Five Challenges Facing Marketing

3:30 AM Wednesday October 26, 2011
by David Aaker

The marketing field is faced with several challenges that for many firms will require a transformation in its capability and charge. Among them are the following five.

First, marketing needs to lead in substantial or transformational innovation that will result in new offerings that will define new categories or subcategories. Marketing focused on "my brand is better than your brand" strategies supported by incremental innovation and conventional programs rarely creates sales growth because markets have a lot of inertia. The only way to grow is through big idea innovation that will create enhancements or augmentations of the offering that will be regarded by customers as "must haves." That is what brands like Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Prius, Zappos.com, SalesForce.com, Dreyer's Slow Churned Ice Cream, Best Buy's Geek Squad, iShares, ESPN, and hundreds of others have done.

Second, marketing needs to be strategic rather than tactical and earn an influential place at the executive table. Marketing should own three key drivers of strategy. One is customer insights which should enable growth initiatives and be the basis for strategic resource allocation. Another is the value proposition, a centerpiece of business strategy. Finally, marketing should own brand strategy which should both inform and enable the business strategy. Although more and more firms have accepted the CMO on the executive team, there are still many others for which marketing is still relegated to a tactical role.

Third, marketing needs to get control of the product, country, and functional silos to foster cooperation and communication rather than competition and isolation. Firms no longer have the luxury to see opportunities for consistency and synergy lost. In Lou Gerstners' classic turnaround of IBM one of his boldest moves was to attack the product and country silo culture. It is especially important to overcome functional silos to create integrated marketing programs where some functional areas accept a supporting rule even when that is not what they are accustomed to. Jim Stengel, former P&G CMO, made some progress by allowing the functional area with the best big idea to become the team leader, but the goal of integrated marketing has been long elusive.

Fourth, marketing needs to inject energy and involvement into their brands. A little known fact is that brand equity across the world has been declining for over a decade. The exception are those brands with energy. Energy is an imperative. If a brand cannot provide product energy like Apple, Dove, and others have done, the need is to create or find something with energy and attach the brand to it. Think of the Avon's "Walk for Breast Cancer" or Home Depot's alignment with "Homes for Humanity."

Finally, marketing needs to be elevate its game tactically. With the fragmentation of the media options, the dynamics of social media, and the proliferation of brands and offerings, there is so much clutter and complexity that nothing less than great marketing and exceptional offerings will break out. This means having access to creative tools, people willing to innovate, and a broad array of marketing modalities. One of the reasons that Hyundai is such a hot car brand is because of their great marketing programs such as "Fluidic Sculpture Design," the "Hyundai Assurance Program;" and the Hyundai Uncensored campaign (where 125 customers were given cars and their uncensored comments were posted).
There are more, but if marketing can influence or deliver real offering innovation, a marketing-influenced business strategy, control of the silos, energy and involvement, and great tactical marketing, it will be relevant to the organization and will see success in the marketplace.