ANA Marketing Musings

Q&A with ANA Board of Directors Chairman Steve Sullivan, SVP of Communications Liberty Mutual

As I continue my conversations with ANA Annual Conference Speakers, please find ANA Board Chairman Steve Sullivan's (SVP of Communications) comments below on the transformation of the Liberty Mutual Brand.

1. The theme of this year's ANA Annual Conference is "Transforming the Marketing Landscape." What have you done this year to transform your own brand's landscape?

This was a big year for Liberty Mutual in evolving our brand. Certainly, you could look at what we did and focus on the tactics - we rolled out a new T.V., print and online campaign; we introduced some new consumer promotions that created a lot of engagement; and we benefited from the power of social networking - but those activities were just the spear point of our efforts.

The significant change in our brand approach was our decision to distance ourselves from the frenetic insurance environment of competing claims and prices. Instead, we evolve our positioning based on a sociological phenomenon we discovered in the course of our research. It surprised us with its strength and we've been delighted with the response to our communications.

Annual Conference Q&A with Bob Lachky

As we begin our countdown to the 2007 Annual Conference, I wanted to continue the tradition (which I began last year) of blogging my conversations with some of the key conference speakers. These virtual Q&A sessions will highlight some thoughts from their conference presentations as well as provide their ideas on this year’s theme – Transforming the Marketing Landscape.

My first guest this year is Bob Lachky, evp and chief creative officer of Anheuser-Busch. Below, please find our conversation on how the marketing landscape has changed as well as how Anheuser Busch created a culture that embraces taking risks to gain rewards.

1. The theme of this year's ANA Annual conference is 'Transforming the Marketing Landscape.' What have you done this year to transform your own brand's landscape?

We are in the midst of a major landscape transformation as we have doubled the size of our brand portfolio over the past year.  Through acquisitions, distribution agreements, and new brand development we have set ourselves and our distributors up for future growth, especially with new high-margin products.  It is requiring an in-depth look at brand roles and zero-based marketing allocation, but we'll be better off in the long run because we'll have competitive brands for every segment of our industry. 

So, How Are We Doin'?

 

For the past few years, we’ve spent a lot of time standing on a soap box railing the industry about the lack of accountability in marketing. No regrets about that. And we have appropriately encouraged a more disciplined, metric based approach to marketing management.

 

So, let’s put our money where our mouths are and ask “so how are we doin’”?

 

First, the good news.

 

In a study released today, conducted jointly by the ANA, MMA and Guideline, formal marketing accountability programs are becoming an accepted business practice among marketers. Almost all companies (92%) have created and institutionalized marketing accountability processes. That’s a terrific showing. It appears that the industry woke up and recognized the need for greater accountability for the half trillion dollars that are spent across all marketing platforms. Excellent, right?

 

Not so fast -- now the bad news. The study found that dissatisfaction about marketing measurement and internal marketing accountability processes is rampant. Frustration levels among marketing executives are rising. Some specific issues of note:

 

• Dissatisfaction with marketing ROI measurements      (42%, +7pp vs. y/a), 
• Lack of marketing ROI definitions (45%, +20 pp      vs. y/a) 
• Poor organizational response to marketing ROI      data (48%,  +16 pp vs. y/a)

 

The study found that the relationship between marketing and finance lacks strength and consistency – particularly when attempting to establish metrics and methodologies for measuring marketing ROI. Most marketers (61 percent) indicated “some” cooperation between marketing and finance, while only 22 percent indicated full cooperation. In about one-half of the companies, respondents said that the marketing and finance departments don’t speak with one voice or share common metrics. 

 

Perhaps the most disturbing fact was that only 55 percent indicated that their marketing ROI goals were closely aligned with their company’s overall corporate goals while half (51 percent) said there were no written goals for marketing ROI in their organizations.

 

Ok – so should we feel bad about this? Definitely not!! We certainly wish the industry could have made more progress. But, being the eternal optimist that I am, I see “the glass half full”.. Five years ago, we didn’t even know what marketing accountability was or what to do about it. We do now. There is no doubt that we have a long way to go. But we are moving down the right path and we are headed in the right direction. The study may have dampened our enthusiasm. But it should also serve to strengthen our resolve and our determination to put marketing accountability right at the top of Chief Marketing Officer’s objectives for 2008 and beyond.