Many managers and salespeople first neglect their communication and marketing operations in the event of a crisis… This is the observation, let’s face it, it’s a bit cold in the back, but it can have explanations. Some see this, of course, as a lack of consideration for marketing, but the reality is more complex.
Lack of consideration of managers against marketing?
The successive crises, which the economies have gone through, have greatly altered the consideration of the marketing function, of course. In stormy weather, we rescue the water from the boat as a priority, almost forgetting to stay on course. Marketing budgets are the first victims of this regular cargo loss. We postpone them for later, we entrust the missions internally to people whose main function is not necessarily that. In short, we play while we wait for better days. Unfortunately, experience has shown that such choices have no impact on the company’s profitability or competitiveness. Contrary to this, by name decision-makers ont alors I realized the fundamental importance of the marketing function.
The conclusions of the audit of the CMO Council, international organization of marketing directors redonnent du baume to the heart. In fact, they heralded an awareness of the major role marketing can play in business strategies. Marketing directors are once again key players in the company’s strategic planning. Finally, they are recognized as experts capable of influencing the overall development of the company. If one could think that evil is more situational than structural, it is actually almost cultural.
Marketing: expense or investment? The shortcomings of French culture.
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It is already clear that non-Anglo-Saxon economies struggle to consider marketing as a lever for growth. French companies and SMEs, in particular, continue to see it as an expense and not an investment. First we look at short-term spending, but we forget about medium-long-term investment. This is indeed the heart of the problem. Because we must not lose sight of the fact that the costs generated by the implementation of a marketing strategy will normally generate profits. Marketing is used to create a bridge between products and customers and thus to generate revenue. But that is not easy for everyone.
The cult of immediacy distances us from the benefits of marketing.
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A study highlights several obstacles. First, some pressure from management to achieve short-term goals for 27% of them. There it is also extremely revealing of the current context: I want it all, right now. When it seems obvious that an investment in the stock market or real estate will not produce anything immediately, we expect results and returns in a minute for any investment in marketing… Culture change or behavior change? In a society that lives in immediacy, the expectations of customers and consumers are transferred to the economic and financial requirements of companies.
Decision Makers Lacking Data to Measure ROI?
Another very interesting point, a quarter of marketers seem to have difficulty accessing simple metric data that hampers the success of marketing operations. And we’re sorry to say, but at the dawn of Big Data, such an observation seems completely anachronistic. This leads us to consider the question of training or technological monitoring implemented (or not) within the different marketing departments. Especially since marketers from the US, for example, can do this perfectly. And what about the 70% in Europe who somehow manage to do it? Training, feedback, best practice sharing, benchmarking… So many simple tools to implement to build skills. But you still have to want it…
Awareness and a marketing mindset to succeed
Data mastery and ROI calculation are two important, if not vital, issues in future web marketing strategies. Because we have banned mass marketing and now we are witnessing the emergence of more personalized marketing strategies: behavioral, trigger marketing, relational, inbound… The success of an operation therefore depends on the control of personal data and a first unitary and then global strategy. . ROI.
So, in fact, the large groups are quite aware of these problems. Its globalized culture and the amounts invested almost naturally imply taking all these considerations into account. But what about SMEs and VSEs, which represent a large part of our ecosystem? This is where the shoe pinches…
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