Five wishes for a happy new year
Published on 01/20/2003 under Ad Management
Santa Claus was very generous to the Lamons family this year, much more so than you might expect with the down economy and all. But there are a few things left on my wish list that, unfortunately, will require some of your attention.
Five things in fact, and to be totally fair, I’ve assigned one wish to each primary group in the Marketing News universe (so as to not add too much to your already overstressed life). I do hope you won’t let me down.
To marketing managers:
I wish you would finally snap to the importance of branding in business-to-business marketing communications programs. Please give up your “technology sells” fascination with all those product features and benefits. Swear off your addiction to telemarketing, cold calls and pounding the pavement. Acknowledge the folly of lavish customer outings and specially engraved giveaway items. They’re important, but not that important.
It’s time you embraced the idea that b-to-b decision makers decide with their hearts as much as their heads. I dare you to stand up in front of your sales force and declare that brand images define expectations, and expectations determine sales, market shares and profit margins. If customers think you’re better, you are.
As Andre Agassi says, “Image is everything.” It’s time you started managing yours.
To ad agency people:
My wish for you is to stop wasting client dollars producing “artful” ads. This is not about winning awards or entertaining people. It’s not even about creativity.
Your assignment is to understand the problems and issues your client’s customers are struggling with, and provide information that will motivate them to see how the client’s products and services can help solve those problems in the fastest, most hassle-free way.
Remember the old Lord & Thomas slogan, “Advertising is salesmanship in print.” Today, of course, we have a lot more options than just print, but advertising should always be about selling. And you can’t sell if you don’t understand buyer objections.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig way below the surface this year to find the salient issues. And then make those issues the foundation of our promotional efforts.
To marcom managers:
To marketing communications managers everywhere, I wish for you the most integrated of all communications programs. No more “project” mentality. Your work is too important to be cast in the dungeon of solitary confinement.
It’s time that magazine ads, tradeshow promotions and websites all worked together for the common good. Develop an integrated message and implement it throughout the land. No exceptions. Reign in those maverick product managers who insist on doing their own thing. It undermines the integrity of your brand (see marketing manager wish above).
Let 2003 be the year we all step into the world of strategy development, refusing to be an afterthought when someone finally decides it’s time to get started on product literature or a tradeshow booth. Quit acting like you’re grateful they brought you on board at the eleventh hour, and start forcing your way into the planning process as soon as you hear something new is brewing. Your experience is too valuable to ignore.
To CEO’s and CFO’s:
With all due respect, kind sirs, I wish you would stop treating marketing communications as an expense and start thinking of it as an investment that will pay huge dividends for your company. It will, you know.
You’ll need to accept the premise of brand images defining expectations (see above), and that may require a tiny expansion of the portion of your brain that embraces change.
But the only way we can prove that advertising is an interest-bearing investment is to set some measurements that are meaningful to you. Work with us to determine what those metrics should be, and then insist that we deliver on the grand promise. No more gut feel. No more “trust me.” No more mind-numbing sales lead reports that salespeople don’t even bother to read.
If market perception is our reality, then it’s time we identified and illuminated the missing link between marcom activities and the bottom line. Which leads to my final wish for the year.
To Association managers and Academics:
I know you’re been thinking about this, and some of you have been doing a lot more than just thinking (thanks, Ralph Oliva!). But wouldn’t it be great if we all got together and produced some compelling research that demonstrates the cause-and-effect relationship between business-to-business advertising and sales. Our consumer friends have it. Our retail friends see it immediately at the cash register. The only ones left out are B2B practitioners, and boy are we left out.
This lack of understanding causes marketing managers to think they can severely cut back or suspend marcom programs during recessionary times without penalty. It’s why most b-to-b companies spend less than one percent of sales on all marcom activities combined. It’s also why top managers delegate marcom responsibilities to people so far down the chain of command they have to read about corporate strategy in the annual report.
And, I guess, it’s why Santa elected to overlook a few items on my wish list. But, if we all work together this year, I know we can get it done. The alternative, on the other hand, is to continue muddling along, blaming politicians and other easy targets for our poor performance.
The problem with that is all politicians have extendable contracts and they’re experts at avoiding responsibility. Which is pretty much what we’ve been doing the past twenty years.