Iain Ellwood - Marketing for Growth: The Role of Marketers in Driving Revenues and Profits

MARKETING FOR GROWTH

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Published by Profile Books Ltd

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The Economist in Association with Profile Books Ltd. and PublicAffairs

Copyright The Economist Newspaper Ltd, 2014

Text copyright Iain Ellwood, 2014

First published in 2014 by Profile Books Ltd. in Great Britain.

Published in 2014 in the United States by PublicAffairs, a Member of the Perseus Books Group

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954402

ISBN 978-1-61039-397-3 (PB orig.)

ISBN 978-1-61039-398-0 (EB)

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Hannah

Contents

Acknowledgements

MANY PEOPLE HAVE HELPED make this book possible.

First, I would like to thank those who have helped shape my thinking and been a source of much support and advice over the years: my parents, Jan and Robert Ellwood, my brothers, Andrew and Peter, Raymond Blanc, Simona Botti, Charlie Colquhoun, Paul Crisford, Simon Crisford, Morag Cuddeford-Jones, Jack Fraser, Adrian Furnham, Alastair Kingsland, David Martin, Noel Penrose, Evgeniya Petrova, Alistair Robinson, Kirsty Ross, Teresa Schrezenmaier and Grant Usmar.

I have worked with many business leaders to whom I am grateful for their expertise and experiences, including John Allert, Fred Brown, Rita Clifton, Isabelle M. Conner, Julian Dailly, Gabor Dani, Adi Godrej, Dominic Grounsell, Tiffany Hall, Chris Kersebergen, Larry Light, Andy Milligan, Geraldine OConnell, Clare Salmon, Simon Scoot, Simon Smith and David Still. I also owe a special debt to Frances Frei, UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management at Harvard Business School, whose teaching inspired me to champion brand marketing as a more effective way to generate profitable business growth.

On the publishing side, Stephen Brough and Penny Williams made all the difference with their clear and patient guidance. Thanks to them and everyone at Profile Books.

Most of all I would like to thank my wife, Hannah, to whom this book is dedicated, and without whose support and love I could not have written a word.

Iain Ellwood

November 2013

Introduction

MARKETING IS THE STRUCTURED PROCESS of targeting and engaging new and current customers in order to generate sales. Marketers, therefore, play a crucial role in generating revenue and they can play an equally important role in how revenues translate into profit. This is a guide to how marketers can improve their commercial focus and become more influential drivers of business growth. Businesses grow by becoming better at what they do, and by being smarter or more efficient, and this involves developing and improving products, processes, people and standards of service. Part of the marketing role is to pick up on changing customer needs and behaviour and the forces at play in markets and to do so ahead of the competition. If marketers do this well, they will increase their businesss prospects for growth, and their influence and impact within the business.

This book focuses on the role of marketers and the tools and methods available to them in identifying and achieving profitable growth. It puts marketing and marketers at the commercial heart of a business with responsibility for strengthening the links between a businesss operations and its customers. It examines each part of the growth life cycle, starting with the use of analytics to define the financial size of the prize and to measure the impact of marketing. It explains how to identify the more potentially rewarding customer targets, define more relevant and differentiated customer propositions, and make sure that employees deliver what is promised and that customers become greater advocates for the brand. It reinforces the need for marketing activities to be directly underpinned by strong commercial financial outcomes.

For marketers tired of being viewed by some as a cost, the challenge is to take more responsibility for the commercial results of the company. By becoming more financially fluent as well as more accountable and responsible for the commercial outcomes, they will gain greater authority and influence. This may require the development of new skills as well as an attitudinal shift, whereby they see themselves and behave as asset managers making investment and return decisions.

About this book

Each chapter is designed to stand on its own, and together the ten chapters are intended to form a convenient handbook of insights, methods, frameworks and tools for marketers to help them drive growth in their organisations. The chapters deal with the following:

1 Customer value management describes the importance of linking marketing activities with commercial outcomes and outlines the main ways that marketing can increase revenues and profits.

2 Return on investment: measurement and analytics defines the many different ways to statistically quantify the effectiveness of marketing activities and help predict future returns. The huge amount of customer data that is now available means marketers can make fact-based decisions about new business growth opportunities; prioritise which will deliver the best financial returns and decide how to best spend their marketing budgets.