Companies with an effective and purposeful strategic marketing process tend to be more flexible and successful over the long-haul.
Even if a company is successful, it can falter without a defined process. Such a company can make poor business decisions, react negatively or rashly, appear (and actually be) uncoordinated, and ultimately, will not produce consistent, successful results.
A marketing process will streamline your marketing department, allowing them to…
- work faster
- coordinate as a cohesive team
- stay on the same page
- stick to a clearly defined mission and tasks
- achieve specific goals in a timely manner
Today’s marketplace holds marketers accountable to measurable results. SiriousDecisions reports that,
“…marketers are consistently doing things that were once unheard of, including:
- Measuring, reporting and becoming predictive about marketing’s contribution to sales pipeline and revenue.
- Establishing rigorous processes, and benchmarking their own performance on many fronts to drive continuous improvement.”
David Brier, President and Creative Director at DBD International, Ltd, makes the point that purposeful marketing helps your brand. A strategic marketing process ensures that your brand will consistently be focused, relevant, proactive, meaningful, and possess long-term objectives.
In short, a process will keep your brand alive.
Setting the Example: Pepsi-Co
Pepsi-Co is a company that has decided to persevere in their marketing plan.
Image credit: Dinos Ps on Flickr
In March, 2012, Brad Jakeman (President, Global Enjoyment Brands and Chief Creative Officer) invited Ad Age into his new “research lab” where Pepsi is attempting to (re)define their identity. Ad Age reports that Jakeman “laid out a roadmap for returning Pepsi to pop-culture relevance, growing sales, creating a cohesive design system and invigorating employees.” In other words, Jakeman is implementing a marketing process for their company in order to produce results.
In the past, Pepsi-Co has not always had a clear brand identity or consistent marketing strategy, and this has left the company in the perennial number two slot behind Coca-Cola. Jakeman says, “As a brand we have moved from one advertising campaign to another to another…Because we haven’t had an enduring piece of brand language, we just attached different things to the logo all the time.” With Jakeman’s guidance, Pepsi-Co is planning “to get a lot more disciplined.”
Following the Example
What comes of Pepsi’s efforts is yet to be seen, but they are on the right track. A lot of times, large companies won’t make the shift necessary in order to realign their marketing departments. It’s often seen as too costly, too time-consuming, and too difficult to manage on the large scale.
If you’re a small company — guess what! — you have the advantage. It’s easier for you to re-organize, realign, and retrain your marketing department. If you’re not seeing the results you want, what are you waiting for?
- Have you ever had to switch gears like Pepsi? What was that process like?
- Does your marketing team have a disciplined, proactive, repeatable marketing strategy?
[...] article rather interesting, in light of my recent post about Pepsi (which was ironically entitled Pepsi-Co: How to Keep a Brand Alive). Here’s a direct quote from that post: Ad Age reports that Jakeman [Chief Creative [...]