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Al Berrios
Contributing Editor
Management Strategies
Al Berrios is Managing Director of al berrios & company inc., a hybrid management consulting firm he launched in 2000 to advise leaders on the impact of human behavior on their strategies and on how to change their organizations to address the behavior. Mr. Berrios also serves as the inexhaustible Editor of the Consumer Strategies Report, the highly-acclaimed al berrios & co. management publication. Contact Al at al@alberrios.com.

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The CMO Statutes: Guidelines for Building a Tactically-Driven Marketing Organization

Written on
March 13th 2007
Author
by Al Berrios  |
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Of Turfs and Budgets

It would not be a stretch to claim that too much of a marketing executive’s time is committed to securing meetings, dollars, and credit. Consequently, after assembling a finely-tuned hierarchy (not necessarily a bureaucracy), it’s abhorrent to rip it apart, appointing previously lower-ranking managers to key roles supervising formerly key executives and vendor relationships now demoted to lower importance.

Compounded with the way classical marketing tells us that each form of media, and budget, gets a dedicated executive to spend it, (which simultaneously indoctrinates all others to be careful not to step on that executive’s toes), the suggestion that the current system should be revamped will assuredly cause deeper resentment by marketing executives not-yet-accustomed to being blamed for every bad thing that happens, who receive obtuse and conflicting objectives from superiors, and regrettably execute their plans like an episode of the Three Stooges.

A couple of years ago, a large media concern asked our firm to audit and compare their relationships with distributors and the relationships of their competitors with these same distributors. Our research uncovered that while they were concerned with getting more attention from established distributors via trade publications and knick-knacks smattered with their logo, their distributors were more concerned with new entrants into their business, a previously unexpected development. In fact, the change was so spectacular, that content ceased to be a significant driver of customer acquisition for these distributors; they went back to their roots and aggressively focused on the engineering behind their product offerings.

Consequently, our advice presented to them, a full-year ahead of their competitors, with a seemingly simple solution: cut back spending on your current marketing activities, and focus more on tailoring your own products and services to the way in which your distributors can best leverage it to fight their battles with their competitors. Besides, immediate payoffs of 25% cost savings in spending online and other promotions, our client re-organized their departments to address the changed distributor landscape, rather than continue throwing good money at bad marketing.

Today, across the marketing spectrum, many companies continue to tweak their ideas of marketing in unguided attempts to do the same as our client: pairing back on marketing spending (i.e. GM’s recent $600 million cut in their marketing budget) and re-organizing efforts to focus more on tactics that build word-of-mouth as opposed to splashy, all-media campaigns (i.e. AquaTeen Hunger Force). But because these changes are driven by impatient chiefs and boards, it’s shortened the time in which marketing executives can deliver and leverage fresher ideas.

To continue (more smoothly) the ongoing transition to a tactically-driven marketing organization (without having to quit like Turner Broadcast’s president had to regrettably do after his support of AquaTeen’s marketing antics), we advise:

1) developing new parameters and benchmarks for execution that take into consideration a (genuine) collaboration with your colleagues over at research, merchandising, legal, procurement, and sales (nothing says innovative louder than changing the way in which you judge your performance from that industry norm; and nothing insulates marketing executives more than group efforts involving favored departments within the organization);

2) establishing a united and clear message for your brand from its various stewards, endorsed by the senior-most executive, who should also understand the significance of unison and clarity in branding (not just finance), so that accepting fresh ideas on progressing that brand message isn’t a “moving-the-universe” type of endeavor (i.e. consider Wal-Mart’s recent misunderstanding with the edgy Julie Roehm vs. Sandy Weil’s 1998 support of a red umbrella for all Travelers/Citigroup brands);

3) altering your recruitment, expectations, and rewards (not always compensation) so as to identify professionals willing and empowered to inject new ideas on tactics, regardless of age or experience. (With your less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of ideas not your own, of course your subordinates aren’t going to deliver. Just accept it - your job isn’t to have all the ideas, but to find the people who will);

4) discouraging your agencies from patting themselves on the back for every single accomplishment, no matter how mediocre, then presenting it to you as a significant differentiator, and instead, allow you, their client, more influence in the determination of which agency truly effected change in your bottom-line strategies through their efforts, as is the case for almost every other service profession that celebrates its own accomplishments;

5) coming to terms with the fact that it’s not how much money you spend, but how much money you make for the organization that is a surefire way to the corner office of your choosing. And no other executive (other than sales) is better positioned than marketers to realize this reality.

________
Footnotes

(1) Convergence: Why Businesses Fail and How They Can Succeed., http://www.alberrios.com/c/0207media.html



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Reader Comments.

This is 500+ words of nonsensical bullshit. Anyone who believes this hyped-up prose, or even understands it, is likely no different than Mr. Berrios’ himself–hopelessly client-less.

JJ

Posted by Jorge Jefferson | 12:01 pm on September 20, 2008.

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