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comment COMMENT
AND THE WHAT VALUE
WINNER IS…….? MARKETING?
Tony Thomas Adam Joseph
Managing director Insights manager
The Population Herald Sun
This business deserves an award for the sheer The annual national conference of the Australian
number of backslapping nights we have celebrating Marketing Institute is coming up this month, with the
successful marketing campaigns. You only need to theme “Value Creation Through Marketing”.
walk into any agency’s reception to realise how much Roger James, the AMI chairman, sees the biggest
it means to them. The gongs take centre stage – challenge facing Australian marketers today to be
particularly if the word Cannes or the initials D&AD is demonstrating to colleagues that marketing is the
involved. source of value creation in business. “Where do sales
But it does beg a question when it comes to come from? What is it that makes for loyal
campaigns: Who can rightfully take the credit for customers? How is it that brands are the biggest
awards? Now, I understand a successful marketing asset most companies own? The answer is marketing.”
campaign is a collaborative effort across all It’s just that marketers haven’t been recognised
disciplines and everyone involved wants a slice – but for this role because they have not talked about what
who should be holding their head highest come they do in the language of the board room. To this end,
awards night? the AMI is launching its new Marketing Metrics
Trying to decipher and rework a badly written brief project at the conference, encouraging marketers
from the client and turn it into a strategy which to become fluent in the language of finance.
smokes out the elusive consumer is no mean feat. However, I firmly believe our most powerful
So yes, the strategic planners play an important role. lexicon is the language of the consumer rather than
I mean, there are so many wacky interweb things for the language of finance. And one of the most valuable
consumers to hide behind now that finding the right words we own in our marketing dictionary is insight.
strategy to reach them is pretty damn tough. Every marketing journey should start and end with
Then, of course, the media buyers have to turn this the consumer. And it is through market research that
crazy strategy stuff into something that’s actually we facilitate this search for actionable insights about
execute-able – always a struggle with an ever- the customer which ultimately guide our marketing
reducing budget and CPM targets which seem strategies. Insight is where marketing adds the most
impossible to achieve. value to an organisation. Good marketers keep the
But the razzle-dazzle starts when the creative finance guys – and indeed the business – honest. And
agency takes over. All the thinking is suddenly yes, I know that’s not a word usually associated with
visualised as something the client can show their the profession.
boss. The anticipation is often quickly diminished Marketers remind the calculator punchers that the
though, when the first offline is seen and you realise customer is the one calling the shots these days. And
what the production budget couldn’t buy. consumers don’t for a second view their existence as
And let’s not forget about the PR agency. It’s a being about keeping corporations in the manner they
discipline that contributes a lot; as long as they’ve are accustomed to.
been given something good to work with. It’s the responsibility of the marketer to ensure
Then, of course, there’s the marketer – reluctantly management decision making remains consumer-
invited to the awards night by the agency despite centric, and the challenge of the marketer is to ensure
delivering a badly written brief, wanting too much the consumer’s voice comes across in the boardroom.
branding, or having a product that tasted like crap. But As an example, marketers might advise the
surely marketers deserve the award. They are there business against tinkering with the price of a product
from the start to the end, slugging away at every or service until the business has a pretty good idea
stage along the way. The marketer’s role is to pull the what consumers will make of the change. How would
campaign together into something that resembles a price change alter the value proposition? Finance
‘integration’, herding the agencies like cats, all the can’t – and shouldn’t – answer that question.
while convincing their internal stakeholders that it’s Marketing creates value for the business on a
worth spending the money rather than dropping it to number of different levels, but only some of these can
TO MAKE A the bottom line. be measured by standard marketing metrics.
It’s tough. So next time you’re at an awards night, When it comes to consumer insight, there is no
COMMENT EMAIL look at the marketer and know that, when all the marketing metric that does justice to the value of
EDITORIAL@BANDT. hangovers wear off, they are the ones that have to being connected to your customers.
check the sales report the following day. I’ll report back from the AMI annual conference
COM.AU And before you say it, yes, I am a marketer. in my next column.
OCTOBER 10 2008 BANDT.COM.AU 19