IN THIS ISSUE |
Editor's Cut
Customer Experience |
|
Q&A
Brett Henry, Vice President Marketing, Abacus International |
|
Feature Article
The Real Holy Grail of Professional Service Firm Marketing and Business Development Effectiveness |
|
FEATURED PROGRAM |
|
With more than $1.5 trillion spent on marketing and communications worldwide, there are significant incentives for global enterprises to improve the way they source, select, manage,
unify and align vendors, suppliers and service providers on strategic, creative, content, media, talent, distribution and production levels. The first initiative of the Marketing
Supply Chain Institute is Define Where to Streamline, a global audit to benchmark the state of marketing supply chain management practices and analyze the business benefits,
productivity gains and risk reductions to be achieved.
Learn more »
|
|
NEW REPORT |
|
Service Invention to Increase Retention
Competitive crunch and convergence in the $1 trilling dollar global communications marketplace is fueling increased customer churn, and testing customer loyalty. Marketers are facing
unprecedented challenges in building loyalty and retaining customers as cut-throat competition and new service models undercut pricing, prey on lucrative customers and disrupt established markets.
The industry study – Service Invention to Increase Retention – benchmarks how the communications industry is responding to interactive digital media channels, social networks, mobile messaging
devices and online communities, leaving companies scrambling to retain subscribers, induce loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, and deliver appealing revenue-producing services.
Download report » |
|
MARKET INSIGHT |
|
CMO Council Members Unravel the Core DNA of a CMO
Think you can be a Chief Marketing Officer? According to the over 4,000 members of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, a CMO must be a customer-centric visionary
thought leader who can master strategy in this digital age. Through a proprietary mathematically based methodology created by Bluprints™, originators of the process to
decipher business genetics, the CMO Council community was polled to define the quintessential modern CMO as defined by global CMO's.
Learn more » |
|
FEATURED PROGRAM |
|
For over 100 years, loyalty programs have attempted to secure consumer wallet-share by providing incentives for repeat business and rewards for retained relationships.
Getting a Business Lift from Loyalty will audit and assess the operation and innovation in loyalty club programs, the value and utilization of customer data to drive
response rates and revenue, and the mobilization of loyalty club members as active agents and advocates for acquiring new or repeat business.
Learn more »
|
|
READING |
|
Creating Do-It-Yourself Customers: How Great Customer Experiences Build Great Companies By Peter C. Honebein & Roy F. Cammarano
Published by the American Marketing Association, this book shows companies how to use four basic principles to achieve exemplary customer performance: expectations, tools, rewards,
and training. By setting appropriate expectations, providing the necessary tools and environment, delivering appropriate rewards, and developing specific knowledge and skill, companies
can condition customers to activate their expertise to achieve greater value. In addition, the organizational benefits from cost reduction, greater employee satisfaction, and
deeper customer loyalty. As more tasks are shifted to customers, customers realize the full value of the product offering. For the full value to occur firms must enable customers
to perform their tasks competently, resulting in lower expenses and increased profits
Available from Amazon »
Customer Experience Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers By Bernd H. Schmitt
In "Customer Experience Management," renowned consultant and marketing thinker Bernd Schmitt introduces a visionary approach to marketing called customer experience management (CEM).
"Customer Experience Management" introduces the five-step CEM process, a comprehensive tool for connecting with customers at every touch-point. This revolutionary marketing guide
provides cases of successful CEM implementations in a wide variety of consumer and B2B industries, including pharmaceuticals, electronics, beauty and cosmetics, telecommunications,
beverages, financial services, and even the nonprofit sector. A must-read for senior executives, marketing managers, and anyone who wants to drive growth, increase income, and spur
organizational change, "Customer Experience Management" demonstrates the power of collecting truly relevant customer information, developing and implementing winning strategies,
and measuring their results.
Available from Amazon » |
FEATURED PROGRAM |
|
Pause to Support a Cause, a milestone CMO Council campaign, will enjoin global corporations and public sector partners in a new initiative to
“survey the socially beneficial way” by “donating on behalf of those participating” in funded market research programs around the world. This corporate social responsibility
campaign will use a portion of the $18.9 billion spent on market research worldwide to create a global community of non-profit champions, boosters, supporters and members
willing to take part in online surveys as a way to channel funds to their designated causes, charities, foundations and non-profit organizations of choice.
Learn more »
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS |
|
Wireless China Industry Summit 2009
September 2-3, 2009
Beijing, China
Since 2000, Wireless China Industry Summit has promoted innovative wireless technologies to improve the way we communicate, work and live. A two-day program focuses on the application of new wireless
technologies to enhance business efficiency, quality of service, functionality of products and beyond. Wireless China Industry Summit provides insight into the most promising wireless technologies that's
driving today's highly mobile and connected world. This timely event offers an outstanding educational program that serves the unique information requirements of carriers, wireless manufacturers, government
agencies and industrial users.
more »
Telecoms in Africa – Customer Loyalty & Retention
September 9-10, 2009
Berlin, Germany
Mobile Marketing Association’s 5th Annual Mobile Marketing Forum Europe is the premier event in the region to deliver real brand case studies and detail on what is needed to maximize mobile
opportunities. Register for the Mobile Marketing Forum today and join other attendees in sharing global perspectives on mobile marketing, hear leading brands discuss their plans for mobile and
the growth potential for mobile in the region.
more »
Mobilize: The Next-Generation Mobile Conference
September 10, 2009
San Francisco, CA, USA
Mobilize '09 is a one-day conference that brings together the thought leaders and practitioners of the mobile web and telecoms ecosystem for talk, demonstrations and debate. The conference will examine
what it means to have wireless broadband speeds at the Gigabit scale and how the explosion of open platforms and hardware beyond traditional handsets create new opportunities, for entrepreneurs, investors and
consumers. Attend the conference for a look at emerging devices, from netbooks to smartphones and beyond.
Receive a $50 discount and find out more »
4G World
September 15-18, 2009
Chicago, Illinois, USA
4G World is the first industry conference and expo covering the entire ecosystem for next generation networks supporting high speed broadband and full mobility, anywhere Internet access,
mobile content, applications and transactions. 4G World will showcase the first 4G mobile broadband networks being launched in 2009 using mobile WiMAX technologies and the evolution of 3G mobile
networks to support mobile Internet using HSPA and LTE technologies.
more »
CMO Council North America Advisory Board Meeting
September 17, 2009
New York, New York, USA
The CMO Council North America Advisory Board will convene in New York City on September 17 to provide board members the opportunity to network with their regional marketing peers and to discuss marketing
issues and challenges in North America. Discussions will also revolve around accessing global markets as well as board members' areas of strategic marketing interest, thought leadership and professional development.
more »
|
|
NEW REPORT |
|
Losing Loyalty: The Consumer Defection Dilemma
Consumer defection and lapsed loyalty are rampant among major consumer packaged goods brands, a problem that is only worsening in the current recession. A new study by the CMO Council,
conducted with Catalina Marketing's Pointer Media Network, provides the most comprehensive and detailed analysis ever undertaken of the defection dilemma among CPG brands. The study
has major implications for marketers and underscores the critical need for brands to more effectively engage with individual consumers by tracking their loyalty behavior and responding
with relevant communications and offers.
Download report » |
|
JOIN THE CONVERSATION |
|
If you would like to submit an article or recommend one, please follow these guidelines:
- Maximum 1,000 words
- Microsoft Word format
- Use Arial typeface
- Appropriate Content for Executive Level Audience
- Marketing-Related Content
Send your submission as an email attachment to:
Liz Miller
VP, Programs & Operations
CMO Council
mm_content@cmocouncil.org |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
08.03.09 CMO Council releases first benchmark of the Customer Experience Board: Findings indicating that competitive crunch and convergence in communications marketplace is fueling increased customer churn, and testing customer loyalty.
Download now » |
7.20.09: B-to-B Magazine names the Who's Who in the world of BtoB: Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, named to the list of notables in the 2009 BtoB Magazine Who's Who list.
Congratulations to CMO Council members recognized for their work, achievement and talents. View the entire list »
|
|
|
|
|
|
To paraphrase/steal from Groucho Marx, I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members. Recently, I have been bombarded with offers to join an organization that, at first glance, could very well be an offshoot of the CMO Council. It uses three of the key letters in our name; it even uses the name of our large annual event, the CMO Summit. But enough hints. This group has invited me to join their marketing group AND their operations group by virtue of my title (yes, they even run a group for CIO's and CFO's).
As VP of Programs and Operations, I can see how someone, who had done NO research into who they were targeting, could include me in their sales push. Times are tough. You have to ramp up the promotions, the outbound sales and marketing tactics, leave no stone unturned.
But, YOU BETTER KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER FIRST!
Had this enterprising sales executive taken the time to READ my LinkedIN profile, read the twitter feed, heck, read the bio on the site, he would have realized that I am more marketer than operational executive. Also, he would have recognized the company name and probably would have kept me off the list.
So what’s the lesson here? We all know that we, as marketers, are pulling out all of the stops and looking for new market opportunities and revenue streams. But, even in bad times, the rules of optimized engagement still hold true and are probably more important to remember.
As we talk about customer experience and engagement in this month’s edition, I would challenge each of you to map and track the total experience you are laying out for your customer…starting at the first point of engagement. How much do you really know about your customers? Are you listening as much as you are promoting? Are you taking stock of each relationship, engagement and opportunity as an additional piece to your customer experience puzzle?
Had this Not-The-CMO-Council organization taken a moment to assess me as a customer, they would have seen a couple things:
1) I run the organization from whom they “borrow” the most content and lists of potential “customers”…
2) I have, on numerous occasions, had to call them directly on behalf of a member who had paid a membership fee to join their organization thinking they were paying to join the CMO Council…
3) I am, in no questionable terms, a marketer and would gain little from being connected to COOs at this stage of my career.
I will admit to having serious fun in tormenting the sales rep every time he calls to tell me that I, Liz Miller, could gain access to CMO's like <insert specific names of members I am already in contact with here> for the bargain price of $495 per year – which I was told last week is, in fact, “UNDER five hundred dollars”! I also learned that, should I find myself unemployed for any reason, this group, again, for the price of $495, could be my “lifeline back into marketing” because <insert companies now who would be BANGING DOWN MY DOOR to hire me because of my membership in this group> is there to support me.
So, to this group, sorry, but the more you ask, the more I decide I would never want to join your organization because you simply have NO idea who I am, as a customer, and what value I would be looking for from your organization. I give you an A for effort, but an F for customer experience and engagement. Oh, and, could you please stop leeching off our franchise, please?
Until next month!
Liz Miller
VP, Programs & Operations
CMO Council |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Brett Henry, Abacus
 Brett Henry is the Vice President of Marketing at Abacus where he leads product and content marketing, corporate and marketing communications, and business development.
Brett’s role is to drive value for suppliers and agencies through efficient and demand-generating travel distribution, merchandising, and productivity solutions.
Tell us about your background and what brought you to work for Abacus International.
I’ve worked in the travel industry my whole life. I started working for an airline while I was at undergraduate school and when I finished, they offered me a job – 17 years later,
I still haven’t left the travel industry. I developed a love for joint ventures, valuing the heightened network and relationship and network dependencies. I’m now based in Singapore, at the
regional headquarters of Abacus International, which is a joint venture between 11 different Asian airlines and the U.S. based Sabre Holdings.
Your role has a dual aspect, focusing on internal marketing functions and external end solutions for agencies and suppliers. Do you find it challenging to have your focus split
across two areas?
It’s a challenge but I think the two roles line up in a serial fashion. You need to have the internal constituents both educated and excited about gathering market requirements
and identifying the value the market might be interested in. This is especially true in joint ventures. Abacus is a joint venture and it goes to market in 25 Asian countries through additional NMC joint ventures.
What new initiatives and programs have you put in place during your time with Abacus?
The establishment of strong engagement and communication with our go-to-market entities is the most critical – and it’s always a work in progress. You have to establish meaningful, credible,
relationships with each of your go-to-market entities and you want those parties to understand the need to establish similar relationships with customers. We have become very targeted in this
area within our industry – I think we’re best-in-class in that space.
What challenges and opportunities do you think Abacus faces within the travel industry?
The fact that there are no typical marketing requirements for Asia – the market requirements for Japan are not the same as the market requirements for Bangladesh which are not the same
marketing requirements for China.
The markets here are so incredibly diverse from country to country, much more so than a European context. It can be especially challenging to work in a non-home region for a parent company –
to have to translate your market knowledge and create compelling reasons for a North American or European company to shift their investment spend to this region to capture opportunities.
However, there are plenty of opportunities for organizations to figure out how to manage that dynamic; how to gather high-quality requirements for the marketplace and how to understand the regional
and local complexities that exist.
Asia Pacific is an incredible region of growth – even during the downturn where we hit a six-month slow period, there was still a focus on “How do I capture the growth?”.
It’s very different from other regions.
How does local market knowledge affect marketing in Asia Pacific as opposed to in a U.S. or European market?
North America is a single geography with a single headquarters and an aligned distribution approach. When you’re a multinational headquarters in a regional office which for North American
or European multinationals is normally Hong Kong or Singapore, marketers are tasked with running the entire Asia Pacific region – there’s such a high level of diversity within this region,
whether it’s cultural, religious, or lingual.
It’s like putting a team in San Juan Puerto Rico, and saying, “Run North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.” The fact that you’re living in Puerto Rico doesn’t help
you do business in North America. In the same way, being in a relatively small city-state like Singapore doesn’t help you do business in a completely different context like a huge, domestic
market like mainland China or India.
The good thing about working with Abacus is we are owned by 11 leading Asian airlines and Sabre. These relationships give us a unique advantage in terms of having a high quality local
network and deep market knowledge.
Have you seen the company change its business practices as a result of the economic crisis?
We had to modify and adjust our business – we’re really no different from any other company in that respect. In Asia, we’ve had previous, large-scale incidents affect the economy from SARS
to bird flu to tsunamis and it prepared us more than some other companies in terms of how to deal with the downturn. We understood how to take steps quickly. We quickly managed costs back
to a level where we could still be successful as we entered a downturn period. We focused on revenue generation for our suppliers and productivity for our agency distribution network.
While things have slowed in the Asia Pacific region, we’ve been much more fortunate than other parts of the world. Our focus on relationship-building over time really makes a difference in
the down cycles. When things go bad, people have their go-to people, and you want to be that trusted source, you want to be the go-to person.
What are your goals for the next year or two within the company?
We recently have begun to focus more on customer segmentation and data-driven marketing. We have such a rich data resource because we are an electronic reservation system. So, we’ve
been focusing a lot more on how to apply that data to help our suppliers and agency customers in specific segments be successful.
I’m really looking forward to helping our suppliers drive more demand by better understanding the data we have about how people are researching, shopping and buying travel and helping them to
manage their product distribution in real-time.
Do you have any key recommendations for marketing executives wanting to improve their marketing synergies, both internal or external?
Marketers are responsible to define how the organization will win. You’ve got to be focused on where and how you are delivering value and on how you are building trusted relationships to
communicate that value. In a heterogeneous region – it’s easy to lose focus on the need to define region and market-based opportunities to drive value and end up chasing single customer problems.
Marketers have to stay focused on the market-based problems and how we can solve these to drive value for customers and our organization
My second recommendation is to put more people around the communication process, both internally and externally. Leverage those communication channels as a way to engage and develop yourself as
an authority; a trusted source. Press releases and hollow above-the-line statements simply don’t work anymore. The strength of your relationships with your internal teams and your customers will
define your success.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Real Holy Grail of Professional Service Firm Marketing and Business Development Effectiveness
By Suzanne Lowe, President of Expertise Marketing LLC, is the author of two books for leaders and marketers at professional service firms: The Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos – Once and For All – in Professional Service Firms and Marketplace Masters - How Professional Service Firms Compete to Win.
When it comes to growing revenues and market share, professional (PSF) and B2B service firms keep looking for the business version of the Holy Grail in all the wrong places: "Hire big-time rainmakers!" "Acquire that hot boutique firm!" “Revamp our website!” All too often, these ballyhooed initiatives fail to deliver on the expectations that they could increase the enterprise’s marketing and business development effectiveness.
Narrowly-Focused Initiatives Aren’t Working
Moreover, marketing and business development leaders, from both small PSF's and large global enterprises, are increasingly taking it upon themselves to champion initiatives they believe passionately will directly benefit the marketplace future of their firms.
Many narrowly focused initiatives to improve PSF’s and B2Bs’ marketing and business development results aren’t necessarily wrong. But they’re not working. To understand the reason why, we have to take a step back to get a view of the underlying problem.
The Root of the Problem
Professional and B2B firms must face the fact that they have a critical, fundamental problem: Marketing and selling functions aren’t effectively integrated throughout the enterprise. Their organization-wide disconnects prevent them from competing effectively, impede their financial success, and hinder them from delivering optimal client service.
The real Holy Grail is a lot closer than they realize. It can be found by ensuring that marketing and business development are integrated into every function. Marketing and business development must become part of every person’s job (although each person would have his or her own role).
PSF's and B2Bs should consider using three structural frameworks to connect marketing and business development functions together. I’ve called these frameworks the Integration Imperatives. The three structural frameworks pertain to the process, skills and support of marketing and business development. Firms can use these along with cultural frameworks to break down the silos that have crept in to their marketing and business development functions.
The Process Imperative – Expand the Range and Shine a Spotlight on It
The Process Imperative calls for PSF's and B2Bs to create a broader purview for their marketing and business development functions, and a better prioritization of all marketing and business development initiatives. It also includes making the marketing, business development, and client service processes more discernible to everyone in the firm, and more obviously iterative.
The Skills Imperative – Grow the People
The Skills Imperative calls for executive managers to reframe advancement pathways for practitioners and nonrevenue generating staff, and to more clearly direct the steps every professional can take toward competency growth in marketing and business development.
The Support Imperative – Reframe Administrative Relationships
The Support Imperative calls for PSF and B2B managers to reframe the lateral working relationships between their firm’s administrative peers in human resources, information technology, finance, legal, and other operational functions. The Support Imperative is illustrated by two cases featuring collaborations between administrative functions aimed at improving marketing and business development effectiveness.
In addition to these three structural solutions, PSF's and B2Bs should consider using three cultural Integration Imperatives to connect marketing and business development functions together. They include the adoption of an updated, well-assimilated common lexicon about marketing and business development; the creation of new formal collaboration, shared accountability, and co-leadership models for marketing and business development; and the practice of making expectations more explicit about how everyone can contribute to marketing and business development.
Articulating a New Meaning of Marketing and Business Development
The first cultural imperative is to articulate the new meaning of marketing and business development for the enterprise. It addresses a particularly vexing hurdle to integration: defining of the terms marketing and business development varies widely from individual to individual, firm to firm, and sector to sector. Not surprisingly, one’s understanding of a term leads directly to one’s expectation about the role and function of the job. And this is no small matter.
Creating New Collaboration, Accountability, and Co-Leadership Models for Marketing and Business Development
PSF and B2B executive managers can adopt a second cultural imperative: increasing formal avenues for collaboration, shared accountability and co-leadership on marketing and business development. Sure, professional service firms do encourage their people to collaborate or share leadership with their colleagues, but typically these pathways are obscure and unevenly available. A friend told me recently: “I wish I could count on the work I’m having to convince people to do. All this asking and favor-building; all this monitoring, negotiating and coaxing. It’s a huge waste of time and energy. Wouldn’t it be better if I could hold people accountable?”
Making Expectations More Explicit about How Everyone Can Contribute to Marketing and Business Development
The third cultural paradigm is making expectations more explicit about how everyone can contribute to marketing and business development. Many PSF and B2B service firms have made great strides in using internal communication when a particularly important internal “expectations” message arises.
But executive managers also must apply a potent new kind of cultural glue: reviewing and integrating job descriptions, checking and integrating reporting relationships, and reframing performance management guidelines to ensure that people understand how they are expected to work together in new ways toward meeting the organization’s revenue, market share, and client added-value goals.
The Holy Grail Lies Inside the Enterprise
Sometimes, the best answer is right beneath your nose. Professional organizations must look internally to improve their marketing and business development effectiveness. Ultimately, when they apply structural solutions to erase their marketing and business development disconnects, they will improve their firm’s value to clients. It’s a competitive imperative.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
