ANA Marketing Musings

Research Renewal

Ah, yes, it is time to talk about one of the more forgotten aspects of the marketing accountability equation – research – and the quality of research.

Let’s put this subject in context and talk a little bit about marketing accountability. Whewww… this is something we’ve talked about so, so much …. and still have such a long way to go. That’s good!!!! Keep it coming.

In my mind, the primary objective of “marketing accountability” is to improve the productivity of the entire marketing supply chain to:

• Build brand equity

• Drive short term business results

• Enhance long term performance potential

• Streamline and increase the productivity of the marketing process

• Improve the marketing decision making process across all platforms

We can dig deeper for what all of these mean in greater detail – but we’ll save that for another time. Suffice it to say, that driving marketing accountability forward advances the “capability” of the entire marketing network. Decisions get made with greater precision, improving the odds of marketing success. Net, we get a greater return on our marketing investments. That’ll bring a few grins to the CEO and CFO – don’t you think?

The ANA has fielded three marketing accountability surveys and written two white papers based on the findings of the ANA Marketing Accountability Taskforce What we found is that to advance the marketing accountability continuum, organizations need to:

• Develop and nurture the core competencies of people – so they learn how to be “accountable”

• Manage data as an asset – and use data to create a common language throughout the company

• Create and leverage metrics for understanding and profitably growing brands and sales

• Proactively plan and deploy campaigns with well developed marketing management processes

• “Standardize behavior” by improving foundation enterprise tools for data aggregation, reporting and analysis

Marketing Organization Overhaul

I believe 2007 is the year the CMO will make the reinvention of the marketing organization a top priority. It is my opinion that CMOs will push forcefully for a top-to-bottom reinvention of how to better conduct the “business of marketing.”

Sounds a little strange, right? As marketers, we spend so much time on positioning, agency relations, accountability, new media platforms, brand building – and, of course, the need to deliver short term results. But what often escapes our attention is having the right “marketing organization strategy.” How do we best leverage the assets of the marketing organization to accomplish the company’s goals?

So much of marketing’s success depends on the quality of people, the organizational structure, the integration of support functions (agencies and research) and the vision that is established by the marketing leadership function.

But how these elements all weave together in an integrated approach is a very complex and not well understood area. However increasingly, senior marketing leaders are beginning to appreciate the importance of these factors to the overhaul health and well being of the marketing function and the company.

So, where do we start? How about understanding what the CEO wants from marketing. Aligning with the CEO’s goals enables the CMO to evaluate the best type of marketing organization needed for success. In a groundbreaking study, the ANA and Booz Allen Hamilton identified different roles that marketing organizations can fulfill. A full description of each – as well as an online tool to help CMOs determine which one aligns with their unique circumstances – is available at marketingprofiler.com. But, in summary, the different roles that marketing organizations can play are:

• Growth Champions
• Consultants
• Brand builders
• Corporate priority managers
• Best practices advisors
• Service providers

Let the Fighting End

My sixth “top ten trend” for 2007 has high expectations that government policymakers, consumer advocacy groups and brand marketers will begin to find common ground, aligning business goals with public policy needs.

More than just a ‘hope,’ finding common ground is an imperative for the marketing community at a time when we are being attacked on multiple fronts. From my perspective, the marketing community is doing “lots of good,” so much so that I believe we are one of the most socially responsible industries in America today!!! Here are a couple of “Did you know’s”:

- Did you know that the Advertising Council manages over 50 socially focused campaigns to improve the social well being of America – with a special emphasis on kids? Did you know that nearly $2 billion in advertising is placed by the Ad Council to further all of those well intentioned efforts?

- Did you know that the Partnership for Drug Free America’s campaigns have contributed to a decline of drug usage by 9 million teens.

- Did you know that the Family Friendly Programming Forum, a group of 40 advertisers and marketers, has created almost 20 prime time network shows – shows the entire family can watch together? Among its many hits are the Gilmore Girls, Ugly Betty, Everybody Hates Chris and Friday Night Lights?

- Did you know that the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) is the self- regulatory unit that ensures marketers take extra care in marketing to our nation’s youths? In the past year, the group has redrafted its cornerstone marketing principles to ensure currency and relevancy in this multi-media environment? And did you know that CARU created the Children’s Food and Beverage Initiative to ensure responsible marketing and to promote healthy lifestyles for children?

- Did you know that the advertising industry comprises 2.5% of the economy – an amount that has directly and indirectly influenced $5.1 trillion of economic activity? That activity generates about 15 million jobs or about 21% of all the jobs in America.

You probably didn’t know all of these things. I didn’t until I got to work with the ANA. In fact, there is a whole lot more that most people don’t truly know about us and the good work this industry does.