ANA Marketing Musings

Q&A with Outgoing ANA Chair Steve Sullivan on delivering growth, the Masters of Marketing and the marketing mosaic

Q: What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for delivering growth marketers will face over the next five years?

                  

A: Growth, or growing the top line, in a lagging economic cycle is the business equivalent of running in a dust storm. The distance to destination is obscured and progress is difficult and slow. I’d like to see attendees at this year’s ANA Masters of Marketing Conference come away with insights in five areas.

                     

1. How marketers are adding new features to classic products to counter share decline.
2. Examples of the crucial role product and service creativity play in a slow economy.
3. How technology is making it possible for marketers to establish relationships with consumers before they become customers.
4. New techniques marketers are employing to understand and use consumer insights swiftly.
5. How the best marketers are linking marketing results to business results to gain management support for more investment in their brands.

                         

Q: How do you see marketing organizations evolving, especially as it relates to fueling growth?

                        

A. The biggest change in company marketing organizations will be in response to the complete fragmentation of ways to reach consumers. Historically, marketers could “paint” their plans using the three very broad brushes of network television. Today a marketing plan has to look more like a mosaic — many small pieces that fit together to make a picture. Knowing how to use all these pieces will require a specialized knowledge that many companies simply don’t have today. This fragmentation will require more specialized expertise within marketing organizations — a trend that began with the commercialization of the Internet.

                     

(As appeared in The Advertiser)

Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble, says, "Marketing agility will help you survive and thrive"

Jim Stengel oversees the world’s largest corporate advertising budget — the $7.9 billion The Procter & Gamble Company will spend in 2008 to market and promote its extensive portfolio of consumer products. That kind of buying power may differentiate Stengel from many of his CMO peers, but his outlook for the next five years is still tempered by some of the same concerns. “You see the consumer confidence rating as well as I do,” he says. “They are sinking to the lowest level in 25 to 30 years.”

                                 

So what’s a marketer to do? Stengel points to the growing importance of two traits: value and agility. “Certainly, the first one requires us [marketers] to be very close to the consumer and offer good value in these turbulent times,” he says. “The goal is to ensure that our brands represent the right value for consumers. If they don’t, we lose. This whole area of value is a really important trend over the next five years.”

                        

The ability to be agile could be the difference between thriving and surviving in light of the business-model changes Stengel foresees. “There is tremendous change happening in our industry,” he says. “Those that will survive and thrive are the ones that are in touch with the changes, are externally focused, are agile, and are ready to shift their business models and their ways of working. Companies that are not are going to suffer.”

                           

(As appeared in The Advertiser)

Joe Tripodi, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer of Coca-Cola, says, "Balance inspirational and operational marketing"

The Coca-Cola Company is in the early phases of a transformation into a total beverage company, according to Chief marketing and Commercial Officer Joe Tripodi. As part of his role, which he assumed in 2007, he’s taking a careful look at the need to balance inspirational marketing with operational marketing. “Particularly in these challenging economic times globally, it’s very important for marketers to be thinking about a whole host of operational marketing elements,” he says, citing examples, such as improved precision and targeting and more customer engagement through CRm systems.

                     

Inspiration marketing, according to Tripodi, involves a much deeper understanding of what drives buyer preference. His presentation will explore the topic further, including better use of digital and the Web to engage and retain customers. “My view is, if you think the 30-second television commercial is going to solve all of your problems, then I have some land to sell you,” he says, noting that his own organization is building up muscle and capability in digital. “We see a lot of studies that say 75 percent of consumers make decisions in the store. So they’re not really thinking about that great 30-second spot they saw the night before.”

            

A frequent participant at the Masters of Marketing, Tripodi describes the conference as “the epicenter of marketing leadership,” both a provoking forum and an opportunity to rub elbows with fellow marketers. “You feed off of that — you get juiced by it,” he says. “As a marketer, that’s something that you really look forward to.”

            

(As appeared in The Advertiser)