The ultimate marketing machine
In most companies the organizational structure of the marketing function hasn’t changed
since the practice of brand management emerged, more than 40 years ago. However a
simple blueprint does not exist. Marketing leaders instead must ask, “What values and goals
guide our brand strategy, what capabilities drive marketing excellence, and what structures
and ways of working will support them?” Structure must follow strategy—not the other way
around.
It’s clear that “marketing” is no longer a discrete entity (and woe to the company whose
marketing is still siloed) but now extends throughout the firm, tapping virtually every
function. And while the titles, roles, and responsibilities of marketing leaders vary widely
among companies and industries, the challenges they face are deeply similar. There are a few
shared principles of high performers’ marketing approaches:
Big data, deep insights; High performers in our study are distinguished by their ability
to integrate data on what consumers are doing with knowledge of why they’re doing
it, which yields new insights into consumers’ needs and how to best meet them.
These marketers understand consumers’ basic drives motivations we call “universal
human truths.”
Purposeful positioning; Top brands excel at delivering all three manifestations of
brand purpose—functional benefits, or the job the customer buys the brand to do
(think of the pick-me-up Starbucks coffee provides); emotional benefits, or how it
satisfies a customer’s emotional needs (drinking coffee is a social occasion); and
societal benefits, such as sustainability (when coffee is sourced through fair trade). In
addition to engaging customers and inspiring employees, a powerful and clear brand
purpose improves alignment throughout the organization and ensures consistent
messaging across touchpoints.
Total experience; Companies are increasingly enhancing the value of their products
by creating customer experiences. Some deepen the customer relationship by
leveraging what they know about a given customer to personalize offerings. Others
focus on the breadth of the relationship by adding touchpoints. Our research shows
that high-performing brands do both—providing what we call “total experience.”
Organizing for Growth; Our research has identified five drivers of organizational
effectiveness. The leaders of high-performing companies connect marketing to the
business strategy and to the rest of the organization; inspire their organizations by
engaging all levels with the brand purpose; focus their people on a few key priorities;
organize agile, cross-functional teams; and build the internal capabilities needed for
success.
Connecting; Despite cultural and geographic obstacles, our high-performing
marketers avoid dysfunctional teamwork, suboptimal collaboration, and lack of
shared purpose and trust. Their leaders excel at linking their departments to general
management and other functions. They create a tight relationship with the CEO,
making certain that marketing goals support company goals; bridge organizational
silos by integrating marketing and other disciplines; and ensure that global, regional,
and local marketing teams work interdependently. Today high-performing marketing
leaders don’t just align their department’s activities with company strategy; they
actively engage in creating it. Another way companies foster connections is by putting
marketing and other functions under a single leader.
, Inspiring; Our research shows that high-performing marketers are more likely to
engage customers and employees with their brand purpose—and that employees in
those organizations are more likely to express pride in the brand. Inspiration
strengthens commitment, of course, but when it’s rooted in a respected brand
purpose, all employees will be motivated by the same mission. The payoff is that
everyone in the company becomes a de facto member of the marketing team. The
key to inspiring the organization is to do internally what marketing does best
externally: create irresistible messages and programs that get everyone on board.
Focusing; By a wide margin, respondents in overperforming companies agreed with
the statements “Local marketing understands the global strategy” and “Global
marketing understands the local marketing reality.” Winning companies were more
likely to measure brands’ success against key performance indicators such as revenue
growth and profit and to tie incentives at the local level directly to those KPIs.
Organizing for agility; Today marketing organizations must leverage global scale but
also be nimble, able to plan and execute in a matter of weeks or a few months—and,
increasingly, instantaneously. Complex matrixed organizational structures are giving
way to networked organizations characterized by flexible roles, fluid responsibilities,
and more-relaxed sign-off processes designed for speed. The new structures allow
leaders to tap talent as needed from across the organization and assemble teams for
specific, often short-term, marketing initiatives. The teams may form, execute, and
disband in a matter of weeks or months, depending on the task.
New marketing roles; Companies are removing middle, often regional, layers and
creating specialized “centers of excellence” that guide strategy and share best
practices while drawing on needed resources wherever, and at whatever level, they
exist in the organization. We have found it useful to categorize marketing roles not by
title (as the variety seems infinite) but as belonging to one of three broad types:
“think” marketers, who apply analytic capabilities to tasks like data mining, media-
mix modeling, and ROI optimization; “do” marketers, who develop content and
design and lead production; and “feel” marketers, who focus on consumer interaction
and engagement in roles from customer service to social media and online
communities.
The networked organization; A broad array of skills and organizational tiers and
functions are represented within each category. CMOs and other marketing
executives such as chief experience officers and global brand managers increasingly
operate as the orchestrators, assembling cross-functional teams from these three
classes of talent to tackle initiatives. Orchestrators brief the teams, ensure that they
have the capabilities and resources they need, and oversee performance tracking. To
populate a team, the orchestrator and team leader draw from marketing and other
functions as well as from outside agencies and consulting firms, balancing the mix of
think, do, and feel capabilities in accordance with the team’s mission.
The task-force model is both agile and disciplined. It requires a culture in which
central leadership is confident that local teams understand the strategy and will
collaborate to execute it. This works well only when everyone in the organization is
inspired by the brand purpose and is clear about the goals.
,Underperforming marketers, on the other hand, underinvest in training. Their employees
receive just over half a day of training a year, on average, while overperformers give people
nearly two full days of tailored, practical training by external experts.
Marketers must leverage customer insight, imbue their brands with a brand purpose, and
deliver a rich customer experience. They must connect, inspire, focus, organize, and build, as
detailed here. The finding that’s striking—and should serve as both a warning and a call to
arms—is that most organizations haven’t been able to put all those pieces together.
, The influence of business strategy on new product activity: The role of market orientation
Introduction
The limited attention to the strategy–new product activity relationship is surprising given
that new product activity is of strategic importance to firms and is therefore very likely to be
influenced by the firm's strategic choices. For instance, a firm that primarily follows a
strategy of product differentiation is more likely to be involved in new product development
than a firm that follows a cost leadership strategy. Likewise, prospector firms are likely to be
more intensely involved in new product activity than firms that pursue other strategy types.
Narver et al. state that “a market orientation, whether reactive or proactive, is the
foundation for a firm's innovation efforts.” Market orientation may be considered at multiple
levels in the firm and is, accordingly, conceptualized in two ways in the current literature: as
an organizational culture and as a set of behaviors. The first, cultural view considers market
orientation as a set of organization-wide shared values. In contrast to the cultural view, the
second, behavioral view posits market orientation as consisting of a set of behaviors and
resource allocations reflective of an organization-wide responsiveness to customers' needs
and wants.
Consistent with Narver and Slater, we consider two behavioral components of market
orientation: customer and competitor orientation. Firms' orientation towards customers or
competitors is likely to influence how they respond to changes in the marketplace, in
particular, the extent to which firms develop and introduce new products. Similar to Han et
al. (1998), Noble et al. (2002), and Slater and Narver (1994), we treat the market orientation
construct as multidimensional. Further, firms' orientation towards customers or competitors
is likely to influence how they respond to changes in the marketplace, in particular, the
extent to which firms develop and introduce new products.
Conceptual framework
The framework posits three main links: (i) a direct link between strategy and new product
activity, (ii) the influence of business strategy on market orientation, and (iii) the influence of
market orientation on new product activity. Strategy is bound to directly influence a firm's
degree of new product activity. The task of strategic planning is to assure a stream of new
ideas that will allow the organization to continue to adapt to its uncertain outside world.
In most companies the organizational structure of the marketing function hasn’t changed
since the practice of brand management emerged, more than 40 years ago. However a
simple blueprint does not exist. Marketing leaders instead must ask, “What values and goals
guide our brand strategy, what capabilities drive marketing excellence, and what structures
and ways of working will support them?” Structure must follow strategy—not the other way
around.
It’s clear that “marketing” is no longer a discrete entity (and woe to the company whose
marketing is still siloed) but now extends throughout the firm, tapping virtually every
function. And while the titles, roles, and responsibilities of marketing leaders vary widely
among companies and industries, the challenges they face are deeply similar. There are a few
shared principles of high performers’ marketing approaches:
Big data, deep insights; High performers in our study are distinguished by their ability
to integrate data on what consumers are doing with knowledge of why they’re doing
it, which yields new insights into consumers’ needs and how to best meet them.
These marketers understand consumers’ basic drives motivations we call “universal
human truths.”
Purposeful positioning; Top brands excel at delivering all three manifestations of
brand purpose—functional benefits, or the job the customer buys the brand to do
(think of the pick-me-up Starbucks coffee provides); emotional benefits, or how it
satisfies a customer’s emotional needs (drinking coffee is a social occasion); and
societal benefits, such as sustainability (when coffee is sourced through fair trade). In
addition to engaging customers and inspiring employees, a powerful and clear brand
purpose improves alignment throughout the organization and ensures consistent
messaging across touchpoints.
Total experience; Companies are increasingly enhancing the value of their products
by creating customer experiences. Some deepen the customer relationship by
leveraging what they know about a given customer to personalize offerings. Others
focus on the breadth of the relationship by adding touchpoints. Our research shows
that high-performing brands do both—providing what we call “total experience.”
Organizing for Growth; Our research has identified five drivers of organizational
effectiveness. The leaders of high-performing companies connect marketing to the
business strategy and to the rest of the organization; inspire their organizations by
engaging all levels with the brand purpose; focus their people on a few key priorities;
organize agile, cross-functional teams; and build the internal capabilities needed for
success.
Connecting; Despite cultural and geographic obstacles, our high-performing
marketers avoid dysfunctional teamwork, suboptimal collaboration, and lack of
shared purpose and trust. Their leaders excel at linking their departments to general
management and other functions. They create a tight relationship with the CEO,
making certain that marketing goals support company goals; bridge organizational
silos by integrating marketing and other disciplines; and ensure that global, regional,
and local marketing teams work interdependently. Today high-performing marketing
leaders don’t just align their department’s activities with company strategy; they
actively engage in creating it. Another way companies foster connections is by putting
marketing and other functions under a single leader.
, Inspiring; Our research shows that high-performing marketers are more likely to
engage customers and employees with their brand purpose—and that employees in
those organizations are more likely to express pride in the brand. Inspiration
strengthens commitment, of course, but when it’s rooted in a respected brand
purpose, all employees will be motivated by the same mission. The payoff is that
everyone in the company becomes a de facto member of the marketing team. The
key to inspiring the organization is to do internally what marketing does best
externally: create irresistible messages and programs that get everyone on board.
Focusing; By a wide margin, respondents in overperforming companies agreed with
the statements “Local marketing understands the global strategy” and “Global
marketing understands the local marketing reality.” Winning companies were more
likely to measure brands’ success against key performance indicators such as revenue
growth and profit and to tie incentives at the local level directly to those KPIs.
Organizing for agility; Today marketing organizations must leverage global scale but
also be nimble, able to plan and execute in a matter of weeks or a few months—and,
increasingly, instantaneously. Complex matrixed organizational structures are giving
way to networked organizations characterized by flexible roles, fluid responsibilities,
and more-relaxed sign-off processes designed for speed. The new structures allow
leaders to tap talent as needed from across the organization and assemble teams for
specific, often short-term, marketing initiatives. The teams may form, execute, and
disband in a matter of weeks or months, depending on the task.
New marketing roles; Companies are removing middle, often regional, layers and
creating specialized “centers of excellence” that guide strategy and share best
practices while drawing on needed resources wherever, and at whatever level, they
exist in the organization. We have found it useful to categorize marketing roles not by
title (as the variety seems infinite) but as belonging to one of three broad types:
“think” marketers, who apply analytic capabilities to tasks like data mining, media-
mix modeling, and ROI optimization; “do” marketers, who develop content and
design and lead production; and “feel” marketers, who focus on consumer interaction
and engagement in roles from customer service to social media and online
communities.
The networked organization; A broad array of skills and organizational tiers and
functions are represented within each category. CMOs and other marketing
executives such as chief experience officers and global brand managers increasingly
operate as the orchestrators, assembling cross-functional teams from these three
classes of talent to tackle initiatives. Orchestrators brief the teams, ensure that they
have the capabilities and resources they need, and oversee performance tracking. To
populate a team, the orchestrator and team leader draw from marketing and other
functions as well as from outside agencies and consulting firms, balancing the mix of
think, do, and feel capabilities in accordance with the team’s mission.
The task-force model is both agile and disciplined. It requires a culture in which
central leadership is confident that local teams understand the strategy and will
collaborate to execute it. This works well only when everyone in the organization is
inspired by the brand purpose and is clear about the goals.
,Underperforming marketers, on the other hand, underinvest in training. Their employees
receive just over half a day of training a year, on average, while overperformers give people
nearly two full days of tailored, practical training by external experts.
Marketers must leverage customer insight, imbue their brands with a brand purpose, and
deliver a rich customer experience. They must connect, inspire, focus, organize, and build, as
detailed here. The finding that’s striking—and should serve as both a warning and a call to
arms—is that most organizations haven’t been able to put all those pieces together.
, The influence of business strategy on new product activity: The role of market orientation
Introduction
The limited attention to the strategy–new product activity relationship is surprising given
that new product activity is of strategic importance to firms and is therefore very likely to be
influenced by the firm's strategic choices. For instance, a firm that primarily follows a
strategy of product differentiation is more likely to be involved in new product development
than a firm that follows a cost leadership strategy. Likewise, prospector firms are likely to be
more intensely involved in new product activity than firms that pursue other strategy types.
Narver et al. state that “a market orientation, whether reactive or proactive, is the
foundation for a firm's innovation efforts.” Market orientation may be considered at multiple
levels in the firm and is, accordingly, conceptualized in two ways in the current literature: as
an organizational culture and as a set of behaviors. The first, cultural view considers market
orientation as a set of organization-wide shared values. In contrast to the cultural view, the
second, behavioral view posits market orientation as consisting of a set of behaviors and
resource allocations reflective of an organization-wide responsiveness to customers' needs
and wants.
Consistent with Narver and Slater, we consider two behavioral components of market
orientation: customer and competitor orientation. Firms' orientation towards customers or
competitors is likely to influence how they respond to changes in the marketplace, in
particular, the extent to which firms develop and introduce new products. Similar to Han et
al. (1998), Noble et al. (2002), and Slater and Narver (1994), we treat the market orientation
construct as multidimensional. Further, firms' orientation towards customers or competitors
is likely to influence how they respond to changes in the marketplace, in particular, the
extent to which firms develop and introduce new products.
Conceptual framework
The framework posits three main links: (i) a direct link between strategy and new product
activity, (ii) the influence of business strategy on market orientation, and (iii) the influence of
market orientation on new product activity. Strategy is bound to directly influence a firm's
degree of new product activity. The task of strategic planning is to assure a stream of new
ideas that will allow the organization to continue to adapt to its uncertain outside world.
