Before you do that though, ask yourself how you personally view the role of marketing – what your definition includes. Do you consider it to be the key driver of both sales and solid business performance? Do you think of it as a strategic partner, responsible for creating and implementing branding, product and programmes that can propel growth and help shape your company? If “yes” to both, then congratulations: your marketer is already well on their way to being empowered.
How to physically empower your marketer though? Allow them to make marketing quite literally “all of the above”. Elevate their marketing department from that of the traditional view of brand plan implementer, to that of strategic thought leader by giving them control of the areas they need to control – such as that of total brand strategy and total brand experience, internally and externally. In this way they will drive growth, closing the divide between their need to influence the customer experience and their ability to do so.
To make your company's marketing effective then, you as a leader need to enable your marketer. You need to set the example to sales and other departments by personally increasing their influence, confidence, strategic contribution and, ultimately, impact. You need to treat them as the thought-leaders they are. In this way, you'll not only unleash the full potential of your marketing strategy, you'll also discover if you have the right person for the job or not.
And, speaking of the “right person”, there are a number of people your marketer should be looking to emulate.
Take Mich Matthews at Microsoft for example. Thanks to “empowering” CEO Steve Ballmer, she's effected a wealth of change in marketing at Microsoft – influencing both the macro and microscopic customer experience; taking risks and making decisions that have sometimes seemed contrary to what research has indicated; and effectively partnered with the rest of the company across multiple disciplines.
Throughout this, Matthews has also achieved marketing accountability: by focusing on measurable results, she has changed the perception of her department as a “cost centre” into that of a centre that contributes to Microsoft's bottom line just like all the other business units.
Microsoft is an example for all of us whether in management or marketing. For those in management, she's shown that marketing should be an exceptionally strategic and profitable department depending on the individual company's environment and mindset. For those in marketing, she's proved beyond a doubt that this department has the potential to create business and brand alignment and, in turn, breed business success.
Perhaps it's time then for all of us to stop wondering where our marketers are and what they are or are not doing – and ask how we can personally help them achieve their vision instead.
