The need for good governance applies across businesses, not-for-profit organisations and government, as it ensures the right information is available to make informed decisions that have a positive impact on growth and sustainability.
Most areas of an organisation, including HR and IT, embed good governance, yet it remains conspicuously absent from marketing.
Brand, Risk and Reputation: Managing Marketing Governance.
What are the consequences caused by a lack of marketing governance? Higher risks, higher costs and a poorer return from marketing.
This is why we are redefining marketing, through our Marketing Governance Framework and why we partnered with the Governance Institute of Australia to deliver our workshop on Marketing Governance, exploring brand, risk and reputation.
We guided participants through the five pillars of Good Marketing Governance:
- Strategic alignment, delivering marketing outcomes that impact organisational goals.
- Risk considerations, to minimise uncertainties and manage marketing activities.
- Financial rigour, managing marketing budgets by purpose and desired outcomes, to measure return.
- Roles and responsibilities, providing clearly defined requirements with measurable position descriptions.
- Accountability and metrics, measuring the chain of activities from initial inputs into outputs and the desired marketing outcomes.
Several case studies provided context on the damage caused by a failure in Marketing Governance, including CPA failing to manage stakeholder risk, Woolworths inappropriately delegating strategic insights and the Victorian Taxi Association measuring the wrong outcomes.
The failure of marketing is evident, with it often being the first role to experience downsizing during economic uncertainty, although its core purpose is to deliver value. The marketing profession, which proclaims to deliver value, has failed to demonstrate its own value.
Meanwhile, marketing related failures, including a lack of customer insights and understanding competitive pressures, are responsible for up to 44% of business failures. Woolworths, through its ill-fated Masters Hardware Stores, is an example of failing to understand customer segments, resulting in poor product selection, mismatched communications and an inability to secure tradespeople as key accounts. The result? Total costs of $3 billion, and reputational damage.
Alex Makin facilitating our Brand, Reputation and Risk Workshop on Marketing Governance.
Marketing must provide the ability for organisations to become market facing by coalescing internal capabilities and market needs – this is why Marketing needs to incorporate Governance.
Each workshop participant has a copy of the presentation, but if you would like to view the slides, please complete our marketing governance survey at www.synekamarketing.com.au/assessing-marketing-governance
