unbeatable formula: Innovative marketing and CIM, The

Call Center CRM Solutions, Aug 2000 by Tehrani, Nadji

During my many years in this industry, it has always amazed ine how many individuals and organizations approach marketing as a "necessary evil." Many companies throw together marketing programs half-heartedly, seemingly because, "It's something we have to do." By the same token, customer relationship management, or its close sibling, customer interaction management (CIM) is approached with equal hesitancy, if it's approached at all.

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job, in addition to working closely with the team members here at TMC, is interacting with the senior management of various companies and observing how the processes of marketing and CIM are handled (or mishandled!) in different organizations. In those companies that have ineffective marketing and advertising campaigns in place, the management does not have a basic understanding of what marketing is, and what purpose it should serve. So, if you'll allow me to use a sports-related analogy, when a football team that was formerly a winner begins to experience a losing streak, an effective coach will sit down with the team and go back to the basics. In the same manner, companies with poor marketing and advertising need to sit down with the players in their organizations and motivate everyone to understand the definitions of marketing, advertising and sales; how they complement each other and how to implement them effectively.

In my direct experience here at TMC, I have discovered that keeping an effective marketing and advertising plan in place is hard work and requires individuals who understand these basic concepts. To prospective marketing personnel, we administer a "marketing test" that requires a candidate to define marketing, sales and advertising, among other things. You may not believe it, but 95 percent of seemingly qualified candidates with marketing degrees cannot pass this test. Some of these individuals are people who have years of experience in marketing, management and directorship positions, but they fail the basics. So what is going on in corporate America? (To read my thoughts on this subject, you might want to revisit my June 1996 column "The Sad State Of Marketing In Corporate America." It can be found online at http://www.tmcnet.com/ccs/0696/ telpa.htm.) In that article, I wrote about an experience we had recruiting a qualified marketing manager. We received upwards of 800 resumes for the position, many from individuals with Ivy League educations and experience as marketing managers of Fortune 500 companies. We chose about 40 candidates to come in for interviews, and as usual, we administered the marketing test I developed for this purpose. I was stunned to find that of these 40 candidates, all of them highly qualified on paper, 95 percent of them failed to offer a proper definition of marketing. Moreover, most of these candidates could not explain positioning or the principles behind an effective promotion piece. The majority of individuals could not define integrated, relationship and loyalty marketing.

So Let's Examine The Basis What Is Marketing?

Among many other things, the role of marketing is to create an awareness (brand awareness) of a company's products and services to the global marketplace. If marketing is conducted properly, its raison d'etre should be to generate interest and sales leads to build the foundation for the company's long-term growth and prosperity.

What Is The Job Of The Sales Department?

Next, let's define the sales function. The job of any good sales department is to take the sales leads generated by the marketing department and convert these leads into sales and long-term, loyal customers. The bottom line is that all sales begin with sales leads, therefore it becomes clear that just as the marketing department's role is vital, it is even more important for the sales department to understand how to effectively use the efforts of the marketing department to turn leads into closed sales.

The Role Of Advertising

Advertising is a natural component of marketing in that it carries out the mission of the marketing department. It acts like a tool that the marketing department can use to create the necessary awareness of a company's brand, products and services. Most important, an ad should be innovative and effective enough to differentiate the company's offerings from those of competitors, thereby enticing potential customers to contact the company, ask about products and make a purchase. An effective ad should also enhance the big picture of the organization and become what the advertising industry refers to as "image advertising."

One of the most irritating things I see daily is ineffectively prepared advertising. I once read a great quote by well-known advertising guru David Ogilvy, who stated that, "Fifty percent of all advertising dollars are wasted. The problem is, we don't know which 50 percent."

With all due respect to Mr. Ogilvy's valued perception, and having worked nearly 25 years in the publishing industry, I have observed many poorly prepared advertising campaigns and venture my opinion that the figure is closer to 90 percent. If you have any doubts about this claim, let me pose a question to you. What percentage of advertisements you saw 30 years ago do you remember today? What percentage of ads from 10 years ago can you still remember? Even more telling, what percentage of ads you saw a week ago or even yesterday can you recall? Did you take action as a result of any of those ads? In my experience, most people can count on the fingers of one hand the advertisements they remember and found effective enough to respond to by making a query or a purchase.