Who among us in marketing has not heard a CEO say what we need are managers who know how to get the right results at the right cost if we are going to make our aggressive numbers and take care of our customers and employees?

CEOs demand results. That's clear.

However, it is not always clear just what results the CEO wants from marketing and how we should direct our efforts to produce those desired results.

Part 1 of this series made the case that marketing's unique promise of value to the organization—the marketing “brand”—is its focus on C: Customers and Competition.

But the challenge for marketers is to take this focus on customers and competition and actually contribute to the success of the organization by making decisions and taking actions that produce results. So the second critical part to Making Marketing Matter to the CEO is E for Effectiveness. Marketers must be effective.

How do we as marketers make sure that we are effective?

The wisdom I have gathered from work and discussions with many marketers suggests these three keys:

  1. Apply both science AND art. 
  2. Bridge the knowledge/action gap. 
  3. Get everyone on the same page.

Let's take each in turn.

1. Apply both science and art

Marketers with a scientific bent and marketers with a creative bent have both reported the death of marketing as we know it.

Sergio Zyman argues in The Death of Marketing as We Know It (Harper Business, 1999) for a new scientific approach to marketing. Bob Schmetterer in Leap: A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and Marc Gobe in Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People (Allworth Press, 2001) argue that it takes creative ideas to connect to consumers and grow businesses exponentially.

Nevertheless, according to today's practitioners, the death of marketing—whether as art or science—is highly exaggerated. Marketing effectiveness requires science and art.

Best Buy EVP, Consumer and Brand Marketing, Michael Linton, speaks for most top marketing executives of large companies when he states his belief that both science and art are critical: “Leaders must encourage and build both the creative and the math components of marketing and blend them as appropriate for the situation.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Roy Young
Roy Young is coauthor of Marketing Champions: Practical Strategies for Improving Marketing's Power, Influence and Business Impact.