Android's Success in Mobile Technology - Graphic

Mobile technology continues to penetrate every corner of our world, offering more communication choices for consumers and better technology for marketers to connect with consumers.

The growth and success of Android's operating system in phone and tablet devices has also been remarkable.  At a time in which Apple may have lost its commanding innovative edge - lets take a look at the dominant market share of the Android operating system in the smartphone and tablet market.  There are now 250million Android devices activated every year versus 105million IPads and IPhones. 

Brand Building - The Power of the Flower

Summary - Brands, like people, benefit from rich relationships which are cultivated with passion and persistence.  

The Philadelphia International Flower Show comes to town this week (March 4 –11, 2012) and over 250,000 gardening hobbyists are expected to come to the Philadelphia Convention Center to see the amazing displays.  The theme this year is “Hawaii – Islands of Aloha”.

Is Marketing Leadership Just Icing On the Cake?

Several years ago, when I was a Marketing Director at a large consumer products company, I found myself having to deal with frustration among Brand Managers in my group regarding the extensive review and approval process built into the planning cycle.   It seemed, to many of my managers, that after all their months of hard work building their individual annual marketing plans, the approval process through the Director, VP, Division GM, and President was onerous.  Each layer would review and politely make change after change until the manager’s original plan was only vaguely recognizable. 

My explanation of this process (handed down to me) went like this:   marketing planning in a large company is like baking a cake.  The manager is the chef - building a compelling growth plan for the upcoming year.  Charged with the hard task of building the guts of the business plan, they are the Cake-Makers mixing the unique ingredients together and cooking it perfectly in the oven.  But they are only building the cake itself, without decoration.   Once the fluffy, chocolaty cake is ready, they would present it to their Marketing Director who was charged with examination and then adding his/her thoughts to the plan.  This was like adding the frosting.  After any recommended changes were made, - they would both then take it to the next level (Marketing VP) for examination and the addition of new comments and revisions  - which would be the icing colors and the little balloon cake decorations.  After any changes and improvements, of course it is then taken to the President who finally would add just a few overarching comments as to the validity of the plan within the overall corporate strategy – thus, adding the cherry on top.   

The point I was trying to make was that a cake really isn’t a cake until all the steps are finished and the cherry is applied.   There were two truths to this analogy.   First the goal of management is not only to critically review, but to offer real enhancements.  Secondly the later stages are designed to make the end product far more valuable than the original.   While the original manager tends to believe that all value comes from the cake itself, there is much value added at later stages.   

I admit this analogy was simple and bordered on patronizing (hardly stuff for the Harvard Business Review) but the point hit home.  Managers understood that executives had a real role to play and senior executives needed to realize the importance in recognizing the feelings of the managers who created the cake and also the executive role of adding value to what has been created – not asking for a pumpkin pie just because they could.

Is There Still Time for Cake-Making?

Big companies may still operate like this in their marketing departments. It is likely more true in companies in which there are relatively big investment to gain incremental market share but have stable/mature category.   But there is a fatal flaw to this traditional hierarchy – first, it pushes decision making too high in the organization.  Executives become super brand managers and subjective opinions rampantly replace the facts and original ideas.  Secondly, there is a huge sacrifice of decision making speed where it takes a year to build next year’s plan.   Lastly, and importantly, exciting plans get watered down in committee thinking where the safe and tested trumps the new and different. 

Let’s hire the right managers and teach them to make cakes right from the start, rather than building them slowly and painfully.  Management’s role is to hire chefs, get them the best ingredients and ovens in which to cook, and enjoy the feast of an authentic homemade, but not perfectly decorated, delight.

Designing the Right Marketing Department for Your Growing Business

 When a firm finds it has grown to sufficient size and stability to install an internal team of marketers, it is important to build the right team structure.  There are a several structural options, and the choice of which one will make a significant impact on the direction and growth of the company.  Apart from the easy solution of simply assigning someone to lead the "marketing department" and letting them figure it out, there are a couple of critical components to the decision

What should your marketing department do?

The role of any marketing group will center on a couple of key deliverables.  Namely, a marketing department needs to understand the core needs of the consumer and to understand them in a deep way.  Second, they should understand the role of the brand and how the proposition of the brand (its product delivery, price and promotions) uniquely delivers to the needs of the consumer.  And understanding the competitive trends of the category, the  marketing team should be able to develop a tactical marketing plan.  Some of the elements of that plan will be the sales goals,  new products opportunities and, very importantly, the communication plan that informs the intended target all about the benefits of purchasing and using the brand product or service.

Types of Marketing Team Structures

From basic to the more complex, here are the 3 most common forms of marketing departments:

1. The PR / Marketing department - the goal of this group is to gain exposure to the product or company services.  They will either directly, or through an agency, contact media outlets, issue press releases, and generally look for any opportunity to raise awareness.  Broad exposure (to the intended target) is the goal and the term “buzz” is often used to describe this group’s goal.  Word of mouth, websites and social media are core tactics of this group’s activity.  While this early type of marketing structure can be lean and effective for the smaller organizations, the team can struggle to think independently and end up feeling as if they are no more than the arms and legs to execute the senior executive’s marketing ideas.

2. Brand Management - More advanced marketing departments direct the overall activities of the business to meet the consumer needs.  Brand management, as this is commonly called, evolves when the organization is already operationally functional across the core disciplines of sales,  operations,  finance and customer service.  There becomes is a growing need to direct the activities of the business toward a common consumer end. By activities I mean designing the strongest innovation program, building a full business plan with all the necessary marketing programs and then executing the advertising and promotions.  The second component of brand management is the full accountability to delivering the volume lifts needed from the plan they have devloped.  The company and it's most senior executives must feel confident that this type of marketing team will build better plans aligned with consumer desires rather than gut feel.  Expertise in consumer insight and latest marketing principles must deliver what the traditional functions alone cannot through awareness campaigns (i.e. PR).  There is certainly a relinquishment of day to day decision making by senior executives and in a growing firm this separation from these activities cand be difficult.  Many senior executives believe they are uniquely equipped through experience to manage the creative side of the business.   Brand management structures, which were the initial brand management idea of the 1960s assigned a manger to a consumer brand to manage all facets of the business planning and marketing activity

3. Product Line Management - The “product platform” approach is more commonly found in technology, hard goods, apparel and services.  Here, a manager is assigned to a product type that may have several brands attached.   This structure allows the marketer to be more deeply involved in understanding product evolution and innovation rooted in core technology of the company.  This platform approach has become more common, even in consumer brand companies, due to a couple of key advantages over the brand management approach.  The first advantage is that the product line manager becomes more familiar with the product costs, production process and is able to innovate and bring forward commercially viable ideas that can work in production.  They tend to take on general manager accountabilities for the platform and develop expertise in understanding non-marketing areas such as forecasting,  inventory and cost drivers.   A Marketing Services group will assist the marketer and they tend to specialize in consumer research, advertising and promotional campaigns managing the appropriate agency relationships including all the latest digital communication tools and shopper marketing.  The expansion of scope and knowledge required to execute the right communication tools has made it harder for the traditional brand manager to stay current.

These are the most common types of marketing departments within consumer-based product or service companies.  Each is useful and choosing between them is a matter of fit to the company’s long term goals.  Having managed teams in each type of department, I conclude that none is better than the other; rather, the best fit the business needs, and build leadership capabilities with the department and organization.