First 100 days

(or to be more positive, a proper career plan can help you to work out what new roles are most likely to be right for you.)

I have spent much of the last 6 years or so advising and helping marketers with their career and personal development. There have been two major features that I have found running through this work. The first is that marketers are very ambitious – no surprise there, and no different to people that I have worked with from other functions. The second has been that most have had little clarity over their longer term career objectives, therefore even less clarity over how the various roles they take fit together into a coherent career plan; and this has been different from many people I have worked with in Finance and Supply Chain.

SO the first piece of work I always try and do is to identify a career objective – this does not have to be a lifetime objective but it should be sufficient to give you a perspective over 7-10 years, or 2-3 jobs. The second step I take is to work out a detailed framework of conditions around that objective – the experiences and skills it is likely to require, the commitments that must be made, the relationship between professional and personal development, compromises that must be considered, opportunities that can be created.

These two steps are important when taken together because while the objective expresses a longer term ambition and is a source of motivation, the framework gives a set of measures against which any new role can be assessed. Furthermore the framework informs on what roles should be sought out for the next or second-next step. For instance, I have worked with several aspiring and ambitious young marketers with lots of home country experience who have wanted to take on regional or even global roles at a future point. An obvious element in their framework should be to get some international experience outside of their home country – obvious, but often overlooked I have found. Furthermore, the implication of getting international experience is most probably a commitment to moving self and any partner or family away from the home country along with any compromises that this might engender. None of this is rocket science, of course, and whenever I start to do the work with individuals I tend to get the sort of “why did I not think of this before� response; but the point is all to often, that it has NOT been thought about before. In that situation, and in the absence of proper career planning, the siren call of the exciting new job tends to overwhelm sober reflection on whether any new job is in fact a step in the right career direction. On the other hand, if you are clear about the career objective and plan the framework that is going to help you achieve this objective then you are more likely than not to make the right steps for your future.

Posted by david at 6:25 PM | Permalink

The latest Verdict Report on the UK retail industry emphasises the need for increased customer focus in the current economic environment: “for the first time in UK retail history, the customer really is king and the extent of the power this gives him can be seen everyday.�

For any senior marketer taking up a job in retail at the moment, this offers an opportunity to re-establish marketing as the hub for coordinating customer insight and turning it into practical reality. Yet all too ofen they will find their ability to deliver the necessary customer focus compromised by their sphere of influence vs their sphere of control.

Influence over all marketing levers and key touchpoints of the customer experience is often limited – or at best one step removed. In our experience it is more likely to be the Buying Director that controls the product mix on shelf, and the Operations Director, or Store Manager – that has most say over the instore brand experience.

All the more need therefore for new-in-post marketers to get marketing back to the top table, and end the sidelining as 'the people who do communications'. This means recruiting internal allies who can help deliver for the customer, developing the customer insights and strategy to get buy in to a customer approach to doing business, and getting more commercially hard nosed. All of which should help ensure that the marketing department is clearly amongst the most efficient, effective, responsive and listened to in the organisation!

Here’s our top tips on how to be best in class:

1. USE THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MODEL TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE, FAST
· Don’t try to be the sole voice of the customer in the business.
· Get buy-in to a model of the complete customer journey for your business: from brand awareness, to instore experience, to purchase, and long term loyalty. Show who in your business influences which part of the journey.
· Set a vision for what a consistent customer journey should be – based on data and research evidence. How does this compare to the reality?
· Illustrate the role of different departments and teams in delivering this vision of a consistent customer experience. Get buy in and work with each of the the departments to identify and plan the changes necessary to achieve this.

2. KNOW WHO YOUR MOST VALUABLE CUSTOMERS ARE

Research has shown that despite heavy investment in loyalty schemes, Tesco and Sainsbury’s customer loyalty figures are no higher than retailers without these schemes. But what Tesco has shown is collecting the right data, and focusing on key learnings about their most valuable customers can gain higher value from existing customers AND attract more of your target customer group.
-Know who your most valuable customers are and how to keep them in an increasingly competitive environment. Is the brand proposition as strong as it can and needs to be?
-Start now to recruit the next generation of your most valuable customers – don’t let your competitors get to them first.
-And if you still have resource left, identify who your second tier of most valuable customers are, and how to get them to spend more and increase their loyalty.

3. DEMONSTRATE MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE BUSINESSES’ GOALS

· Set a wider agenda for marketing as the voice of the customer, and customer trends, becoming central in business strategy planning.
· Review all customer knowledge and insight in the context of the current and future competitive environment. Use this to set a 5 year Marketing Strategy, demonstrating in tangible value terms what each marketing thrust will deliver to the business value goal.
· Set KPIs and measure your effectiveness against this. Talk and deliver ‘return on investment’

Good luck! Let's get rid of the fluffy bunny image once and for all!

Posted by robyn at 2:52 PM | Permalink