The Marriage of Marketing and Innovation May be a Shotgun Wedding, But With Marketing Jobs on the Line, It Has To Happen

    Body /24-7PressRelease/ - SCOTTSDALE, AZ, November 05, 2006 - Marketing has become one of the riskiest jobs in America, with the tenure of chief marketing officers, at top brand companies, now averaging less than two years.

Consumers are changing the rules of business, with billions of mouse clicks, every day. Very few marketers have been able to keep up. Bob Roth, Ph.D.'s recent study, Marketing Mousetraps 2006: Emerging Best Practices, indicates that marrying marketing strategy to innovation processes may be one good solution. The study also confirms that marketers are having a tough time leaving their old mousetraps behind.

The problem with old-style marketing mousetraps is that they manipulated people. They did that quite well (albeit at increasingly discounted prices), for more than 100 years. Today, however, people are manipulating marketers (through billions of clicking mice). They want what they want . . . where, when, how, and at the price they want it. Marketing mousetraps that cannot deliver are failing.

Both CEOs and marketers share in the distress caused by failing marketing strategy. Recruiting firm Spencer Stuart recently reported that the average tenure for a top brand chief marketing officer is less than two years. In their report CMO tenure: Slowing down the revolving door, they comment "NASCAR drivers beware. The role of today's chief marketing officer (CMO) is fast becoming one of the riskiest jobs in North America."

Marketing Mousetraps 2006: Emerging Best Practices points the way toward one possible solution. Key findings include:

1. Widespread failure of marketing strategies, and the resulting revolving door, is frustrating to both CEOs and marketers.

2. CEOs and marketers hold similar views as to what is not working. Both feel that traditional "4 Ps" marketing mixes are no longer cost-effective. There is also widespread disappointment with returns on mass media investments.

3. CEOs and marketers hold diverging views on solutions. Many CEOs expect marketers to work harder, smarter and faster to get their "Ps," and whatever else they need, working better. In contrast, many marketers are looking to CEOs to make innovation happen more systematically and more frequently. The "real issue," they say, is that the products they take to market are increasingly less competitive.

4. The cultural separation between marketers, CEOs and other managers, caused by silos, smokestacks, fiefdoms and other thick-walled barriers, continues unabated. It may be increasing.

5. While infrequent, a few marketers are working closely with managers of other functions to integrate marketing strategy into customer-driven process innovation. Where this is happening, design and production of innovative products and services is more consistent, and returns on marketing investments are improving.

The study offers encouragement that management teams can marry their marketing and innovation processes. As they do that, innovation may become more reliable and sustainable and innovative products will go to market more frequently and more profitably.

Dr. Roth believes that these findings are "footprints in the sand," pointing the way toward better marketing strategies, among them ProcessPowered Marketing. He notes, however, that "The challenge, in a world of dysfunctional corporate families, where management kids often do not play nicely in the same sandbox, is getting the marketing and innovation processes married." If it has to be a shotgun wedding, so be it.

About Bob Roth, Ph.D.
Bob Roth, Ph.D. brings extensive experience as a Fortune 500 marketing executive, ad agency owner, consultant and trainer to helping companies marry their marketing and innovation processes. For further information, visit www.BobRothPhD.com, contact us at [email protected], or call 480.287.6009.

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