Change Marketing Manifesto

From our experience in optimizing about €5 billion in media funds around the world, we know that between 2 and 40% of any marketing budget delivers absolutely no value to the business.  If you’d take a (kind) mean of 10%, this would mean that – globally – annually about $50 billion goes down the drain.  Not counting the parts which deliver “little value” and the opportunity cost of lost commercial impact.

The coming marketing decade will be about common sense.  Most of the tools we need to develop relevant, engaging and reputable brands exist.  It’s just a matter of using them.  So rather than tell you about the next new thing to use, I encourage you to double-check whether your 2011 marketing plan takes into account the following items.

In many B2B companies, marketing is still regarded as a secondary, non-essential part of the business.  Whether this opinion is justified, depends on the situation.  But these days, it is an expensive opinion to hold.

In the coming months C-suites from around the world will be presented with the marketing budget proposals for 2011.  Once again, many will approve them without real conviction.

After all, when it comes to marketing, many financially focused CEOs find themselves in a quandary.  On the one hand they know that the people who work in the marketing department are smart, creative, well-intentioned and hard-working.  On the other, they have difficulty figuring out what these people do all day.  Whether their beautiful initiatives actually make a difference.