Some marketing departments may be side-stepping silos and learning to collaborate with other corporate departments, but they’re still in the minority, according to The Marketing Society’s Business Leader panel. The research suggests that, finally, some marketers are becoming less insular and beginning to involve the rest of the company in brand building and management.
Only 40% of clients questioned said they played a crucial role across their entire organisation to champion customers; while just 30% of agencies agreed that their clients’ marketing had a major influence in helping an organisation understand customers and shape products or services.
Agency: What role does your (clients') marketing play in influencing the whole organisation to understand their customers and shape the products services.
Client: What role does your marketing play in influencing the whole organisation to understand their customers and shape the products services.
One business leader from the agency side pointed out that marketers need to champion customers as part of their remit: “They need to push the information out so that the whole organisation understands who the customer is.” This sentiment is reflected in The Marketing Society’s Manifesto which advocates a new role for marketers as customer champions, business innovators and growth drivers.
Similarly, marketing departments are failing to embrace new techniques when analysing their customers. Most marketers identify their most valuable customers through monetary value. Over half of interviewed agencies (55.9%) revealed that their clients judged customers in this way, compared to 40% of clients. In contrast, very few marketers identify valuable customers in terms of recommendation or word-of-mouth despite the mushrooming importance of social networking and peer influence among consumers.
A mere 7% of interviewed clients agreed that they analysed customer value in terms of the degree to which they recommended the brand to others. Similarly, one quarter of agencies questioned agreed that their clients valued customers in terms of recommendation.
Agency: How do they identify their most valuable customers?
Client: How do they identify their most valuable customers?
Finally, there was an interesting discrepancy between agencies and clients on the subject of customer loyalty. While over half (53%) of questioned clients were clear that their primary focus was customer retention, 63% of agencies believed that their clients’ focus was customer acquisition.
This disparity between agencies and clients could be because of one of two reasons. Either clients do not brief agencies on customer retention and loyalty issues preferring to deal with this complex issue themselves, or agencies prefer to focus on the more glamourous challenge of attracting new customers rather than satisfying existing ones.
This is the first data from The Marketing Society’s Business Panel, which consists of around 300 Business Leader members, split equally between clients and agencies. The Panel will be questioned throughout the year on relevant issues plucked from The Marketing Society’s Manifesto. The Customer Champions research was sponsored by dunnhumby. Future topics for The Marketing Society’s Business Panel include effective innovation and growth drivers.
