NY Times looks at ANA's "Masters of Marketing"
The NY Times' Stuart Elliott gave a review of the ANA's "Masters of Marketing" meeting last week. Excerpts: "The official theme of the 94th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers was "Masters of Marketing," but it might have been more bluntly, and more accurately, summarized as "Change or Die." Speakers at the conference warned the more than 700 attendees that executives who oversee the estimated 300 billion a year spent on consumer marketing in the US must become more accountable, innovative and creative or be doomed to failure.
"The traditional marketing model we all grew up with is obsolete," said James R. Stengel, global marketing officer of Procter & Gamble, the world's largest advertiser. "We are taking the reinvention of marketing very seriously at Procter & Gamble and we all need to do that."
Stengel was one of several speakers representing big, well-known sellers of consumer products and services that are substantially reorganizing or rethinking their marketing efforts. The others included DaimlerChrysler, General Electric, Home Depot, Charles Schwab, Toyota Motor, Wachovia, Wrigley and Yahoo.
Those strategic shifts stem from a growing belief that most companies have already increased profits as much as they can through cost-cutting, said Michael J. Winkler, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Hewlett-Packard, and need now to "focus on revenue growth" to further fatten the bottom line.
"Marketing has got to become a competitive advantage," he added, much like superior product quality or better customer service.
"Marketing is more of a critical success factor than five years ago," even in fields where it has not traditionally been valued, like banks and other financial services, said Paul Hyde, vice president for the financial services practice at Booz Allen. "But it is being seen as disconnected from the C.E.O. agenda" and as a result
typically lacks adequate resources, he said. "Marketing has a long-term focus, and yet corporations are expecting their chief marketing officers to deliver
short-term results. C.M.O.'s are being asked to sink or swim and in many instances, it's 'Mission: Impossible.' ''
One inevitable outcome has been the revampings of marketing departments at more than 70 percent of the companies that responded to the survey, Hyde said, adding in an aside to the audience: "Don't go on vacation. Your job might not be there when you get back."
Another [topic was] the relations between marketers and their advertising agencies. "We often talk about the marriage analogy," said Barbara M. Ford, vice president for global advertising resources at Kraft Foods, which is majority-owned by the Altria Group, "but if it were a marriage, it would be easy."
For example, Ms. Ford said, referring to her spouse, "If he has a bad day or misses a deadline, I don't look for input from other husbands."
"Getting to powerful ideas that can impact consumers in meaningful ways" can be achieved most effectively through what Ms. Ford described as a "provocateurship" that "brings out the best on each side" in the relationship.
"We remind ourselves all the time at Kraft that we get the advertising we deserve," by asking "Are we being the kind of client that gets the best people at the agency to do their best work for us?" Ms. Ford said.
Another way to improve campaigns, said Larry Light, executive vice president and global chief marketing officer of the McDonald's Corporation, is to consider agencies "as creative resources" rather than corporate entities that assign accounts to specific employees at specific offices.
"That's the future, not to assume the office you've been assigned to has all the creative geniuses you need," Mr. Light said, citing the worldwide competition McDonald's conducted last year among its agencies to develop a new ad
theme. The winner, "I'm lovin' it," was produced miles from Madison Avenue, by an office of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, in Unterhaching, Germany, near Munich.
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