Marketing As Strategy: Understanding the CEO's Agenda for Driving Growth and Innovation 
asked by bookworks on November 8, 2006 8:27 PM
In economic downturns, the marketing budget is often the first to get slashed. Why? Because many CEOs believe that marketing is unable to deliver results where it counts: the bottom line.
Nirmalya Kumar argues that marketing’s future depends on altering its function and mindset to address the burning questions CEOs care about most. Kumar, who counsels top executives at multinational corporations, challenges marketers to change their role from tactical implementers of traditional marketing functions—like advertising and promotion—to strategic coordinators of organization-wide, transformational initiatives aimed at profitably delivering value to customers.
Kumar outlines seven strategy-focused, cross-functional, and bottom-line oriented initiatives that can put marketing back on the CEO’s agenda—and elevate its role in shaping the destiny of the firm.
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Marketing as Strategy follows the assumption that marketers have lost their seat at the big table because they no longer address the heavy strategic lifting in their respective companies. This may or may not be true. A good bit of the financial bent in most publicly held companies may have to do with the extreme pressures provided by SOX and related corporate governance issues in the post-Enron business landscape. As a result, most CEO's aren't marketers outside of marketing-driven industries.
However, the book is a good refresher for newly minted MBA's working for consumer packaged goods manufacturers. If this isn't you, just read chapter 7 on `market drivers', which is good reinforcement for anyone in early stage companies.
The premise is a good one - marketers can retake their place in the boardroom and executive suite and live more fulfilled professional lives. However, the suggestions given are positioned as inviolate rules. This assumption is incorrect. The idea that one should grow channels of distribution, not shrink them, is interesting but entirely dependent on factors specific to your industry and company. This clearly isn't an absolute. However, there are some good reminders to be studied here and the case studies are relatively fresh.
The seven big ideas are presented in chapters 2 through 8.
Chapter 2: From Market Segments to Strategic Segments: good thinking on ensuring your brand or company is focused on real differentiation from the ground up, not from the ad copy outwards. This is one of the better chapters.
Chapter 3: From Selling Products to Selling Solutions: it's a bit specious to say that `people don't buy power drills, they buy holes.' Actually, people buy power drills. They want holes. There are many ways to make a hole, one of which is by using a power drill, and one of those drills could be yours. Or not. Maybe they will buy your competitors' product instead. Ball bearing manufacturers might want to focus on being the best ball bearing manufacturers possible and not try to make motors. There is a kernel of truth here - know your customer, provide solutions to their problems, and differentiate yourself on these parameters - but the risk is that by taking too broad an interpretation, focus can be lost.
Chapter 4: From Declining to Growing Distribution Channels: not necessarily so. There are plenty of over-distributed products out there. There is also a huge amount of hype over `new' distribution options that fade over time. This is an over-statement. The chapter does provide a very good framework for analyzing channels, however.
Chapter 5: From Branded Bulldozers to Global Distribution Partners: a good read if you're working for a multinational corporation faced with global account issues. However, the `before' picture in branded bulldozers still has a lot of merit. This is not an adequate `before/after' comparison, as a result. You can be a good global distribution partner and still drive your agenda a la branded bulldozer.
Chapter 6: From Brand Acquisitions to Brand Rationalization: a good read if you're working for P&G, GM (you have my sympathies), or other brand-driven consumer company. Focus your brand strength. Mom and Apple Pie chapter.
Chapter 7: From Market-Driven to Market-Driving: this is great, as long as you're right. Don't focus on what your customers want, tell them what they want. "If we'd listened to our customers, we would have given them a faster horse", says Ford. And I think it was Andy Grove who said something along the lines of, "who cares what customers think - we haven't told them what to think." If you're right, you're in great shape. If you ignore your market, you might still be right. If you're wrong, you look very foolish. So good luck with this one.
Chapter 8: From Strategic Business Unit Marketing to Corporate Marketing: not necessarily so, again. There are as many reasons to decentralize as there are to centralize. Most F500 companies spend an inordinate amount of time switching back and forth between these two every few years because of corporate boredom and lack of imagination. This is not a magic bullet.
This book is a good read for those in the bulls-eye of its intended audience. It is not a general business read for marketers of all stripes in all industries. A good refresher, some good tools, but take everything you see here with a large grain of salt because these rules just don't apply to all situations as the book seems to promote.
However, the book is a good refresher for newly minted MBA's working for consumer packaged goods manufacturers. If this isn't you, just read chapter 7 on `market drivers', which is good reinforcement for anyone in early stage companies.
The premise is a good one - marketers can retake their place in the boardroom and executive suite and live more fulfilled professional lives. However, the suggestions given are positioned as inviolate rules. This assumption is incorrect. The idea that one should grow channels of distribution, not shrink them, is interesting but entirely dependent on factors specific to your industry and company. This clearly isn't an absolute. However, there are some good reminders to be studied here and the case studies are relatively fresh.
The seven big ideas are presented in chapters 2 through 8.
Chapter 2: From Market Segments to Strategic Segments: good thinking on ensuring your brand or company is focused on real differentiation from the ground up, not from the ad copy outwards. This is one of the better chapters.
Chapter 3: From Selling Products to Selling Solutions: it's a bit specious to say that `people don't buy power drills, they buy holes.' Actually, people buy power drills. They want holes. There are many ways to make a hole, one of which is by using a power drill, and one of those drills could be yours. Or not. Maybe they will buy your competitors' product instead. Ball bearing manufacturers might want to focus on being the best ball bearing manufacturers possible and not try to make motors. There is a kernel of truth here - know your customer, provide solutions to their problems, and differentiate yourself on these parameters - but the risk is that by taking too broad an interpretation, focus can be lost.
Chapter 4: From Declining to Growing Distribution Channels: not necessarily so. There are plenty of over-distributed products out there. There is also a huge amount of hype over `new' distribution options that fade over time. This is an over-statement. The chapter does provide a very good framework for analyzing channels, however.
Chapter 5: From Branded Bulldozers to Global Distribution Partners: a good read if you're working for a multinational corporation faced with global account issues. However, the `before' picture in branded bulldozers still has a lot of merit. This is not an adequate `before/after' comparison, as a result. You can be a good global distribution partner and still drive your agenda a la branded bulldozer.
Chapter 6: From Brand Acquisitions to Brand Rationalization: a good read if you're working for P&G, GM (you have my sympathies), or other brand-driven consumer company. Focus your brand strength. Mom and Apple Pie chapter.
Chapter 7: From Market-Driven to Market-Driving: this is great, as long as you're right. Don't focus on what your customers want, tell them what they want. "If we'd listened to our customers, we would have given them a faster horse", says Ford. And I think it was Andy Grove who said something along the lines of, "who cares what customers think - we haven't told them what to think." If you're right, you're in great shape. If you ignore your market, you might still be right. If you're wrong, you look very foolish. So good luck with this one.
Chapter 8: From Strategic Business Unit Marketing to Corporate Marketing: not necessarily so, again. There are as many reasons to decentralize as there are to centralize. Most F500 companies spend an inordinate amount of time switching back and forth between these two every few years because of corporate boredom and lack of imagination. This is not a magic bullet.
This book is a good read for those in the bulls-eye of its intended audience. It is not a general business read for marketers of all stripes in all industries. A good refresher, some good tools, but take everything you see here with a large grain of salt because these rules just don't apply to all situations as the book seems to promote.
reviewed by glenn11 on November 20, 2006 3:23 AM
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This is so buzzword laden, I really couldn't make out what the guy was driving at. I abandoned it midway through the first chapter.
reviewed by ivan on November 25, 2006 4:27 PM
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We live in a service economy but pump our own gas. Customer Service keeps us on hold, is rude, clueless.
After 20 years, ATMs still ask the same 8 questions and repeatedly quiz longstanding customers Dinunzio, Johnson, Goldberg, Yoon and Krzykowky if we want to speak Spanish! CRM must stand for Can't Remember Me...
Zero-defect products are now expected. Loyalty is nil. From a features/function standpoint, product differentiation is less than .0001% - IBM, Dell, HP, Sun all have fast boxes. BMW, SAAB, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi all make great cars.
So how do companies capture customers? Create Value? Win?
Kumar addreses how marketing can help CEOs solve these and other problems with customer focus integrated into all functions, sound strategy and crisp tactics. Plus he has a plan to get to that transformational golden chalice - culture change that moves companies from what they sell to what they solve.
Kumar taught for years at IMD in Lausanne, the delux advanced management institute on the lake. Though the setting was sublime, he tackled gritty and immediate issues working with active Fortune 500 execs whose challenges were hardly "academic". Kumar shows his chops here by getting to the point, being crisp and focusing on linking marketing to value. Just what CEOs needs to hear... Well done!
After 20 years, ATMs still ask the same 8 questions and repeatedly quiz longstanding customers Dinunzio, Johnson, Goldberg, Yoon and Krzykowky if we want to speak Spanish! CRM must stand for Can't Remember Me...
Zero-defect products are now expected. Loyalty is nil. From a features/function standpoint, product differentiation is less than .0001% - IBM, Dell, HP, Sun all have fast boxes. BMW, SAAB, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi all make great cars.
So how do companies capture customers? Create Value? Win?
Kumar addreses how marketing can help CEOs solve these and other problems with customer focus integrated into all functions, sound strategy and crisp tactics. Plus he has a plan to get to that transformational golden chalice - culture change that moves companies from what they sell to what they solve.
Kumar taught for years at IMD in Lausanne, the delux advanced management institute on the lake. Though the setting was sublime, he tackled gritty and immediate issues working with active Fortune 500 execs whose challenges were hardly "academic". Kumar shows his chops here by getting to the point, being crisp and focusing on linking marketing to value. Just what CEOs needs to hear... Well done!
reviewed by stix on November 27, 2006 7:49 AM
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Because there are already so many excellent books on marketing (e.g. Levitt's The Marketing Imagination) and strategy (e.g. Kaplan and Norton's The Strategy-Focused Organization) now in print, why another? In fact, Kumar provides a unique and compelling analysis of the interdependence of marketing and strategy. As Philip Kotler notes In the Foreword, Kumar "introduces a framework for analyzing and planning marketing strategy in terms of the three Vs': valued customer, value proposition, and value network...[he also] proposes ways to deal with growing commoditization, price pressure, and the increasing market power of global mega-retailers...[as he strives] to show how the marketing discipline `could become more strategic, cross-functional, and bottom-line oriented' than ever before." This book will be of substantial value to all organizations (regardless of their size and nature) which are in urgent need of driving their growth and innovation.
Kumar carefully organizes his material within eight chapters whose titles indicate what each covers such as From Market Segments to Strategic Segments (for me, the most valuable chapter in this book) and From Branded Bulldozers to Global Distribution Partners (a chapter which will probably be of greatest interest to small-to-midsize companies with strategic alliances with global corporations). I agree with Peter Drucker's assertion that "the business enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs." I also agree with Warren Buffett who suggested that price is what is charged for whatever is sold; value is what the buyer thinks it's worth. As Kumar observes in the final chapter, "Marketing must prove that it is willing and ready for its leadership role in transforming the company. It must convince others of its unique capabilities, resources and skills, and its mind-set to lead -- and that it has matured as a discipline to become [as noted by Kotler] more strategic, cross-functional, and bottom-line oriented."
This book helps its reader to understand "the strategic marketplace challenges that all CEOs face today," an obhective which is especially important now when CEOs seek strategic leadership from marketers inorder to exploit new business opportunities, build strong brand and customer franchises, increase the organization's overall customer responsiveness, redefine industry distribution channels, enhance global effectiveness, and reduce such risks as industry price pressures. As Kumar suggests, "It is about marketers doing better things rather than simply doing things better." For whatever reasons (Kumar suggests several), those responsible for marketing seldom aspire to lead major transformational projects that involve cross-functional, multi-national teams sponsored by the CEO. In this volume, Kumar offers what he calls "The CEO's Marketing Manifesto" (please see Figure 1.1 on page 9) which can guide and inform transformational marketing initiatives. Indeed, his entire book coiuld well serve as an operations manual for such initiatives.
Well-done!
Kumar carefully organizes his material within eight chapters whose titles indicate what each covers such as From Market Segments to Strategic Segments (for me, the most valuable chapter in this book) and From Branded Bulldozers to Global Distribution Partners (a chapter which will probably be of greatest interest to small-to-midsize companies with strategic alliances with global corporations). I agree with Peter Drucker's assertion that "the business enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs." I also agree with Warren Buffett who suggested that price is what is charged for whatever is sold; value is what the buyer thinks it's worth. As Kumar observes in the final chapter, "Marketing must prove that it is willing and ready for its leadership role in transforming the company. It must convince others of its unique capabilities, resources and skills, and its mind-set to lead -- and that it has matured as a discipline to become [as noted by Kotler] more strategic, cross-functional, and bottom-line oriented."
This book helps its reader to understand "the strategic marketplace challenges that all CEOs face today," an obhective which is especially important now when CEOs seek strategic leadership from marketers inorder to exploit new business opportunities, build strong brand and customer franchises, increase the organization's overall customer responsiveness, redefine industry distribution channels, enhance global effectiveness, and reduce such risks as industry price pressures. As Kumar suggests, "It is about marketers doing better things rather than simply doing things better." For whatever reasons (Kumar suggests several), those responsible for marketing seldom aspire to lead major transformational projects that involve cross-functional, multi-national teams sponsored by the CEO. In this volume, Kumar offers what he calls "The CEO's Marketing Manifesto" (please see Figure 1.1 on page 9) which can guide and inform transformational marketing initiatives. Indeed, his entire book coiuld well serve as an operations manual for such initiatives.
Well-done!
reviewed by shirley49 on November 27, 2006 3:34 PM