Quaid E Azam
An approach to mastering the marketing mix Michael D’Esopo and Eric Almquist
Michael D’Esopo is a Senior
Partner with Lippincott
Mercer, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. He can be reached at michael.desopo@ lm.mmc.com.
Eric Almquist is a Senior
Partner with Lippincott
Mercer, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. He can be contacted at eric.almquist@lm. mmc.com
ith eyes fixed firmly on growth, CEOs are now acutely aware that their marketing investments are perhaps the last significant elements appearing on financial statements that lack clear links to revenues and profits. CFOs are in lockstep with
CEOs, calling for results from the last few quarters’ investments and limiting future spending if they don’t like what they see. In fact, it is common for most C-suite executives to view marketing as a sinkhole full of investments with undocumented returns.
W
Marketers are in no position to argue. They do not deny that competitive pressures are more intense and profit margins remain vulnerable. Yet they are compelled to support faster and more frequent new product introductions – another outcome of fierce global competition.
They have to do so with hands tied behind their backs, because they lack the ROI data to make a compelling case for suitable budgets. And today, the corporate marketing department no longer has the influence it once enjoyed.
Financial pressures, a shift in channel power, and marketing’s inability to document its contribution to business results have combined to force reductions in marketing spending and influence, and to accelerate a transfer of funds and responsibilities to the field sales organization, notes Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business Professor Frederick Webster Jr, in a recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review. Webster and his co-authors point out the dangers in the disintegration of the marketing function – a short-term focus that hurts product innovation, weakens brands, and impairs companies’ abilities to
Michael D’Esopo is a Senior
Partner with Lippincott
Mercer, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. He can be reached at michael.desopo@ lm.mmc.com.
Eric Almquist is a Senior
Partner with Lippincott
Mercer, Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. He can be contacted at eric.almquist@lm. mmc.com
ith eyes fixed firmly on growth, CEOs are now acutely aware that their marketing investments are perhaps the last significant elements appearing on financial statements that lack clear links to revenues and profits. CFOs are in lockstep with
CEOs, calling for results from the last few quarters’ investments and limiting future spending if they don’t like what they see. In fact, it is common for most C-suite executives to view marketing as a sinkhole full of investments with undocumented returns.
W
Marketers are in no position to argue. They do not deny that competitive pressures are more intense and profit margins remain vulnerable. Yet they are compelled to support faster and more frequent new product introductions – another outcome of fierce global competition.
They have to do so with hands tied behind their backs, because they lack the ROI data to make a compelling case for suitable budgets. And today, the corporate marketing department no longer has the influence it once enjoyed.
Financial pressures, a shift in channel power, and marketing’s inability to document its contribution to business results have combined to force reductions in marketing spending and influence, and to accelerate a transfer of funds and responsibilities to the field sales organization, notes Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business Professor Frederick Webster Jr, in a recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review. Webster and his co-authors point out the dangers in the disintegration of the marketing function – a short-term focus that hurts product innovation, weakens brands, and impairs companies’ abilities to