According to damning research by the Fournaise Marketing Group, marketers are not the business growth generators they should be.*

The gist of the findings of an Asia wide survey of CEOs is that management believe their own marketing departments are in a world of their own. They believe marketers speak in jargon and are not contributing any value to the business. From my experience you can’t blame most business owners for thinking this way, especially in Australia. Too few businesses have ever had a good marketer sitting round the table at board level, championing the power of marketing to generate wealth.

Marketers need to talk the language of business outcomes

As in “how can marketing get a better return on investment”. Otherwise marketing will remain a misunderstood black art not worthy of the attention of three quarters of CEOs. The vast majority of businesses will thus miss out on the huge opportunities that insightful marketing can deliver when it is woven through the entire business process.

Meanwhile there are a handful of businesses doing better than the rest because they have value-adding marketers on the team. These marketers, obsessed with return on investment, are recognised as an integral part of the senior management team. They are helping their businesses punch above their weight in the following ways…

• Overcome competition based purely on price
• Prevent decline of sales
• Hold on to existing customers
• Build qualified sales leads
• Change the perceived quality of a product
• Revitalise tired brands
• Boost staff morale
• Speed the development of new markets
• Speed product trial and acceptance
• Help businesses raise capital more easily
• Build the value of a business for sale

ROI marketing works

For 100 years Coke has proven it, people from first world countries to third choose Alabama’s black sugar syrup even though it doesn’t taste as good as Pepsi’s. That’s the power of consistent marketing. Perrier taught us to pay more for mineral water than petrol. Branson has convinced Australians to fly Virgin despite having a deplorable record of taking off late, (and you still have to pay for your sandwiches). And thanks to marketing Apple has built a brand that is hugely profitable, marketing has enabled them to sell often inferior spec’d products at a premium to specialist manufacturers like Nokia and HP.

CEOs needn’t fear marketing speak. Business decision makers who embrace marketing with an open mind can still enjoy a sense of control by implementing a test and learn approach. Any marketer worth listening to understands the value of having the results of their work tracked. If it isn’t measured, it isn’t managed. A marketing program that IS managed WILL deliver better results than mindlessly sticking to what the company has always done, or jumping blindly into the latest thing.

ROI Marketing can make a big difference to any sized business, in any category

So what can ROI marketing do for you? My experience has shown me whatever the category, from Watties baked beans to Brita water, Splash Clinic cosmedical treatments to City Index CFDs, a test and learn marketing program can turn good businesses into category leaders.