It’s all about the money these days. The almighty Yankee Dollar.
I read an article the other day in Advertising Age online that P&G plans to cut $500 Million in Agency Fees by shrinking its roster of agencies. Kind of like reporting on a funeral.
Their CFO said that the move will improve the company’s Marketing as it cuts costs.
I don’t think that adds up to Marketing Math but it does satisfy Wall Street.
In addition the company planned to reduce its non-manufacturing headcount by 25% to 30% by the end of the next fiscal year.
Non-manufacturing sounds like marketing folks to me.
Wait there is more. In addition P&G is plans to sell, spin off or merge 100 Brands.
Is that the P&G that I knew and admired? The marketing icon.
I remember in the agency business that if you had P&G on your resume you were golden, if you survived the experience. You worked with the best of the best. A little uptight, yes. A little formulaic, yes.
The company wrote the book on packaged goods marketing.
It was emulated and duplicated by all.
The company known to have the smartest and the best talent.
The current moves were designed to “save money.”
The benefit in the release is that this was going to result in stronger communications to consumers. Who believes that? Financial folks who don’t really care about marketing, only Wall Street Analysts calls. Just more corporate blah blah blah.
I remember at one time that Old Spice was a forgotten brand. Just like Hush Puppies and the Fuller Brush Man. The brand was introduced in 1937. When is the last time that you bought a bottle of Old Spice?
Then a line extension of Old Spice as a Body Wash that had an advertising campaign behind it created by Wieden and Kennedy that went viral and created a major buzz, careers and most importantly sales.
You need ideas to create innovation and brand growth and you don’t get that by cutting investment in your agencies, your staff and the products you sell.
You create short term share value for sure but that is fleeting and the impact of successful marketing is long term if you have commitment.
If the best marketer in the world is abandoning their commitment to what we once learned was the pinnacle of marketing, what’s next?
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Marketing is absolutely not dead in fact it is more important than ever. Marketing has changed from the business perspective and is now responsible for traffic, sales, loyalty and brand. Marketing leadership and the agencies that work with them who are 90% focused on Brand and 10% focused on everything else are missing the evolution that has already occurred and the revolution that is about to occur. Reducing friction in the customers potential relationship and eliminating conflict during their ongoing relationship is crucial. Understanding the numbers /data that is being used to make business driving decisions is critical. It’s not just the revenue numbers it’s also the website analytics and the SEM analytics and the ad serving and conversion analytics are all important in creating and optimizing awareness ,consideration, intent, demand, retention, upsell and cross sell. The part that seems to be missing in a lot of organizations is the commitment to optimization. Getting the next print ad out or the Next Television commercial in the can are marks of dinosaur marketers. Big ideas, big agencies, big productions are all warning signs. Look instead for nimble quick, intelligence (in the form of data) that is being used to optimize results that are impacting revenue. Companies are still looking for silver bullet CMOs and they hire them knowing that they are fast talking salesman praying and hoping that they can hack the business environment to the firms benefit. If they do it is short term benefits rather than foundational corrections that will pay benefits long after they have left.