After watching ten advertisements of toothpastes and an equal number of ads on life insurance, the mind gets numb and confused on what aspect of teeth to protect and whether the life insurer really wants me to stay alive – everyone promises an excellent afterlife!

Jokes apart, it is a fact that 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. Consumers demand relevant and authentic content, specific to their needs, delivered over the channel of their choice.

Do we really need to advertise in xyz media? Where do these billions of dollars of advertisement and marketing money go? Who benefits ultimately from the advertisements, and if yes, how much and how soon? These questions become shrill especially when sales are suboptimal. If I stand on a conventional CFO’s pedestal and have a look at these issues, I may not be able to fathom the black hole that swallows the marketing dollars.

And this is where I think, a CFO can take lead to partner effectively with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) not only to review the effective utilization, but also help the CMO take better decision with respect to Return on Investments.

88% of CEOs say that getting closer to the customer is a top priority and yet only 6% of marketers rate their online and digital marketing capabilities as excellent. All of which means that, getting to know customers better, require adding a lot of science to the art of marketing. By science, I mean bringing in measuring factors that will account for effective utilization and monitoring on an ongoing basis for each dollar spent.

So let me ask a few questions:

1. How do we build marketing insights?
2. What level of analytics are needed to build effective marketing insights?
3. How do we segment markets based on insights?
4. How do we position product mix for the markets?
5. How do we keep in touch with clients in an ongoing basis?
6. How do we excel in marketing execution and ensure a good return on investments?

Many organizations feel comfortable by saying that they have an effective CRM (Customer Relationship Management) which “takes care” of customers. And this is where, I think lies the danger of getting into a comfort zone or trying to defend investing hard earned dollars into a “CRM”.

Customers are changing, their buying behaviour is changing and during downturns we saw entire business models changing. Being in touch with clients in effective ways is a top organization priority and hence working in a “departmental” mindset is perhaps not the best approach. My ways of looking at it are:

1. Invest in relationships – there is no substitute to a good relationship
2. Evolve effective nurturing strategies to deepen relationship
3. Develop agile systems to support investment in relationships
4. Good content that is thoughtful, relevant and useful is more important for striking the right chord with customers
5. Developing campaign mindset is more important than tactical initiatives
6. Invest in effective systems to measure and report

I would be keen to seek your views and comments.

Data reference: IBM white paper – Bringing science to the art of marketing