We sacrificed strategy for speed
"80% of CEOs don’t trust or are unimpressed with their CMOs."
Fournaise Marketing Group
On the journey to implement digital marketing tactics and gain big wins with speed, marketing fundamentals have been abandoned. We sacrificed strategy for speed and smart messaging for shotgun distribution. It's no wonder Marketing is in turmoil. And it should be.
In 1993, Treacey & Wiersema established key tenets of Marketing in their Value Disciplines Model - Customer Intimacy & Other Value Disciplines. One tenet from that model became the foundation for our Day-in-the-Life process we've used for two decades:
The value position is determined by the opinion of external parties...
Since 2008, the market has succumbed to the temptation of in-market tactics in a rush to capture market share, foregoing discipline around capturing and assimilating Voice of the Customer. We've lost our patience with the process that fundamentally shows us where we have an unfair advantage: why we win, why we lose and what customers truly value in their experience with our company.
According to a study from Demandbase and Wakefield Research, which surveyed 500 managerial and executive-level B2B marketers:
It's no wonder expectations are not met. First, assuming your Value Proposition is sound is dangerous.
Markets are moving at hyper-speed and the demographic mix of your buyer is an amalgam of Gen X, Gen Y, Boomers, and up-and-coming Gen Z. This might be the most diverse mix of decision makers in history. Second, creating smart Value Communications will not work without Voice of the Customer input.
You'll note that Strategy & Analysis (Insight) are where you spend 50% of your efforts for a sound Go2Market Plan.
The M3 Model (Econsultancy) that closely reflects our traditional model in use since 1996.
“If we cannot reconcile digital and classic marketing...opportunities are missed and the growth that marketing – and the business – wants to deliver will be stymied.” Ashley Friedlein
(Ashley Friedlein is co-founder of Econsultancy, part of Centaur Media)
This graphic does not drill down to the tactical level and for purposes of this discussion, that's fine. *NOTE: We are tempted to bypass Strategy, Analysis and Planning to get to Execution, because Execution is where we see results. This is akin to putting the roof on before the foundation is built.
There is no tactic that promises to be a silver bullet. Proper strategy formulation - Voice of the Customer - validates your Value Proposition, informs Value Communications, and ensures Value Delivery keeps the promise of the value prop.
Strategy is a set of choices used to achieve an overall objective whereas tactics are the specific actions used when applying those strategic choices. (web-strategist)
Every CEO should have this graphic displayed on their wall, share it with the CMO, and adopt the discipline to engage this model without skipping steps. Capturing Voice of the Customer is not difficult, but it does take time. The magic is in understanding what the "voice" means to your strategy and how to leverage that for a smart Go2Market plan.