The
attacks on marketing accountability are gaining momentum. One of the
outcomes of this increased scrutiny has been CEO’s unwilling to
continue to fund the soft, squishy marketing initiatives that do not
clearly generate a measurable ROI.
If you find yourself
in this situation, and you’re running marketing for a mid-size
enterprise or business unit, here is a different approach to gain the
support of your CEO. Frame your budget around a tactical campaign
defined by market share, profit, budget and a time frame. Most CEO’s
will react positively if you frame the budget this way:
We’re developing and will execute an attack campaign, designed to win
7% share (42% direct margins) from competitors X, Y and Z, over the
next 6 months, with a hard-dollar budget of $1.2 million.
What’s really interesting about this kind of approach is that it
requires the marketer to strictly examine and justify everything in the
budget. If it doesn’t contribute to share gain and profit margin within
the campaign time period, it gets tossed. And it’s critical you use the words attack, execute,
campaign, profit, share, etc. CEO’s are tuning out the soft fuzzy stuff.
Learn how to wage and win battles for market share. Download the free PDF preview of the Art of Attack. Just click to get the PDF. There are no forms to fill out, you don’t need to leave your email
address. No annoying questions to answer. Just click and get your PDF.