Marketing Management For Non-Marketing Managers

12WHY DO GOOD PLANS FAIL?

Market leaders generate better returns on marketing investments because they manage marketing differently than average performers. They do this in three ways.

First, their management teams are obsessed with understanding and serving the market, and their insatiable curiosity gives them better insight. This insight produces the Crystal Ball Effect, an improved ability to accurately anticipate what the market needs and how to communicate effectively with them. Companies that haven’t cultivated a culture of curiosity about their market can improve their effectiveness by aggressively identifying assumptions about what influences their success and turning them into facts through research or improved market focus.

Second, market leaders view the purpose of marketing and other operational activities differently. Many average performers ‘do’ marketing to drive sales. For them, marketing (Point A), results in sales (Point B). By contrast, market leaders align everything they do (Point A), with their desire to provide exceptional solutions to the customer, (Point B). Serving the market better than anyone else is what produces superior returns. For market leaders, financial results are Point C, the outcome of the effective alignment between marketing activities and the market’s needs. Companies that don’t share market leaders’ adherence to the Point C Principle, the internal mandate to align everything they do with market needs, can enjoy the benefits of alignment ...