QUESTION: Marketing has become more data intensive, real-time and highly targeted, and you seem to thrive in this environment. Where did you learn to see marketing through the lens of ROI? Was it the time you spent in direct marketing side? What advice would you give to others in terms of career path?
I mentor college-age business and marketing students, and I also mentor fellow marketing executives who want an objective party involved to listen and guide them. One thing I make clear with everyone is that marketing professionals must have a plan to measure everything they do. It takes work and time to develop the measurement process that may be right for your company, but it is critical to proving your effectiveness and how efficient you are.
When asking for marketing dollars, you should not be considered as an "expense" but should be considered a tool for driving revenue and production - just as a banker or branch is. When you can quantify your incremental contribution to the company, just as a sales person does, and then you can improve the credibility of and necessity for marketing.
You will have to educate your fellow executives as it isn't a "simple math problem," but it is worth the effort to eventually see someone from Technology or Finance defend marketing spend and need!
In terms of advice to others - follow your passion. Mine always has been marketing. Understanding how to make an impact and influence an outcome is interesting. You have to understand, not only your product or company, but the prospect and customer. I think marketing is more important than ever before to companies’ successes. There are more options for customers and prospects and marketing can work to differentiate a company from all others.
QUESTION: Big data and real-time marketing insights have shaken up the marketing discipline, as a marketer who has embraced this transformation, how does this change your internal marketing operations? How does it change the way you work with agencies?
First, these changes are very important. It is equally important to understand what you can do now and what you should plan for in the future and how to begin. For us, planning and developing a blueprint for the future for a marketing technology stack we actually were able to uncover data that existed throughout our company that perhaps we did not have access to, but should be using.
By taking advantage of these immediate insights we are able to develop Near-Term Wins during what is a lengthy process to transform our marketing technology, processes, organization and programs. Within the development of this blueprint, it became evident that there had to be changes to our marketing processes and organization. This includes examining the simplest of processes to the most complex. It also involves introspection on our current organization and skill sets.
Just as you would with a technology plan, you must layout an organizational plan that includes new skills sets needed for the future. The good news is that this is not a "big bang" type of project. Changes are evolutionary, not revolutionary, and can be transitioned into the company and the budgets.
Regarding our agencies, we made a big time investment with our agencies a few years ago to develop what is now called the, "AIT," or Agency Integration Team. The strategists from each agency work together on the behalf of Regions. I don't see this changing. I have seen that the data and measurement agencies have taken on a new role in guiding our other agency partners in the planning process, which is encouraging. We think all plans should be based on informed inputs and our data and measurement agencies work with us on these inputs.
I do see one change in the near future: the development of and AIT Executive Team, which may be one step removed from the larger group. The goal of the AIT Executive Team is to develop guiding inputs at a higher, more strategic level based on external experience and internal insights. This is something I have thought about for the last year, and think 2015 should be the kick-off year for this executive team which should include the CIOs or CEOs of the agencies we work with.
QUESTION: Does the data make you more customer-centric or less so? What do you do to keep a clear sight on serving the customer?
The most important thing is to not become overwhelmed by the amount of data. Start by understanding what you do today and how to improve that. Then, what gaps should you be filling that may be easily accomplished by a fresh look at your marketing objectives and business goals. Also, understand where big data on a targeted segment or product, etc. may be the first step versus boiling the ocean.
Customer-centricity is key to everything we do. All marketing objectives should be about engaging the customer and developing a trusted relationship versus just selling a product. I am fortunate to work for a company, Regions, that understands this and has internal programs to drive this customer focus.
From a marketing perspective, this is also an evolution for us. To understand what data to use when and how and most importantly how is best for the customer. Our goal is to add value to the customer experience through our marketing, and to demonstrate to prospects and customers how Regions adds value in helping them make better financial decisions.
QUESTION: If you have all the marketing leaders you want to meet in the same room, what topics do you want to discuss with them?
I would like to understand if they have a multi-year road map for the evolution of their marketing department and where they see their marketing organization in 3 and 5 years. I would like to know how they attract and keep smart, young marketers engaged with their organization.
From a marketing standpoint, I would be very interested in their process for developing marketing for their company, and how they interact with the sales organization. Also, what do they think their incremental contribution to production is and what should it be. What was the biggest oversight they made in the last year, and what most excites them about the future?
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