INTERACTIVE! ASK THE EXPERTS!
Panel Discussion: Modeling a Modern Marketing Organization
PRESENTER
Lance Kinerk, Global Director of Digital, Ingersoll Rand
PANELISTS
Mathew Donoghue, Head of Marketing, North America, Intel Security Group
Scott Gardner, Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing, Bank of America
Mike McCalley, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, Flowserve
MattPreschern, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, HCL Technologies
SESSION ABSTRACT
Ever had someone outside of the marketing department describe it as "glorified event planners" or "the team to get them golf balls to bring to their next client visit"? Too often marketing is misunderstood, under-appreciated and misrepresented within the highest levels of the company because of an inability to fully internalize what we do and why.
Today's business environment mandates a strategic contribution from marketing, but are we organized to deliver against that need and to dissolve the marketing myth most executives have?
KEY TAKE-AWAYS
- Insight and examples of best-in-class Marketing Organization models across multiple industries
- Best practices to quantify and articulate the value of marketing outside of the function
- Success factors on talent recruitment, development and retention
INTRODUCTION
How can we innovate and model a modern marketing organization to add value to our companies? Panelists from a variety of industries explored some of the ways modern marketing can be approached and provided insights today’s marketers can use to succeed in the current, connected business environment. Throughout, they shared their experiences in digital marketing and some of the partnerships they have created. Multiple methods for success were covered.
KEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
How do you break silos?
- Partner with professionals who meet needs in the technology realm for applications/revenue
- Marketing is a team sport – It’s important to build relationships with human resources, sales, and IT
- Start with a business objective – or a problem to be solved
Do you have conflicts with shadow IT projects?
- Yes – but it often varies in degree and depends on the give and take of that relationship
- Yes – projects are often inter-connected and teams must make special efforts to speak the same language and serve as models for collaboration
What are core strategies with your firm?
- Be careful when you decide who you partner with – be sure they share your values (especially when thinking globally)
- Center of excellence should transcend business units, partnerships, across geographies
How do you show proof of marketing success?
- Traffic to digital marketing sites
- Customer engagement with marketing campaigns
- Tell the story in trend analysis for causes of errors in traffic tracking
- Show when marketing objectives are met
- Show how marketing metrics match sales reports
How can I get my marketing team into the planning conversation?
- Don’t set this as an imperative. Match to audience and the work to change the conversation
- Find partners to work with your team
- Determine the value added by including a marketing team – view sales and other functions as partners, not clients
What are necessary traits/skill sets for hiring?
- Adaptive, left/right brain equal, experienced, willing to take risks
- Be willing and able to tell the company story
- “There has never been a better time to be in marketing/digital communications” – hire people who feel the same
- This is a culture of experimentation – workers must be comfortable with change, ambiguity, disability, instability
- Employers must realize how often employees change marketing professions
How do you keep creative teams working in collaboration with other groups?
- Get people who understand and “fit” into the company
- Realize that most people join a company because of who they interview with and who their boss will be
- Don’t fail to recognize the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered in the position
- Don’t outsource insight – don’t drive best workers to other areas of the company
What is the biggest challenge of digital marketing today?
- Speed of change – one must be willing and able to rely on other experts
- Attracting and retaining necessary talent
- Choosing where to start and what projects are possible
- Keeping pace with the entire customer journey
TAKE-AWAY
- Use agile collaboration and weave recommendations into the web IT is building
- When successful, show IT how they moved the needle in revenue or traffic
- 53% of companies have the CIO sitting with the CEO; CIOs have more impact than previously
- Meet your audience where they are, then change that conversation. If we start out with “buy from me,” we lose our customers. First elicit interest, make them aware of a need, then bring them on a journey
- If we aren’t contributing to growth, then what story am I telling the CEO? Most CEOs don’t particularly care what your click through rates or attributions are
- Focus on a culture of experimentation; be comfortable being uncomfortable
- Public recognition goes a long way. Peer recognition goes a long way, too. Put real money into it, not just a plaque. Find it in the budget to provide a real reward for good employees
ACTION ITEM
- Create a centralized operation, a series of projects led by a group that can prioritize
- Use standardized reporting, regardless of where intelligence is coming from; make sure everyone is speaking the same language
- Be an evangelist, shifting with user behavior and technology that is available
- There has never been a better time for big marketing and communication; be super creative
- Ask: What is the value-add we can bring? Marketing shouldn’t be considered a cost center
BEST PRACTICE
- Utilize hybrid models to create an integrated business. Create a concentration of hardcore experts
- Deciding what the core strategy is in your organization is very important. Then, decide who to work with that will support your strategy
- Don’t outsource insight. Don’t have a 3rd party do your content
- CEO’s should have a core task and mission. Do work across a set of business units. Develop once, then customize
- Don’t just do as you are being told, define yourself
- Take calculated risks and seek to influence. Tell your story, don’t let sales dictate
KEY INSIGHT
Biggest challenges in the marketing space we live in:
- Speed of change; you can’t be an expert as an individual, need to rely on team
- Building structures that are agile enough
- Attracting and retaining the talent you need to do so
- You can’t run a global or regional organization on your own; you will not succeed without a good team
FINAL THOUGHT
Work with the mentality that marketing is a team sport. Look for partnerships, create common goals and strategies, and include other departments. Look for future employees who are passionate and not afraid to be uncomfortable or experiment.
