Marketing Briefs

Marketing 2010: Drive Efficiencies By Thinking Global

Marketing leaders at larger enterprises doing business globally can drive further efficiencies in their 2010 marketing budgets by putting in place the right frameworks to foster global planning and concepting. This isn't easy since there exists territorial attitudes related to budgets and staff that "sit" outside the corporate office in regions around the world. This happens even if there is a "solid line" reporting relationship from the regional marketing leaders and teams to the corporate CMO because the allegiance to the local market leader is usually strong.

However, that shouldn't stop global CMOs on insisting on driving global concepting and planning for as many initiatives as appropriate. One way to do this is to work closely with your financial officer counterpart to demonstrate how this will save the corporation money, while delivering a more consistent global approach to customers, prospects and partners. The power of the purse will help make this an imperative for 2010 but ensuring budget dollars for concepting key global programs are removed from regional budgets.

Now I'm not suggesting that there are not specific differences region-by-region that can all be captured by a one size fits all approach. There are, however, many programs that can be concepted and planned centrally and then simply localized. Most companies consider this with basic collateral, business communications and global events, but do not look at how this concept can be driven (with some extra work and pre-planning) through most of the marketing programs a company executes.

I've found the key to success is to institute central planning and execution with a dose of local programs and execution that happens in each region. I've established global strategy teams made up of the senior leaders of the corporate marketing functions, regional marketing heads and a representative from each major external agency partner. I've typically branded these internally, "TeamGevity" or "TeamIomega" for example, and have created a sense of mission and purpose. This way it hasn't turned out to be "corporate" trying to execute one program for every market but a global team planning the major initiatives to eliminate waste and local market re-work. This idea isn't that much different than Ford trying to create several global car platforms versus having every car in every region using all different components.

This "embrace and extend" approach has served me and my teams well at multiple companies. We've planned and strategized on all programs that could be used across regions. The regions would then "embrace" these corporate programs, "extending" them as appropriate into their local markets. Additionally, these would be supplemented with region-specific programs and lead generation programs where a global, corporate program wouldn't make sense.

While the real reason to aim for this approach is to deliver better marketing, a side benefit will be reduced cost to your company. And in this economic environment, that's a real win for marketing.

Physical and Virtual Events Converge

Incorporating a virtual event component concurrent with a physical event is an attractive and cost-effective way to capture more audience participation at your event. Purely standalone physical events have been disappearing for years due to economic downturns, tightening T&E budgets and the ability for anyone to spare enough time to travel to a physical event location.

In fact, an even bigger factor to consider is the cost for a company sponsoring an event to get all of their executives and other presenters in one location at one time. Many companies, maybe even your company, has dropped most of your events and are doing webinars. While this is one way to engage with your target audience, it doesn’t incorporate the networking and community feel of an event.

There are a number of excellent virtual event platforms out there but I recently viewed the demo for Cramer Digital’s Event Hub virtual platform. It’s six minutes and definitely demonstrates how easy it is to integrate a virtual component with your physical event. (http://www.cramereventmedia.com/vblast/EventHub/EventHub.html).

I also like the idea for global corporations to leverage a virtual/digital event platform for launching new products simultaneously in multiple markets. Perhaps the physical event is held in the region where the “push” for the product service is strongest and the virtual event is marketed extensively to include attendees from other regions.  Also, integrating social media between both the physical and virtual event environments extends the reach of the event to networks of social networks.

With budgets continuing to tighten and driving the best ROI a “must-do” instead of just a “goal,” implementing a virtual event strategy in your marketing mix should be top on your list for 2010.