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David Hood, Community Director for THE marketing leaders (TM) asserts that as we fixate on 'leadership' as it relates to markets - i.e. share of market - we miss out on the REAL Leadership that marketing is crying out for ....

Leadership. And 'Marketing Leaders'. When we talk about it in marketing terms, we tend to talk about how our company is placed in the market, in terms of share of the market. That is really 'market' leadership (if indeed, you think that this form of measurement constitutes 'leadership' at all, although it does imply some measure of success!). But still that proferrs importance to the being biggest fish in the pond, by either unit sale or share of the 'value' of that particular market/product/service category. Does that however, really equate to more advanced marketing leadership? Real Leadership in marketing should surely be about the ability to demonstrate exemplary capacity and delivery to firm marketing principles and practices.

Sure, we can all say that our organisations 'are good at marketing'. Given that we all use the term 'marketing' inappropriately (and that we probably use the wrong measurements to define what 'good' actually is), we gloss over the real opportunity to make a powerful change in alignment - in both the personal and corporate sense - and lose the opportunity to become that elusive organism that it truly geared towards the customer.

Personal Marketing Leadership

THE marketing leaders (TM) is a community on a journey to enhance the role of the Marketer, and the understanding of the Manager as to the importance of marketing and how to improve practices and processes. This must of course start with the Marketer on Manager with a responsibility for marketing. The Marketer needs a strong focus and with the support of the marketing leaders, will in time dominate the organisation as the customers' Ambassador in mutual profit-making.

I've listed below some food-for-thought as to what could be improved to help the Marketer achieve greater status in the organisation, be able to influence the decisions made at the top level and improve the organsation's bid to become truly marketing oriented.

  1. Know your Objectives and how to meet them
  2. Be confident - after all, your decisions are - or should be - based mainly around customer needs. They are the ones that pay us all after all...
  3. Beware of the vacuous initiative traps (VITs): e. g. 'customer retention initiatives' (lets do anything to cajole them into staying with us), 'key customer dribble' (the ones that give us more money more often so they must be more important, but only because the figures are easier to count up and have been good historically), 'core competencies' (the things we do and have that are of least likelihood to stretch ourselves and make us feel uncertain (even though we are uncertain at all times), Benchmarking (against everyone and everything but the customer and his or her needs) traps ....
  4. Understand what and where real value is and where it comes from - evidential marketing
  5. Then you can take difficult decisions bravely, be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.
  6. Don't just change because your situation screams at you to do so. A change for its own sake is neither important nor desirable. Stuff all those changes into a mental drawer and focus on evidential marketing issues and core problems only.
  7. But, be 'restless with the status quo'
  8. Listen more than talk - marketing, especially communications is two way. We always forget this, no matter how well meaning our intentions are to be otherwise.
  9. Always ask 'why' until you get a definitive answer. And when considering a change, stratagem, tactic or improvement, read it out and then add 'which means that' before you get to the ultimate benefit. Also, many a 'dodgey' corporate decision has been made on a whim (you know this to be true), and asking 'why / which means that' allows us to quickly and simply perform a reality check.
  10. Make sure that you are involved in decisions along the entire supply / added value chain .... and new product and new service development and delivery processes.
  11. Enable the CEO (and all others in the marketing process) to make better decisions - evidential ones - that are quick, sustainable and lead to greater profit. Make your mark.
  12. Know the Difference between Invention, Innovation and True Added Value. They do not all follow in a linear fashion - and are important to the customer.
  13. Know your own personal SWOT and deal with the W and the T. Use mapping techniques, such as used with the new Marketing and Sales Standards in the UK, to map out the gaps in your / your organisation's marketing and sales capability where it does not meet the company's core challenges and the intimate needs of the Customer.
  14. Internal comms are as important as external comms. Internal comms are not just about admin / process and progress. They are about achievement. They are about the Customers' place in the company and making sure that everyone buys in to the customer-centric world that you paint for them. This may be the only way they will get it!
  15. Realise the extent and nature of the Modern Marketing Mix - re-evaluating what the mix is, and have a marketing process that knows how to ensure the mix is not just optimised (tactical) but the components of the mix are only changed in line with core problem resolution and made where the most profit is to be made (strategic).
  16. Enable others to define, develop and 'own' certain elements of marketing - the process that is - and make it known that theirs is an important part of the marketing process / mix.
  17. Give credit where credit is due - when a customer makes a warm statement, make damn sure it gets back to the person responsible. Also, when a stratagem, tactic, campaign or a crucial marketing mix element worked well, make sure that everyone knows where it came from - and who championed it! Don't just take personal credit. If marketing is to be a holistic process, by definition, it isn't just about 'you' or 'the marketing function'. If it actually WAS you, give credit to your system - the marketing processes you set up - as this is an important 'internal selling opportunity'!

Corporate / Organisational Marketing Leadership

  1. Know how best to align needs with our Company's objectives - in direct and powerful terms. And, although more difficult, align your products and services and developmental paths with the Customers' objectives.
  2. Take CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) very seriously - not just in terms of legislative requirements and cynical and reluctant knee-jerk reactions to changing forces in the market.
  3. Honest and Integrity of Approach - it is more than apparent that this needs to be a key component of our marketing mix. For at least three major reasons. One, the poor standing 'marketing' has in terms of believable messages and the trust of the Customer, Two it is necessary in light of recent corporate governance fraudulent activity, and Three as it guides the company to making itself more marketing oriented by being focused on honest ROI - return on investment. If its evidential marketing driving the machine, then we can hand-on-heart make good account of ourselves in terms of activities, decisions and ROI assessments.
  4. Know the Difference between the external environment and the Customer environment. Your market is not necessarily the Customers' one so make sure you know the difference.
  5. Realise that our competitive positioning is crucial - but not just in terms of how our proposition or company stacks up against the competition - but how it stacks up in the mind of the customer against their specific need.
  6. Make sure everyone knows they count - inside and in the supply chain - and make sure that they do.
  7. Never underestimate the Customer - a good or an unfriendly one. Use a system such as 'Net Promoter Score' to make sure that all that elusive word-of-mouth referrals and good Customer types are in the majority.
  8. Make sure there is a full and real understanding that needs, wants and demands are not the same thing nor are they interchangeable. Don't 'just clump customers together' because you think they may buy similar products or services. They ALL buy for very different underpinning reasons. Markets are unimportant - reasons are more important.
  9. Make sure Marketing is understood by ALL at Board level. And practiced by all.
  10. Make sure that all paths lead to a focused Strategy - identify what we should have as the Marketing Mix, as well as what we shouldn't have. This way we focus on what works and what makes profit and reduces waste in time, effort and money.
  11. Work on core problems and challenges - don't just tinker with the fires we are constantly fighting. They aren't easy to find, and at TML we are working on a series of services that help Marketers define precisely what they are and what effect they have on our competitiveness, profitability and sheer performance.
  12. Identify the conflicts that underpin and perpetuate the core problems and which ensure that they exist and do are not resolved.
  13. Plot Uniqueness v Relevance in terms on product / service introductions or improvements.
  14. Swap your marketing department and/or function to a process, and make it 'obsolete'. Its the only way for the company to develop a marketing orientation and customer-centric culture. Then the customer and marketing wont be 'the marketing and sales guys responsibility', but everyone's.
  15. Have a profoundly simple, sincere and proper process for employee feedback and contribution to new product and service development.

THE marketing leaders (TM) 'Manifesto'

TML is our professional marketing subscriber community. Listed below are the top-level goals and aspirations for the community. We welcome your feedback on these and other issues:

Vision:

A European professional business community dedicated to improving profits for the individual and the organisation through providing a defining Marketing Leadership platform for the marketing and sales professions - providing the best peer networking, methods, models, modern marketing and technologies for Practitioners.

Overarching Aims

  1. Marketing & Technology are linked in a way that they should be - for profit and enhancement of personal and business performance and well-being - using firm and robust decision-making and ROI models.
  2. Marketing is reconstituted as a science, through improved and active Leadership (by the Marketer and champions within the company as well as in industry or profession)
  3. We undertake a true 'Copernican Shift' in marketing - we still talk about 'market' and 'customer' centricity but do not know how to be oriented as such. Copernicus offered an alternative view that the earth revolved around the sun. Most of course, thought otherwise and that the sun was in motion round the earth. We STILL have the earth-centric or company-centric view and have a long way to go to realise the perfect and elegant customer-centric perspective and delivery orientation!
  4. Ultimately, the rewards of true Marketing should be a major profit swing. No less. Marketing is supposedly worth 3 times more than any other business activity. Lets prove it constantly and consistently.
  5. Accountability and Corp Responsibility are key to personal and corporate ambitions. ROI is king - in everything that we do.
  6. Marketing has to be cross discipline - across all that we do and where we do it.
  7. Marketing changes to be seen and practiced as a principle, orientation and process rather than a function, department or a bolt-on at the end of the development, production or delivery process
  8. B2B is given the status and support that it requires, recognising the differences between B2B and B2C, and rebalance marketing's sole focus on FMCG/B2C that excludes B2B, SME, Public Sector and other groups. This has to be addressed.
  9. People at Board level know marketing and its importance intimately.
  10. Personal gain and company gain - in equal measure. Of course, it goes without saying that the customer does too.

Values and Objectives

• To provide Leadership for and with its subscriber community in all areas of modern marketing, including how technology can be applied to make money

• To have Marketing as a primary component of Corporate Governance and have both the accountability and measurements appropriate; to also promote and propagate CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in all areas of the marketing mix.

• To provide a lead in debating and resolving key issues in Marketing and in the use of Technology in Marketing and modern marketing methods, for maximising profit.

• To determine and robustly develop the fundamental and continuing goals of 'customer-centricity' and 'marketing-lead' approaches and how those become a way of life for organisations rather than slogans

• To help organisations by developing standards that prove and improve their marketing and customer orientation

• To help individuals and organisations utilise specific and appropriate components of the Marketing and Sales Standards from the MSSSB into 'productised' components that are directly linked to specific profit-making activity

• To lift marketing from being constrained by being perceived as simply a discipline or function to an inclusive process based on true marketing principles and modern marketing methods

• To help the individual and the organisation identify and decide between alternative options to improve profits and create and sustain competitive advantage

© Copyright David Hood 2006, the marketing leaders (TM), all rights reserved. Any reproduction of this text requires full written and express permission from the author.


    



David Hood
Community Director,
THE marketing leaders (TM)

Email: davidh@themarketingleaders.com
Tel: +44 (0) 131 202 6310

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