It’s Time To Let Our Superpower Be Known

Marketing could very well be your next organizational superpower. This past year has been an equalizer, stripping down our personal needs to the most basic level and for businesses, that means: company reputation and brand loyalty. Customers turned to who they knew and could trust for products and services in an uncertain market, and businesses seen as overtly selling at the outset were negatively impacted. As uncertainty continues to linger in this period of “deep COVID,” we can expect that rapidly changing customer needs and expectations are here to stay.

To get back to optimum growth, what a business does next will require an unparalleled customer-centricity that marketing is squarely positioned to deliver. How so?

• Seeing the big picture requires a wide lens. This highly specialized team operates with the customer at the centre and collaborates broadly across all business units, striking the right balance between outside-in and inside-out perspective. Marketing starts with this insight to drive business outcomes through P&L ownership, marketing strategy, commercialization (think marketing communications) or sales enablement with a triple-threat, indelible lens towards clients, communities and employees.
• Details are in the data. Marketing is equal parts art and science. Gone are the days of marketing teams creating slick sheets and ads.Today, these teams are resourced with data scientists, business analysts, integrated marketers and sophisticated digital technologists who own and mine critical data to make real-time decisions across the end-to-end customer journey, while pouring valuable intel back into human-centred business strategies. Fortified by digital transformation, modern marketers have also responded to the decades-long challenge of quantifying ROI, becoming inherently data-driven with a relentless pursuit of delivering business growth and revenue contribution.
• Better listening drives better results. Marketing holds the keys to omnipresent martech tools that have undeniably changed how marketing is done, by connecting us to the way customers think, act and feel long after in-person interactions have taken place. Through careful social listening, effective digital tracking and target audience strategies, marketing can identify interest cues to sales teams, spot trends and anticipate needs – often before customers themselves can articulate them.

These fundamental truths set marketing apart, but they’re not often known across the C-suite. For many organizations, marketing is still seen as a cost function without clear understanding of the return it can bring and the critical role it plays balancing lead generation and brand elevation.

As businesses head into 2021 with tighter budgets and strained resources, the power of marketing cannot be misunderstood or left behind the scenes. So, how can businesses move past dated stereotypes and put marketing front and centre to unleash new opportunities that can redefine the very meaning of business success in uncertain times?

Here’s how to begin:

1. Lean further into marketing and cultivate genuine understanding of both the function, and its capabilities. Don’t leave marketing’s untapped potential on the table. Take the time to understand the breadth and depth of meaningful momentum that marketing propels, and its role as active integrator across the organization. Think about product-market-sales fit and how marketing can fuel your strategy and growth. And ensure marketing has a seat at the executive table, paired with runway to pilot and simply be, so the team can truly deliver.
2. Invest in the tools that support success. The ability to anticipate customer needs and market demands relies on a voice of the customer approach – and that requires solid resources. Marketing is not a cost centre. With the proliferation of channels, this group needs access to the right tools, rich intelligence and fulsome data to hyper target customers, uncover whitespace opportunities and generate leads. Business investments here will determine just how far marketing – and your business – can go.
3. Relentlessly connect the dots within marketing, and beyond. Businesses are built on relationships, which means customer relationships must be the foundation of the business itself. Fostering marketing’s ability to effectively link customer, connection and channel inspires better business. Still, don’t underestimate the power of nurturing relationships within the organization itself. Far too many marketing teams still operate along siloed lines. But strengthening bridges between marketing and other business functions can fundamentally transform bottom line results – and that means CMOs must abandon marketing lingo to drive mutual understanding in the C-suite.
4. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Sales cycles vary across market segments, and can be lengthy, especially in the B2B space. Messages require consistent reinforcement before actions are taken. And promotion requires a multi-channel focus. It’s this collective weight of marketing’s continuous foot on the gas that generates sustained progress.

By seeking to understand what we do best, businesses can take advantage of this superpower and open up to a world of possibility to grow faster, sooner in an era where customer-first now means marketing-led.

By Fatima Israel, Head of Brand, Marketing and Communications – EY Canada