Justifying motherhood

Apart from getting people to sit up and take notice, the very in-your-face title of the book, it appears, is particularly appropriate, because pretty much all the business that Mark Stevens' consultancy got was by telling marketing chiefs of companies precisely this, that their marketing sucks.

He then goes on to prescribe 'Extreme Marketing' as a tool for getting a positive return on marketing-spend. Full of real-life examples from his client base, Stevens' premise emerges from the fact that several of his Fortune 500 clients constantly called him over Christmas and New Year with a request to help them spend marketing dollars left over from the current year.

His argument, somewhat extreme perhaps, is that this is why their marketing sucks, because to so many business people, it's about spending their money and not about growing their business.

To get people serious about their return on marketing dollar-spend, Stevens prescribes some old, motherhood type of all-encompassing homilies: how marketing needs to maximise the advertising dollar spent, that this is achieved by selling more to the same customers, or by generating new customers.

Perhaps the only motherhood statement Stevens has left out is how 20 per cent of your customers provide 80 per cent of your business; therefore these are the customers you need to focus on!

The book cites simple, and well-known tactics for making the transition from Lazy Marketing to Extreme Marketing "" for example, tracking effectiveness of marketing-spend by attaching coupons to flyers.

While Stevens' suggestions are really commonsensical stuff wrapped up in strong language (isn't that how all consultants try to distinguish their product?), I must confess I found myself identifying with many of the corporate situations he highlights.

For example, one recommendation is that to get meaningful return on investment (that is, to sell more to existing customers or to get new customers) requires sync between the organisation's profit-making goals and its marketing-strategy.

Stevens uses the example of a financial services company to show that while managers realised the accountants who worked with their customers would make the ideal sales persons for their products, they failed to figure out that an accountant never sold anything to anyone!

What they needed was to put a financial services salesperson with the CA to close a sale with the CA's client. Someone had not thought through the process from strategy to implementation.

Talking of measurable advertising that leads to sales, Stevens comes across as a big fan of infomercials, which is the telemarketing guys on TV who sell everything from tummy-crunchers to dust-busters.

His point here is that while the ads themselves may not win a Clio, people respond to testimonials provided by regular folks like you and me, the products have compelling names, and there is a clear value proposition, all of which go to making the sale.

The above example reminds me of my experience at Domino's Pizza where I headed marketing. Recognising the need to sell more pizzas to existing customers, we called loyal customers for special deals, followed with flyer-campaigns distributed door-to-door. But I feel we didn't really close the sale.

Possibly the best way to do so would have been by door-knocking, where store managers go to loyal customers' homes, offer personalised deals and to make it one-to-one, also present their visiting cards.

Another point that Stevens makes is that companies lose out because their advertising doesn't communicate the core value proposition or what they sell, clearly.

He uses the example of Archer Daniels Midland Co. that spent millions of dollars advertising itself as 'Supermarket to the World.'

When actually the company is in the commodities business and doesn't own any supermarkets. We faced a similar problem at Arcus as we worked on the communication for the new store in Mumbai and as we shifted to the new Gurgaon store.

Our tag-line is 'Better Homes, Better Living'. However, until we are able to list out that we sell beds, dining tables, futons, hoods and chimneys, bath tiles and accessories, we are not really utilising the medium to maximum effect.

The next point he makes is that an upscale store like Neiman Marcus fails to collect customer e-mail IDs, and instead uses the more expensive direct mail and advertising to promote its special events.

This does seem a bit amazing, but then I am again reminded of my own experience at Nanz, where I looked after marketing.

Our flagship store at Archana had a loyal customer base, but we never tapped it, and instead did newspaper inserts.

Had we collected their e-mail IDs, we could have saved on flyer cost for that region and done store-specific promotions as well. Further, we never attached a coupon to the flyer to measure impact.

There's a host of examples, like that of Salomon Smith Barney, where the firm did not use its existing direct-mail monthly statements to sell its other products.

Hats off, I guess, then to IDBI Bank that uses its monthly statements to insert advertisements for other products it deals with, like mutual funds from Franklin Templeton, for instance.

Stevens concludes by saying that "it's all got to tie together" to generate more money than it costs. And talks of integrated marketing where 'companies need to integrate all of the elements of their marketing programme so that they reinforce each other and drive towards a sale.

For example, the ad should contain the company's website address. The brochures should feature visuals of the ads.

Frankly, in my experience as marketing head across diverse retail ventures and interactions with companies in India, the best example of targeted, focused, integrated marketing seems to be Maruti.

I had the opportunity of meeting with various top marketing honchos "" like those looking after different brands, dealers, even e-initiatives "" and the impression I got was that all of them work in tandem, their strategies are coordinated, and customer responses are shared across different marketing wings.

Finally, for consultants like me, the book has strategies on how we can sell our services without appearing to be doing so! That's the book's biggest positive.

Your Marketing Sucks

Mark Stevens
Published by Crown Business
Pages: 235