Redefining and Valuing Marketing

We’ve discussed the purported death of the  advertising agency at PSFK this week, but the marketing and advertising industries are also faced with the question of how marketing as a profession is defined, perceived and valued within organizations – now and in the future.

Larry Light, former CMO of McDonald’s, shared his perspective recently in a thought-provoking piece in Forbes, where he challenges marketers to be proactive in redefining the discipline’s role within their respective organizations – before it’s determined for them.

Light raises some particularly interesting points around the area of identifying insights, and inspiring creativity – and how both need to be sharpened if marketing is to be worth its salt – and investment:

• Disciplined processes are important contributors to effective business management. But processes alone cannot be creative, nor innovative. Creative ideas require creative insight.
• Meaningful insights are more than mere information. They need to meet two criteria: Surprise at what you learned, and as a result, a change in behavior based on this learning.
• Real, actionable insight will not come from superior data analysis. Superior analysis provides understanding of where we are and how we got to where we are. It does not provide insight into what kind of future we can create.
• The over-reliance on metrics is being used to justify marketing. Use metrics to guide continuous improvement. However, if the role of marketing needs to be justified in the organization, then marketing has a bigger problem than can be solved through measurement. Measurement should be a learning tool, not a justification tool.

Engaging ideas that forge a mutually-beneficial bond between a customer and brand are arguably the most differentiated deliverable that a marketer can provide.  That engaging idea ultimately drives sales.  But those engaging ideas require the input and championship of various disciplines in order to execute soundly: financials, technology, a quality product and a sharp customer understanding, among others. Light’s argument that marketers need to become brand business managers (and not just marketing communications managers) in order to remain valuable is spot on.  Though it will require marketers to be more proactive, to cross party lines within their organizations and to cling less to processes as a security blanket.

Forbes: “Marketing Is Being Devalued”