allAfrica.com: South Africa: The CEO - the Real Chief Marketing Strategist (Page 1 of 2)

The marketplace is strewn with carcasses of once very successful companies and brands that failed to keep up with changing needs. Why? Because marketing tacticians were left to it, rather than the business as a whole, led by the CEO.

A bee is attracted to a flower by its sweet scent and colourful petals. That's marketing. Were the flower to have been dull and unattractive, the bee wouldn't have been drawn to it in the first place. However, if the flower were attractive but the pollen offering unsatisfactory, the chances of that bee coming back for a return 'purchase' would be very slim.

Same rules

If the flower is too far away, or swarming with bee-eating predators, the price to get the pollen may be perceived to be too great. Say the flower was successful in its product offering, service, location and price, but it has radically changed its appearance or is not in the same place the following season (it germinated around the corner instead). The bee may be disappointed not to find it, and will move onto another type of flower (brand switching). The very same rules apply in business.

Most marketing departments in South Africa are full of great activation specialists that are expert in the detailed implementation of marketing activities. The marketing department should typically have control over segmentation, customer knowledge, product solution offering, and positioning, pricing, consumer brand management, CRM. Logistics and communication.

Unfortunately, the work they're most known for is choosing the colour of the petals, or the shape, or even the scent. And this is why CEOs often perceive marketing to be simply a tactical implementation group, the"Ask-marketing-to-organise-some-of-those-great-pens-with-our-logo-on-them" Department.

But what of the pollen quality, and the perceived value proposition to particular insects? The flower's location, the choice of flowering season, what time it opens and closes, should it germinate beside a river or pond in order to add further convenience to a thirsty bee, thus doubling its attraction offering...

Is that such a bad thing?

Unfortunately most South African companies do not have strategic marketing executives guiding marketing; rather most marketing departments are relegated to act on decisions made by senior management after the more strategic decisions have been made. And is that such a bad thing?

Perhaps not, as strategic marketing should in fact be the bastion of the CEO.

Going back to our little bee: assume that the swarm developed greater range and access to a wider variety of flowers and the bee's taste in pollen supplier changed over time. Our bee may decide to fly past your flower and visit the one on the other side of the field. This is where business is different from nature (in the short term at least). The change in consumer/client behaviour can easily be monitored and acted upon. The pollen and how it is delivered could therefore be 'evolved' over time to meet these needs. Those that don't adapt quickly enough become extinct.

Now this is straightforward Marketing Strategy 101. Things now get a bit more complicated. Because we're dealing with people, not bees.

Spoiled for choice

Consumers, spoiled for choice, are switching to brands outside of what was normally considered rational.

Who would have thought that one of the biggest competitors to Castle Lager or Coca-Cola would be the Lotto. Why? Because the choice is not between Beer A and Beer B, or even between Beer A and Soft Drink B, but rather what to spend one's disposable income on to maximise one's perceived 'value-solution'.

Who would have thought that a competitor to a fine piece of jewellery may actually be a luxury cruise around the Greek Isles? No longer are we simply comparing flowers with flowers.

Many companies have focused their marketing around their product offering, and have been drawn into the tactics trap where marketing strategy is defined by the tactics needed to promote a company's current product. A true marketing-orientated approach means understanding the shifts in the 'value-solution' needs of the customer base. The value-solution is that thing that satisfies a need, and that need may be simply emotional.

The jewellery gift versus a Greek Isles cruise may cost exactly the same, but the perceived emotional satisfaction of a husband giving his wife a birthday bauble may be better served by the island cruise at that particular time. The need may be for a husband to give his wife a high-status present - the need is not actually for a piece of jewellery.

If the marketing department is acting tactically based on the product offering, the marketing plan will almost inevitably not be based on a strategic value-solution, and the only differentiator will be reduced eventually to price. These companies will become the carcasses of the future, however successful they may be today.

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