Integration

We kicked off 2012 with two new rules. If two are good, three might be better. Besides, other than the faux pas by Verizon when they tried to unleash a $2 fee on customers who don’t pay the way they want them to pay, the marketing scene has been relatively quiet in the New Year. That may change after the C.E.S show last week.

A buzzword in the marketing community for many years has been “Integration.” It’s an important word and a serious concept but gets more lip service than action. Therefore Rule No. 3 for 2012 is to MAXIMIZE INTEGRATION THROUGHOUT THE ENTERPRISE. That’s also our AH-ha! moment of the week and it begs the question whether this is a marketing function. Of course it is, but we worry that marketing teams limit the concept of integration to just marketing.

Traditional marketing thinking of integration revolves around “channel integration.” This means getting all our messages and promotions lined up across all marketing channels. The messages we deliver in store should be the same as what we deliver electronically. Promotions need to be the same. All departments need to all have the same information and tell the same story. Integration is more than marketing (and sales) “channels.”

Marketing needs to champion integration on a broad enterprise platform and set the tone in the C-level suite for how the business can grow and prosper. To do this, everyone on the marketing team needs to do three things every day and every waking hour:

• PAY ATTENTION to the world around them
• PROACTIVELY UNDERSTAND how world events can, and probably will, impact the business as much as do the marketplace and local events
• Champion the entire organization to stay on the SAME PAGE

Consider that every business operates on a big worldwide stage even if it only does business locally. This amplifies the Butterfly Effect to a new level. If you agree that consumers worldwide are more sensitive than ever regarding their future spending, how will this affect your business? The Chief Economist at the Cambridge Group, Dr. Venkatesh Bala, recently noted that people are still in a recessionary mindset and the result is continued spending restraint for discretionary expenses. However, the overall November-December spending increases seem to discount Bala’s position.

We don’t have crystal balls, yet we have to make marketing decisions that will guide the business through choppy waters. Friday, S & P downgraded nine Eurozone countries’ credit ratings. Out here in the Midwest, it’s easy to say, this won’t impact how we at Group 3 Marketing do business. In fact, it probably will. Our challenge is to offer guidance to our clients in terms of how these market forces will impact their brands. Which set of facts will influence business strategy in the short term – the recent Holiday sale spurt or the financial challenges of the Eurozone financial challenges?

The Marketing Implications

We do not live or work in a bubble. Everything is interconnected. The media is full of optimism and so are some government leaders at all levels. Yet, in the business community there is significant debate as to where the economy will land in 2012. As we try to integrate thinking internally and with our agencies, we discover disconnects. A recent Adweek poll shows that 65% of agency executives believe the economy is on an up-tick while only 41% of marketers hold that view.

We have to pay attention. We can look at numbers all day long. We can read the Wall Street Journal and be glued to Bloomberg. What we need to do is go out on the factory floor or the retail floor and ask the front line how they view business, the economy and even the political landscape. We can learn a lot by just paying attention.

The tough part for marketing is to put all the pieces of the economic and business picture together considering that so many factors are beyond our control – including unemployment, real estate stagnation, the European contagion (noted above) and rising commodity costs. As a case in point, Cargill, one of the largest private companies in the world, reported an 88% drop in net income last quarter. Granted they still made over $100 million but that’s down from over $888 million in the year ago quarter. The CEOs response was perfect: “We have to integrate nimble decision making into our process.”

Marketing needs to embrace the idea of nimble decision making and involve all levels of the organization. This is not a once-in-a-while process. It is every day. It is looking for the subtle pattern shifts and the tsunami waves that interact to drive marketplace forces. Enterprise integration is the internal force that brings decision makers together with a clear focus. In other words, to proactively understand the dynamics, evaluate them against the current marketing plan, determine if these dynamics are a short term aberration or the beginning of something new and present a business plan that sets a revised course of action. This is how marketing can get everyone in the organization on the same page.

This week, ask your team three questions:

1. When was the last time they walked away from their spreadsheets and actually LOOKED at the marketplace – up close and personal
2. When was the last time they visited, spoke with, or polled the front line team and understood the feelings of the shipping dock team
3. When was the last time they wrote about how the current marketplace climate is affecting your business and had a dialog with customers about how the marketplace climate is impacting your customers and your business

Bring snacks, not lunch. We have a feeling the answers might be very short and cryptic.

Have a fantastic week.

Bart Foreman and the Group 3 Marketing team.