6
ALIGNING MARKETING TACTICS WITH INFLUENCING FACTORS

Figure 6-1: Marketing Alignment Map

Have you heard the joke about the executive who doesn’t understand the value of his marketing investments?

‘I know that 50% of my marketing expenditures are productive, and the other 50% are a complete waste,’ he quips. ‘I just don’t know which half is which.’

What he’s talking about are the marketing tactics. Tactics are the actions a company will take to achieve its marketing objectives, and they represent the bulk of the marketing budget.

Unfortunately, the executive may have good reason to be sceptical. Many marketing dollars are wasted in these efforts.

We discussed the first reason marketing dollars are poorly spent in chapter 5, ‘Understanding What Influences Market Behaviour,’ which was because marketing plans are based on inaccurate assumptions about the factors that influence purchasing decisions. This chapter covers three additional sources of marketing waste: missing strategies, poorly designed strategies and poorly selected tactics.

TACTICS ARE NOT STRATEGIES

Many companies confuse marketing tactics with marketing strategies. Strategies talk about what the company plans to do to influence behaviour. Marketing tactics are how the company will make that happen. Tactics are the activities a company can select to reach its marketing goals.

Often, the same tactic can be used to support vastly different strategic objectives, depending on how it is implemented. For example, an advertising campaign could position an automobile as durable and safe (as Volvo does) or as an exceptional drive for the discerning driver (as BMW does). A website can communicate almost any message to the market, affecting a variety of influencing factors, from improving access (through Internet sales) to improving understanding of capabilities (through clarifying information and case studies, for example).

Some companies have a tendency to skip ahead to tactics during the planning process. However, a company should always define marketing strategies first in order to guide those critical tactical decisions. As mentioned in chapter 5, marketing strategies should be crafted to affect influencing factors. The strategies themselves should generally restate the impact the marketing function wishes to have on the influencing factor. They should also include intermediate marketing metrics, financial metrics or both, that indicate what impact the marketing strategy will have on the influencer and overall business and financial goals.

Because tactics are tools that can be used to support or do many different types of things on behalf of a company, an organisation that does not begin with well-defined marketing strategies may apply those tools in ways that don’t help the company achieve its business objectives, resulting in wasted funds.

To illustrate, consider this example. After looking at the websites of several of its competitors, the management team at a transportation services company decides its site is dated. The pictures are old, and the site needs an update. The CEO asks the marketing director to tackle the project, and she happily does. After all, she agrees, it does look dated. It hasn’t been revised in almost 10 years. She proceeds to execute the request. After four months and a considerable sum of money, the website is launched. She and the CEO are delighted. It looks exactly how they wanted it to look, and it is much faster than the previous site. Unfortunately, once the shine has worn off, this CEO is likely to start scratching his head and wondering about the effectiveness of the money that was just spent.

That’s because a website can be used in many ways. By simply executing the activity, the company didn’t stop to think about what the company wanted that website to achieve. Did it want the site to help attract new customers? Provide resources to existing customers? Become a recruiting tool for employees? Without this information, the functionality, messaging and design might miss important audiences and objectives.

The company also failed to consider how the website fit among other potential priorities. For example, if the company’s goal was to grow its customer base, what would influence purchasing behaviour, and would the website be the most influential tool to make that change happen? If the website wasn’t the most appropriate tool, the company may still have decided a website overhaul was required. However, it might also have decided to spend far less on the project than it would if it were the most appropriate way to help the company meet its objectives.

Because marketing tactics are simply tools and can be used in many ways, substituting marketing tactics for strategies in a plan is like driving around aimlessly to find a grocery store. You might find the grocery store, or you might not. Regardless, your chances of finding it quickly without wasting gas are small.

The use of marketing tactics outside the framework of focused marketing strategies is one of the most significant sources of financial waste within the marketing function. It also contributes to a company’s lacklustre business results because the message the market receives through these tactics is muddled or missed.

WELL-CRAFTED MARKETING STRATEGIES PROVIDE SPECIFIC GUIDANCE

Sometimes, the company believes it has a marketing strategy, but it is not well crafted. My favourite example of this is brand awareness. When executives first approach me to talk about their marketing investments and how to improve returns, I generally ask them what their objectives are. The most common answer is ‘to get our name out there.’ They want to increase ‘brand awareness,’ or, more accurately, name recognition.

The problem with this answer is that brand awareness is often a proxy for the real issue. Many companies assume that if everyone knows their solution is available, they will be clamouring for their product or service. However, even an extremely well-known, well-respected manufacturer of exceptionally effective mousetraps is unlikely to generate sales in a land with no mice. The issue, in this case, is really not brand awareness. It’s a poor assumption based on inattention to the discipline of marketing.

However, sometimes, even when the company has the right idea, it hasn’t driven it to a sufficient degree of precision. For example, in areas where mice run rampant, the mousetrap manufacturer might need visibility to make sure that the community knows that it has a solution to a need. But, unless it has the only solution, visibility alone is probably not sufficient.

Marketing strategies should be very specific in both what they hope to achieve and how that change will impact purchasing behaviours. For example, instead of a vague statement that the company wants to promote visibility, a more precise marketing strategy might state that the company will increase awareness of its mousetrap’s effectiveness at attracting and permanently eradicating rodents among restaurant owners in a specific geographic area. In addition, the strategy should include a metric or set of metrics that provides an indication of whether the execution was effective. In this case, it may be a measure of brand awareness in a survey of restaurant owners. It may also be a financial metric, such as a percentage change in sales to restaurants or restaurant supply stores.

This greater level of precision helps in two ways. First, it clearly specifies what the goal of the efforts is, giving a greater degree of guidance to the person or people responsible for implementing it. In effect, it gives the driver in the previous scenario a map, making it much more clear what route to take to get to the store.

The second advantage is that it makes the outcomes measurable. This allows the marketing function to more accurately estimate how much effort or expense should be invested and makes it less likely that the marketing team will fall short by failing to do enough or waste money by overshooting. When expectations are measurable, the marketing team is better equipped to assess whether the mix of tactics selected will actually work together to achieve the company’s strategic objectives.

To illustrate, let’s return to the Sam’s Hometown Gas Station example we used in chapter 5. One of the marketing strategies the owner selected was to improve customer perception of station cleanliness, moving customer satisfaction rankings from 2.8 to 4.0 within one year and driving a 5% increase in revenues over a two-year period. Assume that the company selected the following tactics:

• Add planters with brightly coloured flowers around the perimeter of the station

• Repaint the bathrooms in brighter colours and add artwork

• Add a sanitation patrol to the staff task list, asking them to pick up garbage and sweep up the doorway every two hours instead of once per day

• Host a campaign asking for customer input into what changes need to be made and offer a free tank of gas to winning suggestions

The owner, Sam Simmons, can now assess whether he believes that these tactical activities will make the required impact, whether the impact will occur in the desired timeframe, whether he needs more customer information in order to know the answer, and, if the activities aren’t sufficient, what needs to be added in order to meet the strategic objective. After evaluating the tactics, Simmons might also decide that the number of tactics required would be impractical or financially infeasible. If this is the case, he might revisit the expected impact the strategy might make and adjust expected outcomes accordingly.

The owner should also add into the plan the systems he must develop in order to track progress on both strategies (as mentioned in chapter 5), and tactics. For example, the first two tactics might be measured simply by their completion in a timely manner. However, the third tactic might require a more complicated system to ensure that the sanitation patrol was being conducted and the facility is cleaner as a result. The systems required to support measurement are discussed in more detail in chapter 14, ‘Managing Measurement.’

A well-crafted marketing strategy includes the specific impact the company wants to have on the factors influencing the desired behaviour, a measure of how big that change should be and over what timeframe the associated return is expected. With these pieces of information, the marketing team, the management team and anyone else developing marketing plans and spending marketing dollars is well-equipped to pick the right mix of marketing tactics and assess whether they will have the desired impact.

ALIGN ATTRIBUTES TO PICK THE RIGHT TACTIC

Both the absence of strategic objectives and poorly structured strategic objectives cause managers to make poor decisions regarding how they select and implement marketing tactics. In some cases, it may prompt the company to execute the right tactic but miss out on the full potential return. In other cases, it may help the company reach the objective, but with less efficiency than it might otherwise have done.

However, sometimes, the marketing strategies are well-crafted and well-informed by the marketing discipline, but the marketing tactics are poorly selected. In large companies, marketing tactics are generally selected by the marketing team or teams. In small and mid-sized companies, some marketing tactics may be under the control of the executive or management teams, whereas others are the responsibility of a marketing team and external marketing professionals.

In general, marketing tactics managed by the marketing function, whether they are marketing professionals or non-marketing managers, fall into four categories: product or service-related tactics, pricing, placement or distribution, and promotion. These are the four ‘P’s of marketing mentioned in chapter 1, ‘A Market Leader’s Definition of Marketing.’ Most companies implement multiple tactics simultaneously, and many tactics will affect multiple strategies. Taken together, the group of tactics a company selects to help it execute its marketing strategies is referred to as the company’s marketing mix.

The selection of tactics is influenced by a variety of considerations related to the marketing strategy itself, including

• the size of the target market;

• market demographics, including where the customer turns for solutions to the specific needs a company addresses;

• whether the customers are businesses or consumers;

• the influencing factor(s) the company is trying to affect;

• the potential impact on a company’s brand;

• the competitive environment;

• the cost of the tactic relative to the potential benefit it could deliver and budget constraints;

• the time before such benefits are likely to be realised; and

• how the mix of tactics are likely to work together.

Sidebar 6-1: Caution: Tactics May Be Complex

Market Size

This is one of the most important considerations when selecting tactics, especially relative to promotions. Some tactics are best suited to very large, or mass, markets. Others are more appropriate for very small, or targeted, markets or market segments.

For example, billboard advertising is visible to everyone driving past it. Because billboards can’t differentiate based on any characteristic other than geography, they are most appropriate for consumer-oriented products or services addressing needs that almost every resident in that geographic area might have.

Billboards are best suited for mass markets, where almost anyone who sees the message on it could be a customer. For example, billboards might be a good fit for paper towels, a consumer-oriented bank, a restaurant or a community event. On the other hand, if the advertised product or service addresses a need held by only a segment of the population, such as accounting services to high net worth individuals, the billboard is likely to be wasted exposure. Most of the people who see the billboard’s message will see the message as irrelevant, and the few who make up the market may or may not see the message at all.

Market Demographics

When looking for solutions to a particular need, some demographic segments respond particularly well to a particular type of tactic, whereas others may be less likely to notice. Consider online price discounts. An arts organisation that is strategically targeting a younger, computer-savvy audience would be more successful offering discounts through Goldstar.com or the underground weekly paper in their city, rather than announcing the discount via postcards. On the other hand, if the business objective is to serve seniors, and the strategy is to encourage price-sensitive seniors to attend a performance, print coupons or direct mail would be more effective than an online discount offer.

Some tactics can be good for both small and large markets, but the tactical approach will be different depending on market demographics. For example, media relations can be used for either mass or segmented markets, but the choice of targeted publications will differ. While a mass market outreach might include a broad cross-section of broadcast and print media, if the objective is to educate a specific segment, such as pregnant women, media outreach should be focused on publications targeting that population.

Business-to-Business Versus Business-to-Consumer

Some tactics are more widely used in business-to-business settings, such as trade shows and sales representatives, than in business-to-consumer settings. Others are more common in business-to-consumer environments, like Facebook advertising and other forms of social media, than in business-to-business environments. In many respects, this is simply a variation on the demographics consideration. However, business-to-business marketing plans so often include inefficient consumer-directed tactics that the importance of selecting based on this consideration bears highlighting.

Potential Impact on Influencing Factors

Different tactics affect purchasers in different ways. For example, when Starbucks was preparing to launch its line of instant coffee, Via, it tested some advertising that was designed to influence customer perception about flavour. However, it found that the impact was extremely small. Telling the consumer the flavour was the same didn’t work, the customers needed to try it, and they weren’t going to spend their own money to do a taste test. To influence their behaviour, Starbucks used very limited advertising, and, instead, opted for in-store taste tests (a promotional tactic) and coupons for free beverages and discounts on the new product (pricing tactics).

Brand Impact

Many tactics carry an implicit message about the brand itself. For example, when a company offers a pricing discount on a product, it sends the market a signal that the true value might be lower. When a premium brand does this, it can damage the firm’s brand by suggesting that the price may previously have been inflated. This is why Cartier and Costco products, for example, don’t go on sale. Cartier uses its pricing strategies to suggest that the company’s products are always worth the high price paid by the customer, and Costco’s consistent low pricing suggests that the customer is always getting the lowest possible price within its stores.

The Competitive Environment

Sometimes, a marketing team will select a tactic purely in response to their competitors’ marketing initiatives. For example, if a competitor has a strong and lucrative social media presence, a company serving a related market segment might choose to pursue social media as a defensive measure or proactive measure if it believes it might expand to serve a new segment. At an even simpler level, it is not uncommon for a company to register all the URL variations on its name in order to prevent a competitor or squatter from registering it instead.

By contrast, a company might also choose a tactic because competitors have not done so. For example, the founders of the board game Cranium knew that they would be one of many, many options in the toy stores. They also had a solid understanding of their customer base and what other retail outlets those consumers patronised. Instead of pursuing the traditional channels, they opted to take their game to their customers. They partnered with Starbucks to sell the game in 1,500 of its stores and also with the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble to become one of the first board games sold in bookstores. By choosing a distribution (placement) channel in which their competitors were not present and their target market was, they were more successful at driving awareness.¹

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Another reason Cranium’s marketing tactics were so well-selected is because the benefits were exceptionally high relative to the costs incurred.

Toy manufacturers typically spend incredible sums of money promoting their products through advertising. Because Cranium was a small player up against giant competitors like Mattel and Hasbro, the company would have needed an incredibly large advertising budget to compete with these players. Instead of advertising, it selected a marketing mix of unique channels, aggressive media relations, celebrity endorsements and events.

The cost of these programmes was an amazingly low $15,000, compared to the hundreds of thousands they might otherwise have spent on advertising. In addition to the cost advantage, the benefits of the unique marketing mix allowed them to drive better results than an advertising spend probably would have.² From a cost-benefit perspective, this approach drove superior results.

Return Timeline

The amount of time required for a particular tactic to begin delivering a return, and the timeline over which that return is realised, range from relatively short to very long, depending on the tactic itself and the length of the customer’s purchase cycle. In some cases, such as with new product development, a significant investment is made prior to the product launch when no revenues are realised. Once the product is launched, it will still take months or years to recoup those costs. Other times, such as with advertising, the investments may begin to generate revenues fairly quickly, but the revenues will still be far lower than the costs for some time. Of course, advertising often continues to generate revenues after the advertising flights have ended. Finally, some tactics, such as coupons, might deliver an immediate uptick in sales. On the other hand, the effect of coupon promotions, particularly on products with which the customer is already familiar, is likely to be short-lived.

Complimentary Marketing Mixes

The strongest marketing plans actively look for tactics that complement other tactics, producing superior returns as a result.

Consider professional service firms, such as CPA or law firms. Their clients typically purchase services from someone with whom they have a relationship, or who was referred to them, and whose services they believe to be high quality. If these are the influencers toward which the company’s marketing strategies are directed, the company would be wise to increase the amount of time individual professionals spend building personal relationships with clients and prospective clients.

However, this tactic becomes even more effective when coupled with other tactics that focus on positioning the person as an expert in his or her area of expertise or providing added opportunities to connect with new prospective clients. Seminars, for example, might be an appropriate tactical choice. Taken separately, each of these will provide some help to a firm. However, when combined together, their impact is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Tactics that focus on promoting visibility and the perception of expertise make it easier for the professional to make connections. They give him or her more immediate credibility and keep him or her top of mind. They effectively reduce the cost of the ‘sales’ efforts by decreasing the time required meeting and maintaining relationships with prospective clients. Conversely, because relationships are critical to the sales process, the personal relationship management reinforces the less personal outreach tactics, making them more memorable to the client.

As a company selects its marketing mix, it should consider the balance between short-term and longer-term tactics. It should also consider how different tactics might complement one another.

‘HOW’ IS AS IMPORTANT AS ‘WHAT’

How a tactic is executed is as important as what tactic is selected. Without careful forethought, much more than 50% of the cost may go to waste. In many cases, the marketing or executive team has simply failed to consider the potential outcomes. For proof of consequences, one has only to look at the outcomes of larger companies whose public failures have become case studies of the potential impact of poor implementation. Consider the following examples of negative financial impact caused by poorly planned and executed tactical approaches.

Sony Corporation: In order to grow its own online retail operations, Sony Corporation, the Japanese entertainment company, included hyperlinks and promotional information in compact discs they produced and sold through traditional music retailers. However, it failed to let its retail channels know that it planned to include the promotions. Incensed at the idea that Sony was trying to redirect its customers to Sony-owned retail channels without their prior knowledge, retailers banded together through the National Association of Recording Merchandisers to file a lawsuit alleging illegal price discrimination, unfair competition, false advertising and other violation of fair trade laws.³

Although the suit was withdrawn two years later, the negative press and ill will the decision generated among distributors posed a cost to Sony. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers indicated that its objective was not to prohibit Sony from becoming a competitor. Instead, it wanted more direct communication about the products Sony was selling so that it could make an informed decision about distribution. More careful consideration in advance of the decision may have prevented this channel conflict issue.

KFC: Fast food restaurateur KFC offered customers the opportunity to download a coupon for a free grilled chicken breast at one of its thousands of restaurants across the United States. When the pricing promotion was announced on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a popular American television programme averaging 10 million viewers, the company’s systems were overwhelmed. Restaurant franchisees were unprepared for the long lines of impatient customers demanding a free meal, and KFC’s distributors ran out of chicken, forcing franchisees to close their doors for the remainder of the day. In an attempt to fix the issue, KFC told diners they would need to complete a form to receive the certificate by mail. This further frustrated customers. In the end, KFC pulled the promotion, sheepishly apologising to its market.⁴

Cadbury Schweppes: In 2002, Cadbury India, the Indian subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes London, the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of sweets and soft drinks, developed an advertising campaign positioning Cadbury as a premium candy brand with exceptional value to the consumer. To do so, it compared the value of its sweets to the entire value of the Kashmir region, the politically charged, disputed lands jointly governed by China, Pakistan and India. The advertisement proclaimed Cadbury and Kashmir both ‘too good to share.’ Although this was designed to play well to the Indian market to which it was targeted, it instead provoked anger both inside and outside India, including China and Pakistan, where Cadbury Schweppes also has operations. In the end, the political blunder produced sputtering apologies, embarrassment and a rapid withdrawal of the politically insensitive advertisement.⁵

Qantas Airlines: In 2007, Australia’s Qantas Airlines developed a Twitter contest asking participants to describe their idea of a ‘dream luxury in-flight experience,’ offering a pair of Qantas in-flight pyjamas and a toiletry kit to the most compelling description. Although the concept itself may have been sound, its timing was not. It launched, undoubtedly according to a prearranged schedule, the day after they broke off discussions with union labour and grounded their fleet, leaving thousands of angry customers stranded and unable to reach their destinations. The tweets reflected this anger, exacerbating an already challenging public image situation. To manage the situation, the company hired four, full-time social media professionals to monitor the onslaught of angry tweets.⁶

Although the product, pricing, channel and promotional approaches may be managed by marketing or product marketing teams, the non-marketing executive has a responsibility to be vigilant for potential issues related to execution, particularly if a programme goes awry, and the stakes are high.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL AND MULTI-CULTURAL MARKETS

Organisations that operate internationally and large companies whose products and services appeal to populations that have varied cultural values or norms even within their native country are particularly prone to execution errors. In some cases, the mistakes are brushed off as the naïve efforts of a culturally insensitive company. However, in other cases, the mistakes can be extremely offensive. Either way, they are likely to affect sales and profitability.

For example, according to CFO Magazine, the Japanese consumer products company, Panasonic, licensed the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker to use as a promotional icon for its company. It planned to use the character in conjunction with the rollout of a new computer with touch capabilities, which it named the ‘Touch Woody,’ emphasising its unique features. It also used the character as a search icon, planning to advertise the woodpecker as ‘The Internet Pecker.’ Fortunately for Panasonic, just before the launch of the marketing campaign, an American employed at Panasonic alerted the company to the connotations of those phrases to English-speaking markets. The company delayed the campaign and renamed its new computer the Woody Touch Screen.⁷

In another example, when United Airlines took over Pan American Airline’s Hong Kong routes and launched a new first class service, all its flight attendants wore white carnations in their lapels. However, in Hong Kong, and many other Asian countries, white carnations are funeral flowers, symbols of death and bad luck. When the airline discovered its error, it switched to red carnations.⁸

Not all cultural misunderstandings happen when a company is entering a foreign market. Sometimes, they happen within an organisation’s own country. The Cadbury India example, with its politically charged ad created by an Indian ad agency comparing its chocolate bars with the contested Kashmir region, is one example.

The Holiday Inn, a hotel chain based in the United States, provides another cautionary tale. After completing a comprehensive renovation of its hotel facilities, the Holiday Inn wanted to let its market know how transformative the process had been to its appearance. To do so, it launched an advertising campaign set at a high school reunion featuring a transsexual whose name was Bob Johnson. When a former classmate recognises her as his high school male friend, the narrator quips that ‘it’s amazing the changes you can make for a few thousand dollars. Imagine what Holiday Inns will look like when we spend a billion.’⁹

The advertising campaign angered gay, lesbian and transsexual groups, who were already frustrated with media stereotyping of people with those sexual orientations. However, it also offended socially conservative groups. Both boycotted the chain in the wake of the campaign.¹⁰

To avoid falling into these types of situations, the non-marketing management team member should ensure that the company has spent the requisite time trying to understand the market in which it plans to operate. It would be a mistake to believe that consumers of a particular product or service base their decision on the same criteria, use the product in the same way or even use it to address the same need they do in the company’s native country. When developing everything from the name of the product and its packaging to the promotions used to introduce it to the market, the non-marketing executive should ensure that marketing professionals exercise particular sensitivity to the cultures in which the company is doing business. The use of a particular phrase, colour or image may carry significantly different meanings to different cultures, even within the same country.

In general, it is wise to use local management and creative talent, including copywriters, to develop and execute promotional campaigns and other marketing activities when going into foreign markets. Natives of the region are more likely to be sensitive to the cultural issues and language nuances than non-native professionals or individuals for whom the country’s language is not their native tongue.¹¹

Regardless of where a company’s marketing efforts are aimed, careful consideration should be given to the potential impact when incorporating political, religious or controversial social references into a promotional approach.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR NOT-FOR-PROFITS

Because many of my clients are not-for-profit organisations, I have heard people claim that marketing for not-for-profits is significantly different than marketing for for-profit organisations. However, that simply isn’t true. Marketing is the same in almost every respect.

Both for-profits and not-for-profits must ensure their bottom lines are positive. Both must understand who their markets are and what motivates the behaviours they seek to achieve. Both must make challenging decisions about the tactics they employ, whether they involve pricing choices around services, the promotions designed to appeal to donors or clients or where to locate service facilities. They are both equally interested in getting the best possible returns on their investments in market-facing activities.

However, there is one difference that should be understood. Unlike most for-profits, the individual who benefits from the products or services delivered by the not-for-profit is not always the person who pays for those services. A not-for-profit food distribution service for families in need might provide food (its products) to poor families without payment from those individuals. Instead, it turns to donors, where it ‘sells’ the human service it offers in exchange for a donation.

This bifurcated payment and service model can make marketing more complex because the organisation must now understand and service two often different markets. Although we advise many small businesses struggling with multiple market segments to narrow their focus to a single market, that advice is not practical for many non-profits who must appeal to both donors and beneficiaries (see figure 6-2).

Figure 6-2: Traditional For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Models

Occasionally, I’ll meet with a not-for-profit organisation whose executives clearly understand one of their market segments but have forgotten about or failed to understand the other. As a not-for-profit organisation identifies its strategies—and selects the appropriate tactics—it must remember both markets and develop appropriate strategies for each one.

QUESTIONS FOR NON-MARKETING MANAGERS TO ASK ABOUT ALIGNING MARKETING TACTICS WITH INFLUENCING FACTORS

The greatest expense in marketing is associated with the tactics undertaken to achieve strategic objectives. To ensure that the marketing strategies are aligned with influencers that will make a positive impact on the market’s purchasing decision process and the tactics selected will be effective in helping achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives, the non-marketing manager should consider asking the following questions about his or her company’s marketing plans:

• How do the marketing strategies our company is pursuing tie to the influencers we hope to affect?

• Given the importance of the influencer, how much impact will each strategy have on our business and financial objectives?

• Are the objectives within the marketing strategies clearly measurable, so that we know when they have been achieved?

• Will the tactics we have chosen allow us to meet our strategic marketing objective? Do we need to add additional tactics? Or, is our marketing objective unrealistic given what we can feasibly achieve?

• Do the tactics selected make sense given our market’s size and demographic characteristics?

• How will the tactics reinforce or detract from our corporate brand reputation?

• What are our competitors doing? What will they do in response to these tactics?

• How long will it be before the tactic or group of tactics associated with a strategy begin to deliver a return? At what point do the expected returns surpass expected expenditures?

• Do the total returns, net of costs of sales, exceed the anticipated expenses associated with the tactics selected? What alternatives were considered?

• How do the tactics in our plan work together? Is there anything else that could be done to increase the results or reduce the risk that the company won’t achieve its objectives?

• Is there anything about what we are doing that could be construed as culturally insensitive within the target population? If there is something questionable, what impact will that have on our organisation’s performance if we decide to pursue it?

CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY

In most companies, much of the expense related to marketing is invested in marketing tactics or activities, including pricing promotions, new channel ventures and partnerships, product development or packaging design, or promotions such as advertising, media relations and other activities. Together, these are called the marketing mix. It is the substantial cost of these activities, and particularly those related to promotions, that prompt executives to joke that they know 50% of their marketing is ineffective; they just don’t know which half of their activities to eliminate.

The non-marketing manager can help a company prevent waste relative to the selection of its marketing mix by understanding the three most common reasons marketing tactics fail to deliver a return:

• In some cases, marketing plans are comprised entirely of marketing tactics, without any strategic guidance to specify desired returns.

• In other cases, the marketing strategies that are included lack the specificity relative to outcomes required to effectively select tactics.

• Sometimes, the marketing tactics themselves are a mismatch to the strategic objective the company wants to accomplish.

At the end of the selection process, the team planning the marketing activities, whether this includes the marketing team, the executive team, or both, should be confident that the impact of the tactics, when taken together, meets the objective of the marketing strategy. In other words, the team should be confident that the tactics will have the financial or marketing impact on the influencing factor that is required to meet the company’s business and financial objectives.

The selection of marketing tactics is particularly complex, in part, because the function of marketing, like many other aspects of business, has become highly specialised. Although the non-marketing manager will probably rely heavily on marketing experts to identify the specific tactics the company will pursue relative to the strategies it has identified, it is helpful to understand the attributes on which marketing tactics should be assessed.

Specifically, the selection of tactics should be influenced by

• the size of the target market;

• market demographics, including where the customer turns for solutions to the specific needs a company addresses;

• whether the customers are businesses or consumers;

• the influencing factor(s) the company is trying to affect;

• the potential impact on a company’s brand;

• the competitive environment;

• the cost of the tactic relative to the potential benefit it could deliver and budget constraints;

• the time before such benefits are likely to be realised; and

• how the mix of tactics are likely to work together.

Even well-selected tactics can fail to deliver returns, and occasionally do more harm than good if they are not effectively executed or are insensitive to cultural issues. Although the execution may be done by marketing professionals, the non-marketing manager should remain vigilant for potential operational or other problems with implementation.

Endnotes

1 Sources:

Presentation by Richard Tate, co-founder of Cranium, to the Seattle # 4 Rotary Club on Wednesday, September 26, 2012. Bloom, Jonah. ‘Smart PR and Distribution Via Starbucks Power Cranium,’ Advertising Age, March 29, 2004. http://adage.com/article/onah-bloom/mart-pr-distribution-starbucks-power-cranium/39748/

2 Bloom, Jonah. ‘Smart PR and Distribution Via Starbucks Power Cranium,’ Advertising Age, March 29, 2004. http://adage.com/article/jonah-bloom/smart-pr-distribution-starbucks-power-cranium/39748/

3 Sources:

Complaint filed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, Inc., on February 1, 2000. http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldecen/sonycomplaint.pdf

Macavinta, Courtney. ‘Music retailers charge Sony with unfair competition,’ CNET news, January 31, 2000. http://iews.cnet.com/2100-1023-236277.html ‘NARM Withdraws Anti-Trust Suit Vs. Sony Music,’ Billboard, date unknown. www.billboard.com/articles/news/77551/narm-withdraws-anti-trust-suit-vs-sony-music

4 Sources:

‘KFC cancels free chicken deal after Oprah promo,’ Reuters, May 8, 2009. www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/08/television-oprah-idUSN0848545420090508

Brody, Meredith. ‘KFC Grilled Chicken Freebie Turned into an Oprah-Size Debacle,’ SF Weekly Blogs, SFoodie, May 15, 2009. http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/05/kfcoprah_free_grilled_chicken.php

5 Sources:

‘Cadbury Regrets controversial Kashmir ad,’ The Times of India, August 21, 2002. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/Cadburys-regrets-controversial-Kashmir-ad/articleshow/19779847.cms;

Cozens, Claire. ‘Cadbury’s ad upsets India,’ The Guardian, August 20, 2002. www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/aug/20/advertising.india

6 Sources:

Taylor, Rob. ‘Qantas Twitter Competition is Huge PR Mistake for Beleaguered Airline,’ Reuters Canberra, November 22, 2011. www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/H/22/qantas-twitter-competition_n_1107537.html#s496134&title=The_Straits_Times

Miller, Daniel. ‘Qantas Twitter campaign takes nosedive,’ ABC News, November 23, 2011. www.abc.net.au/iews/2011-11-22/qantas-twitter-hashtag-backfires/3686940

Schneider, Kate. ‘Fail! Qantas red-faced after Twitter campaign backfires,’ news.com.au, November 22, 2011. www.news.com.au/travel/news/fail-qantas-red-faced-after-twitter-campaign-backfires/tory-e6frfq80-1226202445747

7 Sources:

Lincoln, Adam. ‘Lost in Translation,’ eCFO magazine, April 15, 2001. www.cfo.com/article.cfiii/3000717/L/c_3046576

Boyd, John. ‘Naming Names,’ Japan Inc., December 1996. www.japaninc.com/cpj/magazine/issues/1996/dec96/indstey.html

James, Geoffrey. ‘World’s Dumbest Branding Move,’ CBS News, March 28, 2007. www.cbsnews.com/8301-505183_162-28540029-10391735/worlds-dumbest-branding-move/

8 Sources:

Wooten, Adam. ‘International Business: Wrong flowers can mean death for global business,’ Deseret News, February 4, 2011. www.deseretnews.com/article/705365824/Wrong-flowers-can-mean-death-for-global-business.html?pg=all Feldman, Joan. ‘The Dilemma of “Open Skies”,’ The New York Times, April 2, 1989. www.nytimes.com/1989/04/02/magazine/the-dilemma-of-open-skies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

9 To see a clip of the original ad, which aired in 1997, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FhjgxjAJxU.

10 Sources:

Salomon, Alan. ‘Holiday Inn Boots “Bob Johnson”: Lead ad in “makeover” campaign pulled after Bowl: Had been lead spot: “$10 million in publicity”,’ Advertising Age, February 3, 1997. http://adage.com/article/news/holiday-inn-boots-bob-johnson-lead-ad-makeover-campaign-pulled-bowl-lead-spot-10-mil-publicity/69284/Hartlaub, Peter. ‘The 10 worst Super Bowl ads of all time,’ NBC News, January 26, 2007. www.nbcnews.com/id/16790823/

11 While researching examples for this section, I ran across a blog posting with additional counsel and more examples of cross-cultural blunders. If you are interested, it is worth looking up for the advice it provides. However, additional research revealed that some of the examples provided there, and in many marketing textbooks as well, are urban legends rather than facts, including the stories of General Motors’ Chevy Nova in Mexico and Gerber baby food in Africa.

Doman, Damian. ‘Disastrous International Marketing Failures and How to Avoid Them,’ New Frontier Digital blog, June 3, 2010. www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/disastrous-international-marketing-failures-and-how-to-avoid-them/