How to Elevate the Influence of the Marketing Function

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Many marketers believe that the marketing function in most companies doesn't have as much influence as it should have. In my last two posts (here and here), I discussed why this circumstance developed, and I argued that one of the main causes was the rise of strategy as a business discipline.

Over the past five decades, strategy development has become the dominant process senior business leaders use to create their gameplan for success. Developing a complete business strategy requires company leaders to make several decisions involving customers, competitors, and other market-related factors. 

As a result, the strategy development process essentially transformed a number of "marketing" issues into "strategy" issues.

So, how can marketing leaders increase the influence of the marketing function under these circumstances? To accomplish this goal, the marketing function must perform two core tasks effectively.

• It must create and run programs that support the company's chosen business strategy.

• It must provide the company's senior leaders information and insights that can enable them to make sound strategic choices.

At first glance, these tasks may seem obvious, but they are more nuanced than they first appear. And when they are done properly, they will boost the influence of the marketing function.

I'll discuss the first task in this post, and I'll cover the second task in my next post.

Job 1 - Run Programs That Support Company Strategy

The first job of the marketing function in any company is to create and execute marketing programs that support the company's chosen strategy.

This job may seem easy to understand, but what does "support" the strategy actually mean in operational terms? How can we determine that any marketing program meets the "support" requirement?

In my last post, I introduced the strategy framework developed by Roger Martin, one of today's leading authorities on business strategy. Martin describes strategy as the answers to the five interrelated questions shown in the following illustration:

The answers to these questions constitute the five core elements of a complete business strategy.

• "What is our winning aspiration?" - A description of what strategic success looks like for the company.

• "Where will we play?" - A description of the company's target market.

• "How will we win?" - A description of how the company will deliver distinct and superior value to its target customers.

• "What capabilities must be in place?" - A description of the activities the company must excel at performing to be successful with its "where-to-play" and "how-to-win" choices.

• "What management systems are required?" - A description of the management and measurement systems the company needs to support its other strategic choices.

Martin has also written that the primary job of a company's functional units (e.g. marketing, human resources, manufacturing, etc.) is to provide the essential capabilities and the required management systems identified in the company's strategy.

Martin's approach is useful for marketers because it establishes boundaries or "guardrails" for marketing plans, and helps ensure that marketing programs actually support the company's strategy.

For example, this approach requires that:

• Every marketing communication program should be specifically designed to reach, or create engagement with, potential buyers in the target market(s) identified in the company's strategy.

• All marketing communication programs should describe and present the value provided by the company's products or services in ways that are aligned with the "how-to-win" element of the company's strategy.

• The metrics used to measure the effectiveness of marketing programs should be designed to measure performance in the target market(s) identified in the company's strategy.

The credibility and influence of the marketing function are enhanced when this task is performed well, and when the senior marketing leader effectively communicates the rationale for marketing's activities to the CEO and other senior company leaders.

Performing this job well demonstrates to the CEO and other senior executives that the senior marketing leader and the other members of the marketing team understand the company's strategy and are applying their marketing expertise to make the company's strategy successful.