CMO Council meeting tackles CSI, Brand SA

A CEO/CMO dinner dialogue followed the meeting, involving an interactive session discussing the requirements of CMOs and how they can bring more value to the management table.

The meeting focused on the issue of CMO and CEO alignment. Marketers, according to Neale-May, still feel they are struggling to gain credibility in the boardroom. This lack of credibility, explains Neale-May, is due to marketers not providing enough analytical data with metrics and measures: a display of how marketing is impacting sales, selling cycles, deal values, shareholder price, retention of customers etc.

Lack understanding

They also lack the understanding that they should be influencing customer experience, business strategy and expending marketing funds more efficiently and more effectively. Marketers, says Neale-May, need to be able to tell management how they impact upon the business and how their spending impacts upon the business.

Also on the meeting's agenda was corporate social investment and the degree to which marketing should “own, manage and drive CSI programmes.”

CSI strategy, says Neale-May, should reflect, embody and reinforce a brand: "With CSI you can actually build favourable perceptions, you can enhance reputation of the company, you can reinforce its code of conduct, mission, [and] these are important branding considerations and [therefore] should be a marketing-driven exercise."

A special initiative, according to Neale-May, has been introduced in South Africa, with a task force investigating where, what and how CSI projects are run in order to find out how they are being structured, how much of a role marketing has, and to what degree they are impacting and influencing brand perceptions, brand reputation, brand integrity, brand trust, brand preference and ROI.

Brand South Africa

Since SA receives a large amount of negative coverage outside the country the brand remains compromised and tarnished, says Neale-May. He believes money should be put to use more effectively.

"The issue with Brand South Africa right now is like having a product that has a defect and the defect SA has right now is security - no matter how much you spend promoting [that] brand."

The SA government is, according to Neale-May, working in unison with the private sector security industry to combat crime but this is not being communicated effectively. The problem must be addressed and there must be a global strategy put into place, he says. There must be a vision with everyone aligned and it must be more than a marketing strategy. There must be something unique and different to be discovered, and this must be supported and validated. The country must have control over the message transmitted, and control targeted and directed coverage.

"When you talk about branding a country you must have a global strategy, you must have all the key stakeholders aligned - the government, the civic, your business [and] your population."

Neale-May believes potential word-of-mouth marketers should be equipped more effectively so that referrals and recommendations can be tracked - people within the country need to be trained to promote South Africa.

Africa part of a global network

As Africa is not a homogenous region due to varying degrees of lifestyle, marketers can look at where brands have been successful through unique programmes and variation can be explored to acquire knowledge by learning from other companies. With no other repository on African marketing, the CMO Council aims to develop a bank of information on innovation in different countries across the continent.

"What we're doing is not necessarily predicated on levels of sophistication; what we're actually interested in is... marketing factors,” says Neale-May.

For more on the CMO Council, go to its press office on Bizcommunity.com.