Bright Ideas
A Brave New World for Marketers
We attended the CIM Future of Marketing breakfast briefing which started off reminding us that Druker said,
‘Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation’.
Hurrah, things are good for marketers right? Actually, not so, right now.
‘Only ten percent of the time in the boardroom is devoted to marketing and this could be falling’ Ambler
‘Chief executives cannot find evidence of the added value of marketing’ Kotler and De Bress
We’re all sitting there thinking, what the heck’s going on? CIM managed to reassure us through the results of a recent survey.
They told us how their survey showed marketers contribute to business performance:
80% said through branding
68% said through marketing strategy
62% said by getting close to the customer
They also told us what marketers need to focus on to get it right:
- when marketing department’s influence is more positive, the firm’s market orientation increased by 32%
- when market orientation increases, business performance increases by 30% and relative to competitors can increase by 36%
- Marketing’s influence increases by 20-30% where the CEO has a marketing background
- Accountability improves marketing influence within a company by 25%
- Marketing knowledge increases respect by top management by 30%
- Lack of co-ordination with the finance department leads to 23% loss of respect by top management
In simple terms marketers can win:
- Be accountable – measure outcomes and own them
- Build on market knowledge
- Be co-operative with all areas, especially finance
- Be innovative – have the courage to be different
The over-riding point here was to be BRAVE, to have COURAGE and to DARE TO BE DIFFERENT in order to win and set your company/brand apart from the rest.
So their advice was, adopt a BRAVE NEW WORLD and WIN.
To find out more grab yourself a copy of The White Paper on The Future of Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing www.cim.co.uk
