navigate disparate marketing, sales, finance and service channels.

  Governance and decision-making across functional silos can be unclear and confusing for both employees and customers. And consistent delivery of your Story and execution of your Strategy can easily become misaligned as handoffs occur from silo-to-silo.

  The 1990s era of corporate restructuring, exemplified in Champy and Hammer’s

  Reengineering the Corporation, brought down many of these silos. At the time, many companies decided that it was a good time “not to automate, but to obliterate” old ways of doing things. Unfortunately, these restructuring projects rethought processes for almost all sections of the company except marketing.

  Every other department has been reengineered and enabled by information technology. For too long, marketers have suffered behind the unseen walls that exist between marketing and all the other departments of the company. How can a company develop a remarkable customer experience for its customers that encompasses traditional selling and marketing activities as well as operations and services when it’s almost impossible to get marketing and sales to speak with one another?

  “Don’t automate, obliterate.”

  — Dr. Michael Hammer

  It is time for marketing organizations, and everything that makes them run, to be transformed from the inside out. Implementing a transformational approach to marketing cannot be accomplished with just a sheaf of studies or brainstorm- ing. You have to put real changes in place that bring together organizational design, culture, incentives, processes, and marketing technology to make build- ing and retaining a profitable customer relationship possible.

  Financial discipline and scientific rigor must be involved in every marketing decision.

  Otherwise, you’ll stay stuck in the past, gambling away your marketing dollars.

  Sales and marketing technologies have evolved significantly in the past few years and solutions like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Digital Asset Management (DAM), Multi-Channel Campaign Management (MCCM), Marketing Resource Management (MRM), Marketing Performance Management (MPM) and Marketing Automation Platforms (MAP) have now matured to the point that they offer marketers a robust set of capabilities for man- aging their marketing with the intentionality and strategic discipline of TopRight companies.

  The MarTech category of software applications is absolutely booming! As evidenced by the expanding marketing technology landscape updated each year by ChiefMarTec.com CEO Scott Brinker, picking the right “marketing stack” for your business is more akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Adoption is now easier than ever since the vast majority of MarTech solutions are available in the “Marketing Cloud,” so barriers to entry are low for businesses of all sizes.

  There’s a lot of marketing technology in the world my friend…

  Unfortunately, early adopters and many companies fail to realize the full benefits and potential of technologies in the Marketing Cloud. Like the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, many software vendors promise you that “If you build it, [they] will come”—implying that the software possesses some mystical power to attract customers to your brand. “Field of Dreams” marketing ideas such as this never pay off. This false sense of trust in marketing technology is fundamen- tal to many failures.

  Ironically, many firms have embraced a new mantra of “customer-centricity” and implementing MarTech has been at the heart of their strategy. We encour- age marketers to embrace these new technologies, but also caution them to understand that technologies are nothing more than enablers for marketing transformation.

  “Software is modern marketing’s middleman.”

  Scott Brinker, CEO, Chiefmartec.com

  In and of itself, MarTech will not give you a new brand story, develop a win- ning strategy, or get more customers to buy your products and services. Market leaders use MarTech as a tool for gathering data about their customer personas, their journeys, and transactional behaviors. In turn, this data can be analyzed to reveal insight about trends in customer purchase behavior, to facilitate segmenta- tion of the customer base, and to create customer preference for the brand over time.

  MarTech can be an amazing set of tools for supporting brand-building activi- ties. But more importantly, it can serve as a scientific decision support system fo
r making the right investments, in the right amounts, at the right times to optimize overall returns on marketing investment for the company.

  Transformational Marketing is about optimizing and mobilizing all market- ing assets to create lasting preference for the brand, to activate customer purchase intent, and to accelerate organic growth of revenues and profits. To truly trans- form, marketing must get all 3S’s right: the right Story, the right Strategy, and the right Systems, all measured through the lens of Simplicity, Clarity and Alignment.

  Move your brand to the TopRight corner of the markets where you compete

  These are a lot of barriers to address, it’s true. It’s not easy work to make the mar- keting in your company function the way it’s supposed to: driving sales. But, it’s possible and the rewards are significant.

  To move to the TopRight corner of performance, you must unleash the true power of your brand and interrupt “marketing as usual” techniques. Apply science and art to your marketing efforts, and you can create productive conversations to engage your customer. Engage your customer and convert them into advocates, and you can drive your revenues and profits ever higher. You have to develop a deep understanding—backed by some real scientific rigor and creative magic—of your market and your customers. Only then can you powerfully develop your brand’s story, strategy and enabling systems to communicate efficiently and effectively with your target audience, identifying different customer personas and tailoring your messages appropriately at every touch-point in their buying journey.