Already there is a global movement for organisations to rely on marketing as the driver of profitable growth. In addition, investors are becoming more and more interested in management's ability to identify and satisfy customer demand. This is not only the basis of organic growth, but also the heartland of marketing.
The question is, are you prepared for what your CEO will be expecting of you in the future?
Marketing isn't just a promotion and T-shirts. In world-class organisations, marketing is at the centre of the business model. It helps you to understand markets, segment markets and develop value propositions to meet the needs of customers in each segment.
This is the essence of strategic marketing - to decide who you are going to sell to, what you are going to sell them and why they should buy from you rather than anybody else.
The importance of marketing strategy arises from the fact that there are competitors and different types of customers. In a free market, customers choose whichever supplier provides the best value to them. The critical implication of competitor activity and heterogeneity is that companies must choose which customers to focus on.
Targeting the right consumer segments with the right proposition through a strategic marketing process will create consumer preference, customer loyalty and essentially a competitive advantage. To your CEO, this translates into a higher return on the company's marketing investment, higher turnover, and importantly, increased shareholder value.
Marketing will take on the leading role for profitable growth. CEOs will increasingly push the marketing department to grow shareholder value. And you will be held accountable for generating value propositions that achieve sustained customer preference for your brands. Using a new process called ‘Marketing Due Diligence', you and your CEO can rigorously assess whether your strategy will actually enhance shareholder value in the future.
The result of years of research at Cranfield, one of Europe's top business schools, Marketing Due Diligence, is a methodology that assesses your marketing strategy's effect on shareholder value. Firstly, you can evaluate the business risk of the marketing strategy and assesses whether the plan creates or destroys shareholder value. Secondly you are given tools to adapt your marketing strategy to improve its risk profile and enhance shareholder value.
When senior management asks what the return was on the company's R million marketing investment, they're going to expect a lot more than a change in attitude or increase in awareness. In future, CEOs will be asking how your plan has contributed to shareholder value. And he's expecting your answer to be quantifiable.
