On Marketing

This is excerpted from an interview with an ex-CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) in Businessweek's Managing - Marshall & Friends Column on 31 Mar 09:

...Demonstrate real accountability and show how you're having a real impact on the bottomline. This is the only way to get support and respect from other C-level peers. Accountability is the key to credibility and in business, this means using hard metrics to demonstrate impact...

...Marketers need to speak about business in business terms to their peers, using words and metrics like revenue, cashflow and profitability. Softer metrics like brand awareness don't have much clout outside the marketing department. Many marketers make the mistake about lowering costs instead of talking about increasing revenue. Beyond that, they need to understand not just their own budget, but how that money is bringing business...

...Marketing needs to build predictive modelling that demonstrates their business case and ROI that today's actions will have down the road...