Confronting the marketer’s fear in 2012

Surveying the world as a marketer from Singapore and thinking about the prospects for 2012, it’s difficult to be optimistic.

Many markets are facing cyclical challenges at best, structural crises at worst, and Asian growth seems set to slow down after the rosy past few years.

Plus, any experienced marketer will tell you that pending slowdowns create additional fear – because marketing budgets tend to be the first to be cut by CEOs and CFOs when things get dicey.

Cutbacks need not happen, in fact should not happen if real value is being created, measured and thereby demonstrated by marketers within an enterprise. Yet typically this is not the case, as most marketing continues to be tactical, mostly a creative exercise executed based on intuition and faith.

Both of these pillars tend to collapse when the economic value of business activities gets scrutinized and has to be proven, hence why marketing is such a sitting duck target for budget cuts.

The fact is marketers have not been very good at using objective metrics to demonstrate the value of marketing contributions, and this is not a good position to be in when skies darken.

Yet it doesn’t have to be this way, particularly in today’s world, where a multitude of new marketing methods and analytic tools provide objective support for the argument that marketing does indeed add value.

With 7 out of 10 people convinced that they would buy a product before they set foot in a store these days, marketing is increasingly given the attention it should be garnering, thanks to companies such as Apple who have proven that the brand’s marketing efforts are as effective as a salesforce.

The only problem is, too many enterprises are still only dabbling or paying lip service to analytics and a more strategic marketing approach.

For “best-in-class” enterprises, market slowdowns create the perfect environment for an increase in the commitment to marketing – strategically targeted marketing.

This is because for the best businesses downturns are the best of times, the time to shine, to gain market share, for the fittest not only to survive but to also prosper, at the expense of the weak. The weak fall away fast, and many perish.

What do the best in class enterprises do during downturns? They resolve to ensure that

• Marketing activities are fully aligned with the strategic objectives of the enterprise as a whole.
• Budget is allocated efficiently and directed toward activities that maximize customer engagement and improve the customer experience. 
• Customer attention is earned rather than simply paid for.
• Communications and advertising use multiple channels and techniques 
• Precise and objectively measurable key performance indicators are established.
• Overall, marketing as a function is internally accountable and externally visible.

It isn’t mandatory to increase budget to achieve best-in-class standards, but instead to deploy resources in a way that maximizes visibility and customer interaction.

Contemporary examples of downturn inspired marketing mix shifts include re-allocation of some budget traditionally reserved for print advertising to digital and social media engagement.

Businesses who rely on events can focus, concentrating spending to favor either the core customer or prospects, depending upon their industry and target demographic.

Businesses targeting retail customers are creating mobile applications as part of
integrated communications campaigns, to tap into the Singapore phenomenon of high smart phone penetration and to appeal to an impressionable demographic of interactive gamers always keen for a discount.

Communicators are adapting, having realized that it isn’t sufficient to just deliver quality content in quantity, equally important are the mix of channels, the degree of interactivity, the speed of communication, the relevance of communication, and the transparency of communication.

All of these can be measured and evaluated, so that engagement can be tweaked and optimized – and economic value demonstrated.

As the world gears for a more informed and educated audience, it is vital, now more than ever, to start aligning messages, and to communicate them to the right people in the right places.

Marketing, public relations, and new media are merely tools, but increasingly powerful tools, for companies and people to build relationships for the future.

The importance of integrating measurement into a strategically aligned marketing function is increasingly being acknowledged and incorporated.

This is a trend that will accelerate in a softening economic environment. It is imperative that enterprise marketers assess, plan, and then implement changes, both to stay ahead of competitors and prove their own relevance.

The stage is set, let the play begin! 

Richard Miller, Managing Director, Yuan Associates Pte Ltd.