Many buyers see marketing automation and email marketing software as synonymous, but they're not. Lauren Carlson shows how to pick the right tool for the job.
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An In-Depth, Participatory Research Into Marketing Resource Management and Thai Retail
We take our work serious. If somebody asks, ‘What does Marketing Resource Management look like in Thailand?’ we just have to go there to find out ourselves. We conducted an in-depth study of local marketing strategies. The preliminary results suggest a remarkable standardization of retail strategies and communications, paired with a highly flexible and adaptive approach to demand. The raw data can be found below, compaired and contrasted with MRMLOGIQ‘s publication Marketing Resource Management: The Noble Art of Getting Things Done in Marketing. Efficiently.
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MRM According to BrandMaker
‘It’s not the easiest time to be a marketer – but it’s not the hardest either.’ A new marketing automation software vendor video, by BrandMaker this time. The German-based company focuses on the ‘do more for less’ approach to Marketing Resource Management. To BrandMaker, MRM is ‘the clever use of information and technology to manage marketing workflows, brand assets, communication activities and service providers in ways that save money and shorten time-to-market.’ Their video certainly makes it all look very easy.
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A New Model for Marketers
Major brand owners should consider replacing current “sprawling” marketing structures with coordinated “centres of expertise” reflecting their changing needs, Booz & Co has argued.
The consultancy suggests that existing ‘decentralised’ marketing functions lead to wasted expenditure, alongside making it harder to take a holistic view and develop new capabilities in areas like social media. It thus proposes forming ‘centres of expertise’ with capabilities covering all communications activity which can be leveraged across the whole company. Early adopters of this model have seen efficiency gains of 15–20%. Read More…
Adaptive Marketers Perform Better
Adaptive marketers perform better in sales, customer satisfaction and innovation, according to a recent study. Yet the research also revealed that 78% of marketing leaders are having difficulty transforming their companies into ones that can adapt to evolving market conditions and technologies. These are some of the findings of a study by Forrester, in collaboration with the CMO Club, among 81 U.S. CMOs and marketing leaders.
Based on composite survey scores, the researchers classified marketers into four groups:
- Inflexible marketers. (22%) They are bound by a rigid and complacent company culture, where defying convention is frowned on.
- Restricted marketers. (56%) They have made some progress in building adaptive organizations and processes, but they can’t get their companies to commit to a revised vision.
- Progressive marketers. (16%) They’ve made significant strides toward becoming more agile and nimble by building a collaborative culture and a networked organization.
- Adaptive marketers. (5%) They have the vision to transform the company’s culture, structure and practices, and they’ve gained executive support to redefine the mission and role of the marketing function.
The Accountability of Ideas
As proponents of simplicity, accountability, structure and management, Marketing Operations professionals like to know where they stand. That starts with the basic scientific principle of defining the terms you use, so everybody is on the same page when you’re discussing complicated matters. Infographics website Information is Beautiful is taking this idea to extremes and presents its working model of a scale of ideas, measured against an x-axis of functionality, and a y-axis of conceptuality. Where does the idea for this chart score? Is it silly, funny, clever, or simply beautiful?
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MRM according to Orbis
You have a product, know the market, you know who your customers are, and you know where your message should end up. Now what? Grant Halloran, CEO of software vendor Orbis, gives his take on what Marketing Resource Management is (‘a big kinda conceptual thing’), and what it does. Halloran explains how MRM helps manage the planning, development and execution of projects and campaigns – covering every aspect of a campaign, from message to receiver. It’s interesting to see this vendor’s take on the still developing field of Marketing Resource Management.
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Warc Conference: Measuring Advertising Performance 2012
It’s still a little while off, but probably worth clearing some space in your schedule for: Warc’s Measuring Advertising Performance conference, which will be held March 27th and 28th 2012 in London.
Featuring talks by speakers from Coca-Cola, Specsavers and Kantar, the MAP conference tackles communications measurement and evaluation from the perspective of three inter-related fields: clients, agencies, and media owners:
- Clients have traditionally taken the lead in owning data and commissioning research to help shape their performance and planning.
- Increasingly, agencies are using less industry-standard data and are taking a stand based on trading media across many media channels, new and old. Consider the data thrown off from that trading, blended with the core agency skills of understanding and predicting consumer behavior… and it’s clear that the major media agency networks are becoming increasingly powerful.
- Media owners, too, are building data positions based on new platforms for their content, proprietary research and deep, two-way relationships with their audiences. Read More…
Neolane Lands $27 Million Investment
Conversational marketing technology vendor Neolane has announced that it has closed a $27 million financing round with Battery Ventures, who already pumped $50 million into revenue performance management (RPM) software provider Marketo last November. Neolane announced the funding will be used to expand the company’s presence in the global marketing technology industry, particularly in North America, by bolstering its own sales, marketing and product development efforts.
Battery Ventures Vice President, Morad Elhafed, said:
Neolane has successfully carved out an impressive footprint within the marketing technology space. We are optimistic about Neolane’s expansion goals and the overall future growth trajectory of this category. Read More…
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing
Last week we mentioned that inbound marketing is on the rise. In an increasingly social marketing environment, inbound marketing is the next big thing. And budgets for inbound marketing are going up, so we can expect this form of marketing to continue to grow more important over the coming year. Still a bit uncertain about the difference between inbound and outbound marketing? Voltier Digital have made an infographic illustrating the two kinds. According to the chart, inbound marketing is the holy grail marketers have been looking for. After all, who wouldn’t want the customer to come to them instead of the other way around? Here’s how Voltier sees it:
The days of annoying consumers with intrusive advertising and marketing tactics are fading. The new age of inbound marketing is about providing added value and earning customer loyalty, instead of simply pounding a message into consumers’ heads and hoping it will stick.
Click the image to view the full chart!
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MRM According to IBM
Now that the MRM in 60 Seconds series has been completed, we’ve been looking at other videos explaining Marketing Resource Management. IBM, one of the marketing automation software vendors from our list, created this short video simply saying marketers can ‘do more for less’ with an MRM system in place. Implementing an MRM solution can reduce project cycle times, increase output using the same resources, and improve compliance with legal and brand requirements, to name just a few positive effects. This video also emphasises the control an MRM system offers: transparency and accountability, at all levels of the marketing organization.
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