If you want to know what kind of marketing team you are about to encounter, either as an agency or a CEO being internally curious, you can ask a single question that gets you the answer.
Those that are good marketers provide you with the answer you are looking for, and those that are winging it give you the answer your CFO has warned you about.
Have you ever considered radio advertising?
It’s a question I often ask so I can get to understand the level of the team I am working with. I am not some sort of radio champion, although 89%* of the adult population over the age of 15 tunes each week, so it is pretty good – but what it does do is provide you with an excellent question for today’s digital obsessed marketers.
When the brand manager answers, “Of course, it’s a consideration as I know that a multiple channel mix is 2.5 times more effective than a single channel for communications”, you know you have a good manager, well-versed in marketing, and doing a good job for you and your CFO.
When you get an answer such as “Nah, (and usually a snigger) no one listens to the radio anymore; we’re all about social media”, then you have a problem. A big one. It’s not their fault though, over 53%** of marketers in the UK have no marketing qualification of any kind, so they guess what they should do. The marketing industry lost its mind over the past decade, allowing this ‘Digital-only’ nonsense to take hold – whatever that means, I read my newspaper on an IPAD and listen to the radio on my digital radio – does that count as digital?. See the problem? Anyway, I digress.
Of course, there is a place for digital (and a very important one) that’s not our argument; it’s that companies are allowing guesswork in place of solid marketing strategy. It’s no wonder the marketing departments are referred to as the ‘colouring-in department.’ This is not the case in the companies that stuff their marketing departments with well-trained marketers that are hell-bent on stretching every sale out of every £ invested. These are the brand managers that get invited to the CFO Christmas do.
Go and ask your team the question, see what answer you get. If you don’t get the right one, send them on a course (Mark Ritson Mini MBA is a great start), hire new people to help you, but whatever you do, don’t ignore it. Your CFO will convince you to invest less and less in marketing if you do, and then your board will be looking for a new CEO.
Brand Positioning is a brand strategy business, and so if your team need help, then get in contact with Mark.
*Rajar Q1 2019
**Marketing Week, Jan 2019
