We are currently in a phase where every
penny counts and organisations are asked to “be careful” with investments and
“look for where to cut costs”. True – profitability is result of both progress
of top line sales, as well as spending. However instead of general cautiousness,
wouldn’t it make sense to look into where investment does make sense? What is
the key business area or customer group, where we need to put our resources –
sales, marketing, services, operations – to make most of the opportunities
available. This is where we come back to capabilities of intelligence and analyzing
the customer base, being able to draw conclusions where the company has most
potential. Therefore let´s be careful with spending but let´s also invest where
it is essential.
I was recently asked why we need to find
out fact based return calculations and sharp KPIs for both strategic and
operative marketing actions – isn’t it evident that we need to invest in
marketing and that everybody understands the need for promoting our excellence.
No. In the daily business cost cutting is close to a standard and strong
requirements for improved profitability make every penny count. Marketing is
not only striving for its existence, it is competing against other investments
– such as product development, sales force, digital customer services and
competence development.
Thus, it is essential to improve the
commercial capabilities of the whole organization to ensure marketing is not
only seen and conducted as a “function” – but marketing is an essential part of
every customer interaction and that every person in the customer interface is
looking into further opportunities in either serving the customer better or
considering how to add more value. Marketing can have a strategic role,
including wide customer focused and commercial capabilities, and therefore is a
true investment opportunity for any company´s growth.
