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White Paper | Marketing
The Case for Marketing Resource Management
Companies must search for creative solutions
that can transform their marketing execution
and management processes.
by Naveen K. Jain and Marianne Seiler
Accenture
s global companies continue to expand their brands and marketing requirements, the instances of miscommunication, poor execution, and misspent marketing funds can increase many times. Most
marketers would lose a lot of sleep as they considered the marketing
problems of any large company – say, a Procter & Gamble, which has
approximately 250 brands in 130 countries. If the U.S. managers for a
P&G brand develop a creative way to launch a new product, their
counterparts in Asia may have no easy way to get the necessary
marketing information. In fact, they may end up reinventing the
wheel in their local territories. Marketing teams are frequently
involved in such wasteful efforts and often, because of time pressures,
approve marketing programs without proper due diligence.
Moreover, Global 1000 companies are finding that their marketing
expenses seem to know no limits. All told, these companies devoted
$910 billion in 2001 to marketing spend, allocating an additional $268
billion to producing and managing the marketing output. By 2003,
that output is expected to surpass $1 trillion. Why so much money?
Why is the marketing spend ever on the increase? The answers lie
predominantly in the rapidly changing global marketplace and the
rise of technology.
For one thing, customers have grown a lot more sophisticated,
thanks in large part to technology, and their loyalty to particular
brands or companies can no longer be taken for granted. Fierce competition continues to drive companies to earmark more resources to
their marketing efforts, despite a decline in marketing productivity.
This equation forces marketing organizations to demonstrate greater
financial accountability, become more creative in setting strategy,
exercise greater flexibility, and provide a more rapid response to
changes in the marketing arena. They are pressured to better
integrate the message and the medium in every marketing effort,
however local or global it may be.
The most promising solution to marketing’s problems appears in
the form of marketing resource management (MRM). Nowadays it
can be called by any number of names, including enterprise
resource management (ERM) and marketing process management
(MPM), but whatever name is used, the objective is still the same.
Simply defined, marketing resource management seeks to integrate
all aspects of marketing across the diverse spectrum of activities –
from planning, developing, and executing to assessing every marketing campaign, team member, communication, and tangible
result. By means of this integration, managers take the chaos out of
marketing, which has heretofore been excused from accountability
because the process has been deemed to be creative and subjective.
A
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What used to be the province of finance and supply-chain areas has
now been extended to the very people who have traditionally prided
themselves on their creativity and their exclusion from answering to
the same requirements to be financially responsible.
MRM can keep tight reins on runaway expenditures and make
sure that everyone who participates in the marketing effort, whether
internal or external to the organization, has access to the data and
knowledge she needs, whenever or wherever it is needed.
Furthermore, MRM insists that managers take full responsibility for
the financial management of the entire marketing portfolio, that
they ensure the execution is timely and profitable, and that they set
rigorous measures for performance.
Searching for a “Deep” Solution
Researchers at Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change
interviewed numerous chief marketing officers across a variety of
industries and business units to uncover the primary obstacles to
improving marketing effectiveness and efficiency. The survey
revealed four key problem areas:
1. Inefficiency – Recent environmental changes have left
marketing managers with little time or resources to focus on
building clarity and consistency of marketing efforts across
the enterprise. Pilots conducted among consumer goods and
consumer electronics companies demonstrate that $30
million to $70 million in annual benefits could be realized by
enhancing the productivity of marketing teams, eliminating
redundancy across various internal and external participants,
and increasing the speed to market of new initiatives.
2. Non-collaboration – Creating and executing an effective program requires that marketers work and communicate with
thousands of geographically dispersed internal and external
participants. Collaboration efforts suffer significantly from
wasted time and unnecessary duplication. Accenture’s survey
of one set of companies’ experiences focused on a revamped
platform in trade marketing to improve communication with
725 sales representatives and 25 customer service representatives across three major business units. This system, we found,
increased selling time, sales revenues, and promotions
effectiveness, while providing $10 million to $12 million in
identified cost savings. Similar savings can be realized by
addressing collaboration opportunities in developing new
products and offerings, advertising, promotions, events
management, campaign management, and the like.
3. Inaccessibility – Marketing organizations spend millions
each year creating huge repositories of information and data
such as direct-mail copy, photos, point-of-sale materials,
videos, and music. Although they may count as tangible
assets, these data banks collect dust and remain largely inaccessible to the people who could make the best use of them.
Marketing teams simply do not have access to the tools they
need to locate, share, and direct those assets to achieve the
Marketing | White Paper
maximum benefits. Most are not
Marketing Value Creation Framework
able to manage knowledge effectively and standardize best
¥ Increased collaboration
processes. Thus, they spend conIncreased
¥ Reduced process
siderable time and money reinproductivity/
bottlenecks
capacity
venting the wheel. By developing a
¥ Reduced non-valued
Efficiencies
added activities
repository of marketing knowledge
in Marketing
and digital assets, integrating these
Execution
¥ Reduced repetitious testing
Reduced
assets with the marketing execu¥ Streamlined marketing
marketing
process
tion workflow, and collaboratively
costs
¥ More cost-effective
sharing these assets, however, a
approaches
More Productivity
Marketing
manager can offer significant beneTransformation
fits to marketers. Large expendiBetter Marketing
Value
Plans
¥ Increased speed-to-market
tures in these areas by automotive
Improved
¥ Improved marketing
companies and other consumer
initiative
messages
goods companies clearly show the
success
¥ Increased initiative success
Efficiencies
benefits of this opportunity.
rate
of Marketing
4. High turnover rate of employees –
Investment
¥ Increased marketing
For any number of reasons, the high
Improved
consistency
profit
number of departing employees
¥ Increase effectiveness of
margins
marketing decisions and
inhibits marketing groups from
investments
effectively leveraging past marketFigure
1
Marketing
Value
Creation
Framework
ing lessons. As a result, they have to
spend scarce resources on training.
It is no wonder, then, that many Global 1000 companies acknowlBut even that money, we found, is being wasted. Accenture’s
edge that these complications must be overcome, and are searching
research shows that many companies have created knowledge
for a “deep” solution.
intranets that are not being used frequently because they lack
context and integration with the work being performed by
marketing teams. Thus, considerable time and money is
Creating Order Out of Chaos
wasted in relearning, retraining, and reinvention.
The benefits of streamlining the marketing effort can be felt almost
Recognizing the magnitude of these problems and sensing the potenimmediately. In many industries – for example, consumer goods
tial for value in being able to solve them, many organizations have, in
companies, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and financial and credit
the past, relied on custom-developed solutions. Marketers today, for
card organizations – we find that more than 80 percent of marketers’
example, frequently resort to email, spreadsheets, online calendars,
time is spent managing the various activities associated with executteam spaces, and even basic project management software to help
ing a marketing program or campaign. Most of these people are firethem do their jobs more efficiently. They use software designed to hanfighters, working to control the conflagrations that flare up continudle specific activities – campaign management, email marketing,ally in marketing activities. This leaves them little time for doing the
digital asset management, and customer data analysis. These solucritically strategic work, such as brand architecting, portfolio mantions, however, have had limited success, chiefly because they address
agement, and new product development. As a result, the quality of
problems only on the superficial level. Most efforts have dealt with the
their output and the success rate of their marketing activities suffer.
problems of a single marketing channel (Web, retail, etc.) or function
To improve efficiency and effectiveness, MRM solutions have
(direct marketing, promotions, etc.). They do not offer solutions that
begun to emerge, thanks in part to highly sophisticated technology.
go to the depths of the problem. Lacking integration across disparate
Typically this support improves marketing performance through
systems, they are not usually tied to other supporting systems, such as
enhancing the collaboration among participants, both internal and
marketing data warehouses and lead management. Providing a limited
external to the marketing program per se. It accelerates and coordiapplication of technology solutions, these initiatives have redesigned
nates in real time the scheduling of activities, management of marsome key processes but failed to install supporting technology to
keting financials, approval processes, and execution of marketing
cement improvements. They are not sophisticated enough, in fact, to
projects. Furthermore, it provides effective, online leveraging of
address deeper problems in the company such as organizational strucmarketing knowledge and assets integrated across all activities. In
ture, career pathing, compensation, performance management, trainshort, MRM initiatives can generate both revenue enhancement and
ing, or leadership development to support new marketing processes.
cost-reduction benefits.
Defying the Limits • 207
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The Case for Marketing Resource Management
syndrome and minimizing the cost of learning.
Tasks are performed more proficiently, thus
increasing speed to market and throughput
capacity. The marketing organization produces
• 10%-13% increase in marketing
Increased Productivity/Capacity
capacity
more programs with higher success rates. When
organizations are more effective and efficient
in program development and management,
• 2%-6% reduction in marketing
Reduced Marketing Costs
nonworking marketing spend also declines.
related expenses
Improvements in marketing effectiveness
affect program success, increasing revenue and
• .02%-.03% increase in profit
Improved Initiative Success
profits. For instance, a redesign and automation
margin (as a % of sales)
of critical marketing processes can help increase
capacity, thereby allowing companies to con• 1%-2.5% increase in profit
Effective Resource Allocation
duct not just more campaigns but better targeted
margin (as a % of sales)
ones. Targeting improves campaign success
rates, increasing customer acquisition (market
Figure 2 Marketing Transformation Benefits
share) and retention levels (lifetime value).
Further, targeting allows for more refined pricing strategies, much as Gap has done with its Old
Marketing Process
Enabling Tools
Enterprise Integration
Navy stores, which aim at a young clientele
interested in lower-priced fashions. A company
often can increase prices without negatively
Digital Asset
Data
Planning
affecting acquisition or retention rates.
Management
Warehouse
Additionally, the use of knowledge management and best practices facilitates more effecCollaboration
tive decision-making, driving greater revenue
Corporate
MARCOM
and profitability. Organizations are able to rediPortal
Execution
rect spend and reallocate assets to achieve the
greatest profit.
Workflow
Accenture’s research of global marketing comERP System
Campaign
panies shows that $35 million to $70 million in
Integration
Execution
Project
annual benefits can be achieved from a typical $1
Management
billion brand by addressing marketing efficiency
and effectiveness. The specific components of
Measurement
CRM System
this benefit case are set forth in figure 2.
e-learning
Reporting
Integration
Our experience with clients suggests that
efforts to enhance enterprise marketing
execution management can provide a return
Figure 3 Marketing Workbench Vision
ranging from six to 12 times the investments
made in technology applications, technology
The Business Case
hardware, and related professional services.
Based on our experience in pilot programs with many companies,
we have identified major benefits associated with MRM solutions, as
The MRM Solution
presented in figure 1.
An effective MRM solution must include three essential elements:
Efficiencies in marketing execution can result in large cost savings
the “marketing workbench,” a design for and the implementation of
for organizations. For example, eliminating nonvalue-added activities
an integrated marketing technology platform; a transformation of
from marketing processes reduces the costs those organizations
the marketing process, specifically one that redefines the way work
incur to create and implement programs. Companies can either use
is done by redesigning the core marketing processes and leveraging
this to reduce costs or leverage the increased capacity to drive growth
the appropriate technology tools; and a realignment of the organizathrough new products. Shared knowledge and best practices reduce
tion to support the new way of working, including the sharing of
marketing costs by preventing the reinvention-of-the-wheel
knowledge across the entire marketing effort.
Transformation Value Drivers
208 • crmproject.com
Range of Benefits
Marketing | White Paper
Marketing Workbench Vision
Unlike single-channel or point solutions, the Marketing Workbench
provides an integrated platform for marketing execution (Figure 3).
It incorporates three components:
Marketing Process Workspace
This component focuses on providing a place where the marketers
come to create, develop, and implement specific marketing campaigns
and programs ranging from developing advertising strategy and
creating direct mail pieces to managing the implementation of promotions and analyzing the effectiveness of sales leads. Marketing process
workspace solutions assist organizations with all stages of a program
from data gathering and program creation to execution, analysis, and
procurement. Typically the marketing process workspace comprises
multiple technology or software programs, each of which is dedicated
to a single aspect of the marketing mix – for instance, media planning
and buying, mass media campaign management, targeted campaign
management, sales channel communication, promotions, point-of-sale,
market research, and lead management. The workbench solution
provides templates for critical marketing activities, allowing marketing
teams to select the right project from pulldown menus and to see
instantly the recommended steps for completing the project. Each step
includes a suggested time frame, resource requirements, and templates
for content creation, best-in-class examples, and required digital assets.
With minimal effort, a marketing team can customize these suggestions
to fit its particular needs and create a real-time work environment that
can be shared with both internal and external participants.
Robust solutions provide marketers with the know-how
(principles, tools, case studies, best practices, and the like) necessary
to maximize program success. New marketing knowledge and assets
are added to the solution in real time so it is always current.
Additionally, they are flexible and can be easily customized to each
organization’s specific circumstances and needs.
Enabling Technology Tools
Solutions in this area provide a foundation for work across the marketing organization to be streamlined. They assist marketers in
managing and coordinating work across functions and channels.
Unlike marketing process workspace solutions, these technologies
can be used by all functional areas in marketing. Key tools include:
• Digital Asset Management – Marketing assets can exist in a
variety of digitized forms such as video, audio, graphics, and documents. To use them effectively, the team has to be able to search
extensively and retrieve items, often converting or reformatting
them from one form to another. Using this robust technology, a
marketing team can access those assets in its process workspace
and collaborate with internal and external participants. It can
establish online working sessions in which participants check in
to share their ideas and refine assets in real time.
• Collaboration – Marketing teams have to be able to interact
with geographically dispersed internal and external participants on a real-time basis. Nothing is so infuriating to a
collaborator as the discovery that the item she has been working on for the past four hours is actually an old document,
already revised many times by her colleagues. To prevent such
wasted effort and frustration, a robust collaboration software
has to provide collaborators with a means to check in and
check out the digital assets. This can include an automatic
email notification for all changes to a document. Team
members are immediately made aware of project assignments
or changes in status. The technology can include built-in
approval and review tools for online meetings, as well as the
ability to collaborate around a work in process to make sure it
is executed accurately and efficiently.
• Project and Workflow Management – This is an easy-to-use
tool that manages the workflow of many users. Team members
can create and leverage best-in-class project templates,
achieve a close integration of projects, and determine which
items are actionable and which document repositories can be
accessed. In addition, users can define a portfolio of projects,
customize their associated calendars, and manage the project’s
budget and allocation of monetary assets. This solution tool
sets milestones and measures progress across project
portfolios, assigns roles and activities across internal and
external participants, tracks financials across those projects,
establishes a project calendar, and dynamically manages the
project’s execution.
• Knowledge Management – It goes without saying that an
online repository of marketing knowledge and intellectual
property – for example, marketing plans or best-practice
Approaching the Ideal Solution
Today, MRM vendors fit primarily into
one of three categories: integrated
marketing application suite providers;
point-solution providers; and customer
relationship management system or
analytic suite providers. Unfortunately,
no MRM vendor at present offers a
complete technology solution. Those
technology solutions that are commercially available to marketers, however,
are likely to be more complete than
most in-house solutions. Although still
relatively small but starting to gain
momentum, integrated marketing
application suite providers such as
Aprimo are expanding the breadth and
depth of their solutions. They take a
holistic vision of MRM, and their solutions integrate many of the components of marketing process workspace
and enabling technology tools.
A second group to address MRM concerns comprises the point-solution
providers such as Assetlink, Artesia,
Documentum, and Webware, which
offer solutions for managing projects,
digital assets, and collaborative work
environments. Many of these players
have started to expand the depth and
breadth of their solutions through tar-
geted acquisitions. Others providers
such as Siebel or Kana are CRMfocused, whereas still others such as
E.piphany or SPSS provide analytic
suites. While these vendors previously
have been focused on consolidating
their positions in the CRM/analytic
space, they have now started to
expand their current solutions to
include MRM solutions.
Defying the Limits • 209
White Paper | Marketing
The Case for Marketing Resource Management
templates – can provide marketers with key information and
insights in real time. From the marketer’s perspective, a robust
knowledge management system must push the right knowledge at the right point in the marketing activity to the correct
user. It must allow the marketing teams to access online howto guides, performance simulation training tools, and the
online classroom-training environment. In addition, it must
be customizable, allowing organizations to tailor templates,
guides, simulation tools, and training materials as needed.
Enterprise Integration
Powerful MRM solutions are worthless if they are not userfriendly and allow for the import and export of critical information from enterprise systems – what might be called the
organization’s data warehouse. That is why the simplicity of the
MRM user interface is more important than any single marketing
process workspace or enabling capability tool. If it cannot access
the legacy systems an organization has in place, it obviously
cannot integrate their contents and programs.
Marketing teams often need sales and financial information from
internal systems, scanner data, information from major retail
customers, competitive intelligence information – in short, all the
enterprise resources. The ability to share information with these
systems, to access the information easily from the marketing data
marts, and to import or export the desired information, is critical.
Because so many solutions today cannot provide that capability,
they must depend on system integrators working with them to
create this customized solution for their clients.
Emerging analytical tools and dynamic access to customer
information require that marketing teams evaluate their marketing
programs frequently. They must have access to those tools so that
they can manage the changes to their marketing process workspace
on a real-time basis. In addition, the MRM solutions must provide the
flexibility to integrate with the existing corporate portals, including
the Internet and intranets.
Finally, the effective solution must consider customer relationship
management and sales force effectiveness (SFE) systems if it is to
provide true integration of marketing, sales, and service functions.
Enterprise marketing requires tight integration of those functions.
During the past few years, strong CRM systems have been
implemented to manage the 360-degree view of the customer and
integration of messages across channels. Integrating these systems
with the MRM solution will provide for end-to-end integration of
marketing activities in an enterprise.
As marketing teams are being pressured for increased financial
accountability, they are increasingly concerned not only with
managing the marketing activities but also with tracking the
210 • crmproject.com
financial performance of those activities. This dual responsibility
requires them to integrate financials with the projects and keep tight
integration with the enterprise financial systems.
While creating a technology platform, the redesign of key
processes and the realignment of the organization are not new
dimensions of a process transformation effort. Indeed, they are
more difficult to implement successfully in the marketing space.
Changing marketing teams who thrive on flexible ways to do the
work is not easy and often meets with resistance from the teams.
However, companies have begun to realize the potential for value
adding. They are all experimenting with new ways to make
marketing execution more rigorous.
Conclusion
As we have seen, today’s marketing environment – the demand for
financial accountability, speed of execution and decision-making,
globally integrated marketing activities and messages – make it
imperative that companies streamline the execution of their
marketing activities. They must search for the creative solutions
that can transform their marketing execution and management
processes. Typically these solutions are technology-enabled,
integrating applications such as digital asset management, project
management, collaboration, and e-learning. When combined with
the marketing activities and enterprise data sources, those solutions can provide a comprehensive marketing workbench to
enhance efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. Only by
developing the integrated marketing workbench – and redefining
the way marketing processes are executed while aligning the
organization and its culture – can companies generate the benefits
and drive their competitive advantage. ■
Naveen K. Jain is an associate partner in Accenture’s Customer Relationship
Management practice and specializes in assisting clients in the transformation of
the marketing function and organization to enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of marketing spend. He is a respected authority in many aspects of
marketing and customer strategy, including marketing resource prioritization,
marketing mix optimization, marketing process redesign, customer-centric
marketing organization alignment and governance, marketing automation and
enabling technologies, and brand positioning.
Marianne Seiler is a senior manager in Accenture’s Marketing and Customer
Strategy practice. Ms. Seiler specializes in helping companies increase revenue
and profitability through identifying and developing customer strategies, launching
new products, expanding geographic and customer markets, valuing and
retaining customers, creating segmentation strategies, creating and enhancing
marketing databases, and restructuring marketing and sales organizations.
Excerpts from “The Ultimate CRM Handbook: Strategies and Concepts for Building Enduring Customer Loyalty and
Profitability” by John Freeland. ©2002 by Accenture. Reproduced with permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.