If there is an area ripe for continuous reinvention, it’s marketing accountability – the 3rd core pillar (The 1st pillar I discussed was brand building and the 2nd was integrated marketing communications) in the reinventing marketing process.
Marketing accountability has been a major ANA theme over the past three years. It’s the number one issue, according to a survey we conducted of senior marketers last year. And with good reason!
Marketers are challenged in their ability to predict the success of their own efforts. They know that marketing as a business function often does not enjoy the trust of the organization or its executive leaders. Why? Because for untold years, we have been using surrogate and soft measurements like awareness, instead of relevant measurements, like incremental sales impact and changes to brand equity.
But the key is not just measuring the effectiveness of programs and then reporting those numbers to upper management. The key is to use those metrics for true “decision-based management.”
Surprisingly, few organizations are doing this right. We know there is no silver bullet and chances are that no great epiphany will solve everyone’s accountability challenge. Regardless, technology has empowered a handful of marketers who have integrated processes and people to continuously reinvent the way they look at marketing accountability.
There are three core platforms that will lead to enhanced accountability. They include:
1. Apply supply chain management thinking to achieve process excellence.
Toyota, which has embraced Kaizen for 80 years, applied this philosophy to manage its marketing communications efforts. The result was a reduction of creative teams needed per brief, a decrease in agency rework and an improvement in media buying that generated a 25 percent saving in dollars – money re-invested in incremental marketing activities.
At Johnson & Johnson, marketers wove Six Sigma principles into its core processes in ways that enabled the company to increase organizational speed and to generate breakthrough sales results at lower cost.
2. Leverage analytics as an asset.
Companies that value analytics are succeeding at accountability. They approach marketing metrics and accountability in a cross-functional way, involving many stakeholders, particularly those that focus on branding, marketing impact on sales and customer value.
3. Create a culture of accountability.
Creating this culture starts with the appointment of an accountability champion, a person who drives multiple business proficiencies – analytical and financial – towards the common goal of better marketing performance. Among these proficiencies are:
- Decision rights that clearly define who makes decisions, how people get to contribute to the decision making process and where individual authority rests.
- Motivational incentives – financial and non financial – that encourage people to care about the things that matter.
- The way the organization is designed, the layers of hierarchy and the spans of control held by individuals within the layers.
- Process and information flow that facilitate knowledge-sharing and ensure that expectations and performance metrics are continually communicated to the people who need to know them.
P&G is one of those companies delivering marketing accountability through a combination of the right tools, the right processes and the right culture. It all rests on a marketing mix modeling platform that represents a long-term, global commitment to marketing accountability that permeates through the entire organization.
The responsibility for marketing accountability is far broader. It extends to all industry players and partners throughout the marketing business system. We can’t forget about the other constituencies that must actively engage in the accountability reinvention process:
- Traditional media, in particular, must give us better tools to understand the effectiveness of ad placements. We need to move well beyond circulation numbers and commercial ratings. What we need to know is – does the media work? And how do we prove that it does.
- Agencies need to demonstrate their accountability in the process as well –by understanding the impact of creative development, media management and the productivity in the execution of the advertising.
- Vendors like Nielsen and the Audit Bureau of Circulation need to play an increasing role in the measurement processes to insure total understanding of the productivity of integrated media placements.
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