The financial goals discussed in my previous blog will be in stark contrast to the specific goals of marketing management. As we review the below goals, think about how
little a senior manager that does not have a marketing background might find
the terms alien.
•
Increase brand awareness goals. Marketers love to increase brand
awareness. It’s almost a goal that is
good just to do for its own sake. It
feels right. As we have already
explained, to acquire new customers you have to make them aware – this is the
top of the funnel that leads to interest and eventually trial. While vitally important to a marketing group,
think about what this metric means to a senior manager. The cynical manager would say something like,
“great, you’ve increased awareness of our brand – how many widgets did that buy
us?”
•
Increase “Like/Love” of brand goals. Another favorite of marketers, this can also
be “favorable/passionate” or at the other end of the spectrum,
“dislike/hate!” Again, this seems
intuitive to a marketer – if they like/love your brand, they will naturally be
disposed to trial. But we have to face
the same cynical manager with some sort of “translation” from like/love to
units sold! Otherwise, it’s a noble
effort – and noble efforts get axed all the time.
•
Trial of product or service goals. What percentage of those aware and/or
favorable to the brand are actually trying the product? This varies greatly by
product with fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) being relatively inexpensive and
easy to try, and durable purchases like automobiles being expensive and highly
dependent upon the potential customer being in the market for the item to begin
with. Automobiles, as a general rule,
are not “impulse” or “discretionary” purchases – they are “considered” purchases
that take time and investment on both parties to reach a conclusion. As a senior manager outside of marketing,
they are more concerned with the efficiency of converting aware consumers to
trial and then from trial to purchase.
This is easier for them to understand because you are moving further
down the marketing/sales funnel – and into the sales area – which is very
tangible in terms of recognition of results.
A sale is a sale. You book
revenue. It is not a “good brand move”
which can confuse the less sophisticated manager.
•
Target demographic/psychographics goals. Back to voodoo! Demographics are a fairly old term that most
managers outside marketing can easily understand. It’s the basics of gender, age, race, income
level, education level, etc. that are your target customer. Psychographics are a bit more sophisticated
and thus a little harder to grasp for the non-marketer. Are your customers “green?” Do they support ACPA? These metrics can easily lose a senior
manager as they are less tangible than race, age, education level, etc. How do you connect the psychographic profiles
of your target market to increase or leverage sales? That’s what the senior manager is interested
in!
•
Communicating to investors goals. Sometimes, but not often, a marketing
department will also be responsible for investor relations. These goals are often critical to the market
value or health of a company. Investors
are normally much more sophisticated a target than consumers. They are not really concerned with individual
investors as much as they are with institutions and funds that own the
stock. These groups employ highly
sophisticated analysts that are there to dissect the marketing speak into
business terms quickly – they almost enjoy when you try to talk marketing to
them as they “shark” you to help them understand how marketing affects the
price of the stock.
•
Communicate to regulators goals. Again, sometimes, but not always, the
marketing group will be a major partner with the corporate team in
communicating to regulators. This is
much more prevalent in industries like banking and international commerce than
it is in smaller, less regulated industries.
The marketer who is as ease in communicating to regulators is a rare
individual who is probably more experienced in the operations of the company
than they are in marketing. Senior
managers are very keen to understand this link of communication as it can end
up in nasty things like indictments if not handled correctly!
What this means for the marketer.
Hopefully you have picked up on a common theme in the above contrast
between financial and marketing goals.
While they are certainly interrelated, it should be obvious that on
stand-alone inspection, they are two completely different “languages!” The successful marketer will recognize this
distinction and ensure that communications between the marketing and financial
areas are “translated” to the common language of business – that is, finance.
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