BrainBrainTrust Query: Grow Your Marketing Credibility Before It’s Too Late

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Cultivating Your Customers, the M Squared Group blog.
Anyone who has a teenager in the family knows the meaning of the phrase "they tuned you out." Whether it is with the rolled eyeballs or the glance at the cell phone, you know that you can talk all you want, but they are not going to believe what you say.
What if the CEO of your company treated you the same way?
Research from the Fournaise Group says that:
- Eighty percent of CEOs do not trust the work of their marketers.
- Seventy-eight percent of B2C CEOs think marketers too often lose sight of what their real job is: to generate more customer demand for their products/services in a business-quantifiable and business-measurable way.
- Sixty-nine percent of B2C CEOs believe marketers live too much in a creative/social media bubble and focus too much on parameters such as likes, tweets, feeds or followers.
The CEO may be treating the marketer politely in the meeting, but they are going back to their CFO afterwards to figure out what they can believe.
So how does the CMO begin to build marketing credibility before it gets too late?
- Measurement is not an option but a requirement. Every marketing program needs to have a measurement plan before going into market. Then the marketing team must make it a priority to actually do the measurement, determine the key learnings and act on the implications — every time.
- Make the CFO your best friend. Instead of avoiding the CFO in fear of budget cuts, the CMO must align with finance to gain agreement on ways to evaluate marketing programs, again, before they go into the market. Then you will have the CFO in your corner when the CEO asks, "Can I believe in these numbers?"
- Your sales team must buy in. Often, marketing has been accused of bringing ivory tower approaches to a sales and operations team that is faced with the reality of meeting numbers every day. Partner with sales from the outset. If they agree, you have a much better chance of success. You can also present a united front to the CEO, positioning yourself as a team player — another benefit.
The good news about focusing on credibility and measurement is that you will have a more enjoyable experience with your CEO and have opportunities to increase your impact and scope in the organization. The bad news is that some of the "shiny new things" — social media, iPhone apps, etc. — may end up falling to the wayside. But unless you are willing to make the hard choices and focus priorities on the programs and tactics that drive results, your promise of accountability will ring false.
- Grow Your Marketing Credibility Before It’s Too Late – M Squared Group
- Free Guide – 9 Behaviors of Results-Oriented Marketing Leaders – M Squared Group
What steps should marketing teams be taking to improve support and trust from the CEO level? What suggestions would you add to those mentioned in the article?
Join the Discussion!
17 Comments on "BrainBrainTrust Query: Grow Your Marketing Credibility Before It’s Too Late"
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It’s simple: Marketing executives and their teams need to be aligned with company goals of growing profitable sales, which is not mutually exclusive from long-term branding and CRM programs. Easier said than done, I know, but measurable results as part of an incentive package might help.
Having lived this very conundrum for many years, I have to say Mark hits a lot of the really tough issues right on the head.
I would add this on the new product development front—shoot your own dogs quickly. Don’t flood the organization with 25 small ideas that clog the pipeline without much hope of meaningful return. Demonstrate to the rest of the organization that you understand the value and cost of their time and commitment to your projects.
I’m having a hard time believing this data is either real or has any relevance to the world RetailWire lives in. For all of us who are doing work with CPG clients, how many of them are not marketing driven? P&G, Coke, Pepsico, General Mills, J&J, Unilever, Kraft/Mondelez—these are the type of companies that make everything we find in grocery stores and they are all marketing driven (for better or worse—not getting into that argument). You don’t ever hear their CEOs saying, “my marketers suck.”
The CFO will never be buddies with the CMO–they shouldn’t be. BUT, they should be able to work together and it’s the CEO’s job to make sure that’s happening. If the CEO doesn’t trust the marketers, fire them.
This is a funny conversation because, from my experience, ALL CEOs have A.D.D.—they literally have to. Matter of fact, “Executive ADD” is a common consulting term. So, just like children, the best way to deal with that is to try and avoid distractions, of course, but also to be VERY succinct in what you present and how you present it. Forget about small talk; get to point and talk about results. If they’re up to it, they can engage you in other discussions AFTER you’ve proved your worth.
You have to make impact in your dealings with the CEO. They don’t have time to talk about anything else. It’s not only the best way to get something accomplished, but it’s just plain good business etiquette.
As much as CEOs might like marketing to be concrete, it frequently contains intangibles. New, unproven technologies need to be tested in the marketing mix. And just because most CEOs do not understand or use Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter does not mean that they should be omitted from a marketing campaign.
There needs to be a level of trust at the c-suite level. If a CEO cannot trust his CMO, there needs to be a meeting of the minds or a change. Likewise, CMOs need to demonstrate that they understand and support the core message of company. CEOs need to be educated on how the world of marketing is changing and becoming more consumer-centric.
With better, frequent dialogue, CEOs and CMOs can become mutually supportive and pursue a similar vision for a company.
Well, while I can easily be accused of having said that marketers need to focus more on “selling more stuff” rather than just awareness—the ultimate measure of success in retail—I have to say that having that as the only “measurable” objective for marketing is short-sighted. Retailers more than ever need to build a brand in consumers’ minds, and build trust among those consumers so that brands don’t have to compete so hard on price.
That said, I think there is another important way to demonstrate the value of marketing to the retail organization, and that is by focusing on customer insights. Not for marketing purposes, but with the intent of educating the entire enterprise about who the retailer’s customers are and what they like and don’t like and want from a shopping experience. Marketers by all rights should be the stewards of customer data—growing it, refining it, and making sure that the entire enterprise benefits from insights derived from it.
Been there, done that.
It’s definitely possible to measure the success of marketing programs. But it’s also true that keeping your name in front of the customer is a smart practice—ask McDonald’s. Everyone knows about McDonald’s and the products they sell, but McD continues to run ads, to build buzz and create desire. Stop marketing for a while and see if sales grow (they won’t).
This reminds me of those old “is IT worth it?” conversations we had in the early ’90s. The obvious answer to that questions was “let’s turn off the machines and see if anyone notices.”
The article has some good suggestions for marketers, but I’d like to point to the obvious issue with companies that have these communications problems: customer focus.
If the C-level management and those below are not aligned in their thinking and execution, somewhere (everywhere?) that customers interact with the brand, there will be breaks in user experience and that will inevitably cost the company. Marketing, (really every department) needs the support of every other department or customers will get the short end of the stick. CEOs that don’t effectively support their own marketing team need to take a long hard look in the mirror.
A brand (retailer or CPG) has a million Facebook likes. So, what?! That, alone, doesn’t pay the bills.
A brand knows that “50% of our marketing is working. We just don’t know which 50%.”
Bottom line, marketers gain respect when their efforts have tangible ROI. The best marketers in the world utilize powerful performance measures that help drive real business value, like profitable revenue growth. It’s as simple as that. Show the business results that are a direct result of the marketing tactics.
Transparent communications. This is critical between all divisions, but especially between the CEO and Marketing. Also, all marketing efforts must be realistic, achievable and measurable in their goals (numbers based). This means marketing must get the buy in from both Finance and Sales before presenting it. Marketing efforts without numbers are subjective, at best, and unreasonable at worst. Marketing can avoid these issues by requiring their teams to always have numbers-based goals (and timelines) as part of each marketing proposal.
What can be added to this list full of good advice? Possibly to recommend that any younger people considering a career in marketing and with aspirations to the C-suite take as many finance courses as they can fit into their schedule. Sprinkle in some statistical analytics and they will be better prepared than the last generation of marketers.
This is the age of measurable marketing and a foundation in business and finance is key to success. I have found it an easier path to start with finance and “learn” marketing rather than the opposite pattern.
The list shared in the article is a good one and, with a nod to the poll results, in order to become BFFs with the CFO, the CMO should have that measurement plan ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Executives like numbers. It is all about measurement. With so much data that is extracted directly from customers, their buying patterns, their shopping patterns and more, it’s easy to get caught up in too much data, causing “analysis paralysis.” The best leaders know what they want know and what data will help them get that information.
Give the right data. Make suggestions on how to react or respond to the data. That’s what the C suite executive wants. Information and options on how to use it. From there they make confident decisions.
Just like any other part of the business, marketing needs to align their goals with the goals of the business then measure the progress towards meeting the goals. Too often, marketing is given goals and a corresponding compensation plan that does not necessarily tie to the end goals of the company. Then when CMOs maximize their compensation they get dinged.
Step 1: Understand the true key performance indicators (KPIs). Facebook likes, twitter followers and website visitors are not KPIs. They may be correlated metrics but they are not KPIs. An example of a KPI is incremental sales volume generated by a campaign.
Step 2: Set goals based on the KPIs that will move the business and align compensation plans accordingly.
Step 3: Measure the progress in meeting the goals based on KPIs.
Every step of the way the outcome should be based on a conversation between the CEO, CFO, CMO and sales lead.