The main role for marketing is to sell more, and more importantly, to sell more profitably. Increased revenues and a premium price means a more profitable business. Based on this, marketing should be a high-priority function in the center of all management team discussions. But it isn’t. Instead, the CMO quite often is excluded from the management team.
The management guru Peter Drucker once said “A company has only two truly fundamental functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation create results, all other functions are costs.” As a conclusion of this, Drucker created the concept “innervation” as the complement or alternative to innovation. Innervation is about influencing how your prospective buyers see your brand and the product or service you offer, ie what’s normally called marketing.
So, when revenues and profitability is at stake management teams normally listens. But why not now? Maybe it is because the word “marketing” today often is seen as “marketing communications”, ie representing one of the four P’s in Kotler’s marketing mix. And that is severely limits the potential of adding revenues.
For me, it’s a given that the CMO is involved in all four P’s, even if the CMO don’t own a stream like product development. Marketing’s role is to understand the customers need and to influence the buyer’s perception of what is being offered. To make the product or service a little more interesting. A little more attractive. A little more valuable.
During my years I have worked together with a number of great CMOs – and they have 5 things in common. Consider this and you will be a valuable part of any management team (and maybe even the next CEO):
- Understand your business and what drives it. By knowing the business at least as well as the rest of the management team gives you creditability.
- Be the expert on customer decision processes. Think beyond what customers say is important (they are lying…), learn what really drives decisions and how you can affect their willingness to buy more and pay more.
- Get involved in all 4 P’s. Present the offering based on customers’ needs and wants. Make the product attractive by good design and packaging. Find clever ways for pricing. And think about alternative distribution forms.
- Be the expert of how marketing can build short-term sales through activation and long-term value through brand building. Best practice is proven scientifically. The problem is that too few is using it.
- Learn to talk business language instead of marketing lingo. Brand awareness can be seen as an indicator of how our future sales will develop. So why not call it “future sales potential”? Brand preference shows if people prefer us. And those who prefer us tend to be less price sensitive than others in the market; ergo perhaps we should instead express it as “margin enhancement factor”? Etc, etc.
So let’s get started already today! You are always welcome to contact ulf@sfinxagency.se
